The Postman Always Rings Twice in Point Blank

Jan 08, 2011 Richard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: cool-titles, great-endings, essential-crime, essential-noir, classics, noir-pulp-classics

"Tomorrow night, if I come back, there'll be kisses. Lovely ones, Frank. Not drunken kisses. Kisses with dreams in them. Kisses that come from life, not death."

With the one-two punch publication of both this novel and the serialized version of Double Indemnity in the mid-1930's, James M. Cain truly popularized what we know of now as being the hard-boiled sub-genre of roman noir in American fiction, a long time before the term was even coined. Since it's publication, this boo

"Tomorrow night, if I come back, there'll be kisses. Lovely ones, Frank. Not drunken kisses. Kisses with dreams in them. Kisses that come from life, not death."

With the one-two punch publication of both this novel and the serialized version of Double Indemnity in the mid-1930's, James M. Cain truly popularized what we know of now as being the hard-boiled sub-genre of roman noir in American fiction, a long time before the term was even coined. Since it's publication, this book has spawned so many copycats, and inspired so many writers and an entire genre of movies that it's story of a man falling for a femme fatale, their descent into crime, and their eventual doom is kind of a cliché at this point. But even to this day, over 80 years later, very few have been able to match the intensity of both this and Indemnity.

Except for the shape, she really wasn't any raving beauty, but she had a sulky look to her, and her lips stuck out in a way that made me want to mash them in for her.

I initially thought that this was better than Indemnity but now on my second reading, I saw that while it's still great, and still has a stellar, superior ending, Postman pales a bit in comparison. But it's still stronger and tighter than many books in its genre and beyond. It's a little over 100 pages of high tragedy as we witness these two emotionally weak but determined characters dig themselves deeper into a hole of self-destruction and form a bond started by love and transformed into hate, a bond that they realize will never be broken, no matter how much they want out. Can anyone else think of any flawed couples like this in recent bestselling fiction? Of course you can. Yep, and it all started with The Postman Always Rings Twice.

I ripped all her clothes off. She twisted and turned, slow, so they would slip out from under her. Then she closed her eyes and lay back on the pillow. Her hair was falling over her shoulders in snaky curls. Her eye was all black, and her breasts weren’t drawn up and pointing up at me, but soft, and spread out in two big pink splotches. She looked like the great grandmother of every whore in the world. The devil got his money’s worth that night.

...more

52 likes · Like · see review

May 14, 2011 Melki rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction, read-more-than-once, noir

...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Dec 09, 2015 Justin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reread, read-in-2013, read-in-mar-2013, read-in-2015, read-in-dec-2015, read-in-feb-2018, point-blank

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Point Blank Review

The Postman Always Rings Twice, published in 1934, is Cain’s first and arguable most well known novel.

The story takes place in southern California, and starts in a haytruck on a sun-baked strip of highway east of Los Angeles.

This is a novel that details the build up to a murder and the aftermath of said murder.

The man's name is Frank Chambers. He's a drifter, having spent time most recently in Tijuana. After getting tossed from the truck, he heads up-road to the Twin Oaks Tav Point Blank Review

The Postman Always Rings Twice, published in 1934, is Cain’s first and arguable most well known novel.

The story takes place in southern California, and starts in a haytruck on a sun-baked strip of highway east of Los Angeles.

This is a novel that details the build up to a murder and the aftermath of said murder.

The man's name is Frank Chambers. He's a drifter, having spent time most recently in Tijuana. After getting tossed from the truck, he heads up-road to the Twin Oaks Tavern to con his way into a bite to eat. There, he meets the Greek -- Nick Papadakis -- and his wife, Cora. Instantly, there is a spark between Frank and Cora. The Greek offers Frank a job and he takes it. For a while they are a happy work family, but Frank and Cora can't contain their lust for each other, and soon they plot a scheme to off the Greek while he is taking a bath, but things go awry. A stray cat gets into the fuse box and the electricity goes out right as Cora is about to blackjack the Greek in the bath. He ends up in the hospital.

Frank runs away. It was a good gig, but he is a rambler. Weeks later, he runs into the Greek -- now out of the hospital -- at a Santa Monica market. The Greek pleads with him to come back to the Tavern. Frank does, meets Cora, and again they scheme. They plan a trip to the beach, as a group, and on the drive out, at night, they set it up so that the car goes off the road and into a canyon just east of Malibu. The scheme works. The Greek dies and both Cora and Frank are brought in for questions.

The DA — Sackett—pits them against each other. They rat each other out, independently, but because of competing insurance claims, both Cora and Frank are let off not only with their lives intact, but with the fruit of Nick Papadakis's life insurance policy.

Life is theirs to be had, but the murder, and the subsequent mutual betrayals, dirties the water between them. When Cora leaves to attend her mothers funeral. Frank runs away with a new woman -- a collector of big cats for the movies -- to Mexico. He decides not to go through with it however, and when Cora returns, he keeps his near-escape secret.

Things really ramp up in the last act. A man in the hire of the attorney that got them off for the murder arrives to the tavern to blackmail them with the confession Cora made, one that he transcribed at the time as part of the ploy that ultimately freed them. The man wants 25,000 in exchange for the document, but Frank strong-arms him and within a day, the threat is averted. However, while Frank is occupied with the blackmailer, the girl with whom Frank almost fled visits the tavern to drop off a baby puma, and meets Cora, who learns of Frank's transgression.

Things are tense for a while, and Cora threatens to call the DA and squeal on Frank for the murder, but they decide to stick it out when she reveals that she is pregnant. They head to LA to get married and after to the beach. It is in the water that Cora feels ill. Frank gets her to shore and in a rush to get her to the hospital they get in a car accident. Cora dies. Frank is implicated and convicted of the murder.

The story is his confession from death row. Frank wonders believes the accident was truly that, but part of him wonders if it was his subconscious that killed Cora. The novel ends with prison men coming to take Frank to the execution chamber.

Four and a half Kill Shots.
...more

Like · see review