Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone deep core of toughness and determination She used those attributes to survive a divorce in 1940s America with two children and to claw her way out of poverty, becoming a successful businesswoman But Mildred also had two weaknesses a yen for shiftless men and an unreasoning devotion to her monstrous daughMildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone deep core of toughness and determination She used those attributes to survive a divorce in 1940s America with two children and to claw her way out of poverty, becoming a successful businesswoman But Mildred also had two weaknesses a yen for shiftless men and an unreasoning devotion to her monstrous daughter.Out of these elements, Cain created a novel later made into a film noir classic of acute social observation and devastating emotional violence and a heroine whose ambitions and sufferings are never less than recognizable.Narrated by Christine Williams.
James M. Cain
James Mallahan Cain was an American journalist and novelist Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labelling, he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of American crime fiction and seen as one of the creators of the roman noir.He was born into an Irish Catholic family in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of a prominent educator and an opera singer He inherited his love for music from his mother, but his high hopes of starting a career as a singer himself were thwarted when she told him that his voice was not good enough After graduating from Washington College where his father, James W Cain served as president, in 1910, he began working as a journalist for the Balti Sun.He was drafted into the United States Army and spent the final year of World War I in France writing for an Army magazine On his return to the United States he continued working as a journalist, writing editorials for the New York World and articles for American Mercury He also served briefly as the managing editor of The New Yorker , but later turned to screenplays and finally to fiction.Although Cain spent many years in Hollywood working on screenplays, his name only appears on the credits of three films, Algiers , Stand Up and Fight , and Gypsy Wildcat.His first novel he had already published Our Government in 1930 , The Postman Always Rings Twice was published in 1934 Two years later the serialized, in Liberty Magazine , Double Indemnity was published.He made use of his love of music and of the opera in particular in at least three of his novels Serenade about an American opera singer who loses his voice and who, after spending part of his life south of the border, re enters the States illegally with a Mexican prostitute in tow , Mildred Pierce in which, as part of the subplot, the only daughter of a successful businesswoman trains as an opera singer and Career in C Major , a short semi comic novel about the unhappy husband of an aspiring opera singer who unexpectedly discovered that he has a better voice than she does.He continued writing up to his death at the age of 85, his last three published works, The Baby in the Icebox 1981 , Cloud Nine 1984 and The Enchanted Isle 1985 being published posthumously However, the many novels he published from the late 1940s onward never quite rivaled his earlier successes.
Mildred PierceMildred Pierce Joan Crawford is a tiring housewife living with his husband and two daughters After her cheating husband Bruce Bennett leaves her, she turned waitress proving can become successful and independent businesswomen As she begins Mildred PierceMildred Pierce is a hardboiled novel by James M Cain It was made into an Academy Award winning film of the same name in , starring Joan Crawford, and a Emmy Award winning miniseries of the same name, starring Kate Winslet. Mildred Pierce Official Website for the HBO Series The official website for Mildred Pierce on HBO, featuring full episodes online, interviews, schedule information and episode guides. Mildred Pierce TV Mini Series Mar , Glendale, California, Mildred Pierce, a young mother with a talent for baking, is left a grass widow after throwing her husband, Bert, out of the house. Mildred Pierce Rotten Tomatoes Mildred Pierce is a masterpiece having one of the finest and most compelling leading character to have been written The s sentiment are very true to its era depicting accurately the changes Mildred Pierce film Mildred Pierce is a American film noir crime drama directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, and Zachary Scott, also featuring Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, and Bruce Bennett. Mildred Pierce by James M Cain Mildred Pierce would have made a great guest for Dr Phil or Oprah During the Great Depression, Mildred s husband has been moping about since the collapse of his real estate business and takes up with another woman until Mildred has enough and throws him out That takes care of one problem but leaves her to support their two daughters herself. Mildred Pierce Kate Winslet, Guy Pearce, Evan Mildred Pierce brings to life the memorable characters introduced in James M Cain s classic novel of pride and privilege in the middle class. Mildred Pierce Season Rotten Tomatoes Mar , Mildred Pierce is a masterpiece of modern film noir or, if you prefer, TV noir and it s anchored by a performance by Winslet that is unlikely to be beaten at Mildred Pierce Cast Crew HBO Official Site Mildred Pierce Kate Winslet Monty Beragon Guy Pearce Veda Pierce Evan Rachel Wood Lucy Gessler Melissa Leo Wally Burgan James Legros Bert Pierce Bran F O Byrne Young Veda Pierce Morgan Turner Ida Corwin Mare Winningham Mrs Forrester Hope Davis Crew Todd Haynes Director, Co Writer, Executive Producer.
