RARA-AVIS: Bad Cain

From: hardcasecrime (editor@hardcasecrime.com)
Date: 22 Jul 2009

  • Next message: jacquesdebierue: "Re: RARA-AVIS: Nag, Nag, Nag Noir"

    > Try Love's Lovely Counterfeit.

    You know, it's funny: Everyone hates that book but me. I can't say I remember it very well, but I do remember reading it and enjoying it, especially the ending, and then being genuinely surprised to find that there seemed to be a consensus that the book was bad. I wonder if the exceptionally dopey-sounding title is part of the problem.

    Similarly, someone ragged on JEALOUS WOMAN a few messages back in the thread, and I remember liking JEALOUS WOMAN quite a lot.

    On the other hand...I thought THE ENCHANTED ISLE was one of the worst written books I'd ever read.

    Want truly lousy Cain? Try GALATEA, THE MAGICIAN'S WIFE, THE INSTITUTE, MIGNON, and CLOUD NINE.

    And to answer someone's question, I believe there exist two remaining unpublished Cain novels. I got my hands on the manuscript of one of them, after much detective work, and I'm sorry to say it makes GALATEA, THE MAGICIAN'S WIFE, THE INSTITUTE, MIGNON, and CLOUD NINE look like Shakespeare.

    Charles

    --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Allan Guthrie" <allan@...> wrote:
    >
    > Try Love's Lovely Counterfeit.
    >
    > Cain had a lot of trouble publishing despite his early successes. I
    can't
    > recall how many novels he left behind unpublished, but there are a
    few.
    >
    > ----- Original Message -----
    > From: "Patrick King" abrasax93@...
    > > I keep hearing about these awful Cain stories. I've yet to read one.
    >



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 22 Jul 2009 EDT