The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 17 February 1998
by James M. Cain
This is a tight little book telling the very dark tale of a drifter helping a bitter young woman murder her husband. Cain paints a portrait of amoral evil in these characters, but eventually evokes sympathy for them all. The victim, indeed, is a nice guy in a regular sort of way, and has done nothing to deserve this fate. The drifter, Frank, falls into deep lust, then love for beautiful Cora, motivating him to help her commit this senseless crime. But the crime is only the beginning of their problems. Cain succeeds, in only 120 pages, in showing desperate and determined characters, pitiful victims, hardboiled investigators, and a shadowy time in depression-era Los Angeles. It is said that Albert Camus used this book as a model for The Stranger.
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