Luton Airport has proved to be a good place to do a bit of reading. Who knew that time spent waiting or a flight information screen to change would be good for catching up on reading?! I managed to get through about half a book waiting for my flight at Luton Airport. Between looking up at the board every 10 minutes to see if my gate was open already (you know it will not show the gate until the boarding starts but you still have to check just the same), watching people go by, getting a coffee and some early dinner/late lunch I feel rather pleased about the result. Then once I got on the plane I managed to get through a bit more. The rest of it I finished off yesterday.. whilst the washing was going round and round and round and round...
#### SPOILER ALERT #####
The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M. Cain
For years I thought that this was only a movie and ignorant of the fact that it was based on a real novel. I never did see the movie. I was not around when it was first released and never got round to watching it once I was an adult. All I really knew about when I was younger it was that had a reputation for being slightly saucy and therefore possibly off limits for me at my tender young age. They even did a remake of it in 1981 but that did not appear on my radar either. I guess I was not into my 1940s American literature. Not that I think that any of my professors at Uni would ever put this one on the reading list... well... they the ones that are missing out.
On the book's cover Dashiell Hammett describes it as a "good, swift violent story" - I concur! It is a neat little package which seems one thing at the start, develops into another in the middle and morphs into something different altogether again by the end. It starts out as the story of a drifter (Frank) who has his wicked way with the wife (Cora) of the garage/diner owner he helps out. Together they hatch a plan to rid themselves of the husband. Their first attempt gets thwarted by a cat. However, a second attempt is planned. They set it up meticulously, make sure they have witnesses and go through what they will tell the police and how they will behave towards each other. What could possibly go wrong with the perfect preparation and Cora and Frank actually succeed in getting rid of the Greek. At one point they almost mess it up by their lust for one another and their desire to be together.. at the crash site. So, the Greek is suitably dispatched with in a staged car accident and it is after this that things go awry. Frank is hurt more than he had perhaps intended to and there is a lawyer sniffing around who thinks he smells a rat. He manages to back Frank into a corner, Frank chickens out and signs a statement to say Cora is the one who set it all up. Poor Frank thinks he can play the world but the world is really playing him. Frank makes the obvious choice of saving his own neck rather than trusting in others. In the end it is another slick lawyer that gets them both off, gets them an insurance pay out and all seems to be going well. Except for the fact that now Cora does not trust Frank and Frank does not trust Cora. They stay on in the diner and Cora seems determined to make it work, whereas Frank is determined to blow the joint and start drifting again. Then Cora's mum gets sick and she has to go away. Frank uses the time go away too. When Cora returns things change. They need one another and Cora's news that she pregnant means that for once in his life Frank might just man up and do the right thing. If only they would have stayed away from the beach. Needless to say things do not end well for Cora or Frank. Cora meets an ironically fitting end and Frank ends up where you always thought he would.... prison.
I really liked the characters in this book. the way Cain describes them is really alive and raw. The only ones you really remember in the end are Cora and Frank. The guy that gets killed is not really that important - bad news for the Greek but it fits. The guy that gets them off, no charges filed is not really that important - well he is a lawyer, how important are they anyway? The story is really about the two lovers. You see that these are not polished people. They are at times almost wild, make mistakes let their basic emotions rule them and follow their instincts. They seem to be intuitively drawn to each other as they first meet and you know then that it might not end well. Something is brewing between Cora and Frank from the first time they meet. Although they are scheming and manipulative in what they are trying to do, yet you feel for them. Frank is a drifter. He has probably been a disappointment to everyone he has ever met or been involved with. You know it will be no different this time round yet I like him as a character. He is cheeky, if he sees something he wants he goes and gets it, he is a man of action and energy. You can tell from the descriptions he would be a good looking guy and t kind of confidence he has would make him very attractive. Cora is presented as slightly sultry with a point to prove to the world. She makes sure that people do not pigeon hole her. You know that she will not let you get away with anything either. She is clever and also ruled by her passion, however she has made a choice to marry the Greek to get her out of a hole she did not feel she belonged. Then Frank comes along and shows her a life with no limits, no responsibilities except to one the one you really love.
There is a bit of violence in this book - Frank does not treat Cora well all the time, they kill for each other and people get beaten up. It is a gritty world they live in. It is no a romantic world, however it feels like the characters fit in there. This is where you wold meet them. People like Frank and Cora do not get the white picket fence or the slippers by the armchair. These people live on the edge of life - hanging on to what they have, getting what they want, however they have to go about it.
There are a few scenes in the novel that do not make sense at first sight and perhaps we could have done without. Why the blackmail story line, why did Cora have to go away to her mum, why did Frank have to cheat, but I guess having said that... The blackmail got them to show a united front again. Going away from Frank made Cora think about her future. Having the affair showed us that a leopard does not change its spots.
The ending of the books is very clever - Who is right and who is wrong..... it seems that it is all a matter of perspective. Having the book turn out to be Franks "confession" is great. The fact that even he doubts what his real motives were and what really happened is genius.
In short - I loved it! It's raw, short and sweet and has plenty of action. It drags you into the story and spits you out at the end wondering about how to feel about Frank and Cora and what they did or did not do.
Title: The Postman Always Rings Twice
Author: James M. Cain
Orion Books
116 pages
ISBN nr 978-0-7528-6174-6
PS: I also brought back two books from my NL visit and a friend gave me one as a belated birthday present as well so I have 3 books to declare. I also have to say that that there is still an unknown amount of books at my mum's that I have not read but I have chosen to keep them out of the "To be read"-total for now as I have no idea how many there are and they are all on a different continent too so that is another excu.. ehm reason not to include them... not that I need one...
Books read: 1
Books brought back from stock NL: 2
Books received as belated birthday present by friend and presently still in NL but being delivered by Mum when she comes over in August so added to the count now: 1
Books to be read: 70... again?! Is there an echo in here??
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