Lie back and let it take you for a quick thrill. Not just for its place in literary history, but for the pure joy of a good read. Second, the love triangle involving a drifter and a young woman married or indentured to an older, wealthy man. The colloquial speech, the first person narrative, the looker dames who are in where they ought not be – it’s all here. First and most obvious, the noir genre has its roots here. I believe this novel started a whole line of fiction and movies that continues to this day. And for Cain, reality is a cold floor and a long walk and a knotted rope swinging in the wind. You rip right through piles of mistrust and angst and murder and love and passion and lies and truths and you end in reality. And you get there fast with no detours and no fluff and nothing extra, just the point. It slams the door, straps you in and drives you to the end.
There is not an overabundance of description or other literary devices. But believe me, I know I’ve read a novel.Not only is the book short, its pace rarely relents. It is wild and one of the shortest novels I’ve ever read. The Postman Always Rings Twice is no different. The entire ride lasted maybe a minute, but I never forgot it and I by God knew I’d had a thrill. Then it pushed us forward and dropped us. It was a small four or five person bench with a cage around it that lifted us something like five stories into the air. When I was 12 I climbed on board something called The Texas Cliffhanger at Six Flags Over Texas. This is something to live with and dwell upon, something you can never quite shake off, no matter how hard you try.(.) That's what elevates this to the level of tragedy. This book shows us how fragile everything is, or at least how fragile it can be. And just when things look alright, one little, honest accident washes it all away. They mistake happiness and hope for lust, hate, anger and even apathy. It's like listening to a REALLY interesting conversation.Frank and Cora are two very small, unremarkable, inconsequential people caught up in something too big for them to understand.
THE POSTMAN BOOKS FULL
The book is mostly just people talking, in very real language, full of slang and fragmented sentences. Cain doesn't even attribute his dialogue, so pay close attention to who's speaking. That, really, is where the problems start.Frank and Cora love and hate each other fiercely, speaking with remarkably accurate, real dialogue. With the help of a very smart and very crooked lawyer, both Frank and Cora are soon free. The first murder attempt fails, the second one is successful but easy to see through. What should be simple becomes more complex. Before I try to make sense of this, let's continue.Frank Chambers is a young drifter who rolls into town, goes to work in a diner for Nick, a tough Greek, falls for Nick's young wife Cora, then decides, with Cora's help, to murder Nick and take over the restaurant. Reason being that the light is very blue green, so a 'blue' book. It actually makes me feel like I'm underneath a very shady tree on a sunny day. It's what I call a 'blue book', one that is soulful and strangely mellow. This is a book you read once and can't stop thinking about.
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