James Mallahan Cain (July 1, 1892–October 27, 1977) was an American journalist and novelist. Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labeling, he is usually associated with the hard-boiled school of American crime fiction and seen as one of the creators of the "roman noir."
He was born into an Irish Catholic family in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of a prominent educator and an opera singer. He inherited his love for music from his mother, but his high hopes of starting a career as a singer himself were thwarted when she told him that his voice was not good enough.
After graduating from Washington College where his father, James W. Cain served as president, in 1910, he began working as a journalist for The Baltimore Sun.
He was drafted into the United States Army and spent the final year of World War I in France writing for an Army magazine. On his return to the United States he continued working as a journalist, writing editorials for the New York World and articles for American Mercury. He also served briefly as the managing editor of The New Yorker, but later turned to screenplays and finally to fiction.
Although Cain spent many years in Hollywood working on screenplays, his name only appears on the credits of three films, Algiers, Stand Up and Fight, and Gypsy Wildcat.
His first novel (he had already published Our Government in 1930), The Postman Always Rings Twice was published in 1934. Two years later the serialized, in Liberty Magazine, Double Indemnity was published.
He made use of his love of music and of the opera in particular in at least three of his novels: Serenade (about an American opera singer who loses his voice and who, after spending part of his life south of the border, re-enters the States illegally with a Mexican prostitute in tow), Mildred Pierce (in which, as part of the subplot, the only daughter of a successful businesswoman trains as an opera singer) and Career in C Major (a short semi-comic novel about the unhappy husband of an aspiring opera singer who unexpectedly discovered that he has a better voice than she does).
He continued writing up to his death at the age of 85. His last three published works, The Baby in the Icebox (1981), Cloud Nine (1984) and The Enchanted Isle (1985) being published posthumously. However, the many novels he published from the late 1940s onward never quite rivaled his earlier successes.
An amoral young tramp.A beautiful, sullen woman with an inconvenient husband.A problem that has only one grisly solution--a solution that only creates other problems that no one can ever solve.
First published in 1934 and banned in Boston for its explosive mixture of violence and eroticism, The Postman Always Rings Twice is a classic of the roman noir . It established James M. Cain as a major novelist with an unsparing vision of America's bleak underside, and was acknowledged by Albert Camus as the model for The Stranger .
一名过于真挚的读者往往会犯的一个错误,或者用习惯来形容更加贴切,就是在小说中担任侦探的角色。我们沉溺于挖掘证据,追寻蛛丝马迹的线索,追赶着谋杀过后的侦探式逻辑推理。甚至是草木皆兵的氛围中,我们站在昏暗的故事核心,仪式般的等待凶杀的结局。 至于是否是”一大推矫...
评分很多年前,在一个失眠之夜,我在半梦半醒中没头没尾地看了一部气氛阴暗、纠结着欲望和罪恶的电影,主演是杰克•尼科尔森(Jack Nicholson)和杰西卡•兰格(Jessica Lange)。我当时并不知道那部电影的名字。最近,我开始读詹姆斯•M•凯恩(James M.Cain)的一部小说...
评分关键词 无名小镇 旅馆 外来者 大老板 弱女子 英雄过路,路见不平,两情相悦,拔锤相助,抱美而归。 如果没有后面的故事,这正正一个西部片的节奏。 但故事很简单 一个过路人看上老板娘然后谋财害命的故事。 Frank是有机会做英雄的。 黑猫死了,锤子砸了,老板住院了,二人...
评分 评分The ending really breaks my heart...when chambers wants a after life to try to find out if that idea ever crossed her mind.
评分武大郎、潘金莲、西门庆的hardboiled版,苦命的野鸳鸯,他俩是真爱哇。虽说有声书的朗读已很好,但BBC广播剧貌似情节更紧凑、情话讲得我听犹怜。
评分They won everything at first, but then lost in love and destroyed themselves.
评分James M Cain发表于1934年的以凶手作为第一人称叙事的黑色风格犯罪小说,载誉甚多也攻讦甚多。评论认为他开创了美国黑色犯罪小说的风潮,也认为此书渲染了暴力情色,甚至一度成为禁书。小说面世以来,非常畅销,先后改编过几部电影。我只看过Jack Nicholson,Jessica Lange主演的1981年版本。这个版本的电影和原著小说有点出入,对情色的展现比较直观暴露,对男女主人公的爱情描述有点含糊不清。这和原著小说是相反的。最后要提一下,作者是个标题党,这个故事通篇和“邮差”无关,至于为什么会取这样的标题,有几种说法,比较广为认可的就是这是一个命运的暗喻,邮差总会按两次铃,确保你会听到,不会错过,就好像法律的制裁。
评分deader than hell.
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