Cain, James M(allahan) (Vol. 3) - Cain, James M(allahan) 1892–
Cain, James M(allahan) 1892–
Cain, an American "tough guy" novelist, is best known for The Postman Always Rings Twice and Mildred Pierce. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 17-18.)
A world immense with freedom, women hellish and infantile by turns, money, power, the tantalizing promise of adventure—these are the common elements of James M. Cain's novels. His reputation is by this time a vague one, grown generalized and perhaps sentimentally overrated (along with the reputations of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler) since he is no longer "read." We have Camus, we have the films of Jean-Luc Godard, we have any number of cryptic realists who can give us Cain's pace and excitement without Cain's flaws—and in the form of art. Though he deals constantly with the Artistic, Cain, it will be said, never manages to become an artist; there is always something sleazy, something eerily vulgar and disappointing in his work....
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