Volume 30, Number 1 · February 3, 1983
Was Cain Able?
By Luc Sante
Cain
by Roy Hoopes
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 684 pp., $25.00
During the decade before World War II, James M. Cain wrote some short, hard novels that caused a stir, becoming best-sellers and generating a critical buzz that darkened the space between art and obscenity. The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Serenade, and Mildred Pierce have stayed in print to this day, and enough contradictory claims are still being made about them to assure them a lasting place in American literature, although just where that place might be remains uncertain.
Review, 3640 words
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