--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Dave Zeltserman"
<dz@...> wrote:
>
> Double Indemnity is a special book, but I've liked
most of James M.
> Cain's books, even The Butterfly, although I like
Hammett a lot
> more. Two totally different styles and I can believe
that neither of
> them read each other. Btw. It's been years since I
saw the movie
> version of The Butterfly, but as chessy as it was I
kind of liked it.
>
I remember _The Butterfly_ as a strangely disagreeable noir
novel. Very good, but disagreeable. Then there's the awful
_Love's Lovely Counterfeit_. But he wrote good stuff, no
question. At his best, he is a model of both hardboiled and
noir. What do folks think of Serenade? I remember not liking
it for the first half, then really getting into it. I had a
similar experience with Mildred Pierce (which doesn't really
relate to this list). In an article, Cain wrote that he
disagreed with style masters who complained about cliché³® He
argued that the public loves cliché³ and that he was happy to
provide them, that they work.
Best,
mrt
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