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Kemper
Mildred Pierce would have made a great guest for Dr. Phil or Oprah.During the Great Depression, Mildred’s husband has been moping about since the collapse of his real estate business and takes up with another woman until Mildred has enough and throws him out. That takes care of one problem but leaves her to support their two daughters herself. With no work experience, Mildred finally takes a job as a waitress that she finds humiliating, but eventually her parlays what she learns and her baking [...]
Mildred Pierce divorces her out of work, philandering husband and struggles to find a way to support herself and her two daughters. Too bad she attracts lazy scoundrels like a magnet and one of her daughters is a hellionMildred Pierce is the tale of the titular character's obsessive devotion to her wicked nigh-sociopathic daughter and her wrong choices in men. Cain guides Mildred and her fabulous gams from one setback to the next, either from Veda or one of her douchebag suitors.The writing is g [...]
Often a finicky reader like myself will coordinate novel reading with leisurely travel. It is the exquisite pairing of books at beaches, at hotel balconies, at restaurants that forever, at least in my own experience, binds the two together in a truly surreal/Dadaistic effort. For instance, I remember fondly reading "Catcher in the Rye" at a desolate Mexican beach, "The Tesseract" on my way to Mazatlan, "The Exorcist," "Sphere" & "The Beach" all making themselves unforgettable with the incess [...]
I'd include this book in the genre I like to call, "Middle Class White Women Have A Really Bad Time". Other works in this genre include, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams and The Awakening by Kate Chopin. I seem to really enjoy this genre for some reason. I came to Mildred Pierce for two reasons, one) the Joan Crawford film and two) look that's my name! Overall I did enjoy this book. You actually care about the characters, especially Mildred, which I find quite rare. The relationshi [...]
Well done story that paints a realistic portrayal of a woman's struggle for success during the depression era.This story gives me thoughts of a previous read novel Revolutionary Road by Yates which also was adapted into big screen well. They really are both of similar tones. A decline of the family structure, loss of possessions dear to them in this world, a really heart warming and life learning story. Is there more light at the end of the tunnel for the main protagonist Mildred? You are taken [...]
Wow, freaking wow. I had no idea I would be sucked into this novel the way I was -- I couldn't put it down! I know that phrase is overused, but seriously, I couldn't put it down! And when I did have to abandon it for life and work, I couldn't wait to get back to it. This is so different than Cain's other noir novels where sex and violence, scheming, backstabbing and a dead body feature so prominently. Unlike Double Indemnity or The Postman Always Rings Twice, Mildred Pierce is a full-length nove [...]
“The hand that holds the money cracks the whip.”—Mildred PierceImagine my disappointment in reading page after page of this novel, written by the author of such salacious noir thrillers as The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity, and discovering no murders have been committed! Not a drop of blood! And Cain has a reputation for writing about women that some see as disrespectful or even misogynous: Babes, floozies, tramps, prostitutes, con artists. In this novel, that might be de [...]
If there's one thing I'm taking away from reading this, it's that bad things happen to good people. Unfortunately, that goes both ways. I was surprised by how this novel just sucked me in, even though there was so much to get frustrated about. Mildred Pierce is the tale of a woman living during the Great Depression who is trying to provide for her two daughters after getting divorced from her cheating husband. The problems don't end there, as there is money to be earned and some proper family is [...]
James M. Cain's Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice have always been two of my favorite crime novels. While Mildred Pierce was turned into something of a crime story in the movie starring Joan Crawford, the book is the fairly straight-forward story of a California woman who struggles to make a life for herself and her daughter, Veda, during the years of the Great Depression.As the book opens, Mildred throws her lazy, unfaithful husband out on his ear and become the single mother [...]
What an odd, sad little book this is. I quite thought I'd have no trouble relating to Mildred at the beginning - I got hooked on, "She was a little given to rehearshing things in her mind, and having imaginary triumphs over people who has upset her in one way and another," because I do that all the time. But she ends up being such a weak, small-minded jerk that I lost any sympathy I'd had for her. (view spoiler)[Mostly I feel sorry for her youngest daughter Ray, who gets about three pages worth [...]
So there's a restaurant a few blocks from my place bearing the novel's namesake. It made Canadian national news, and then the US Today show. Not for its pies, not for its cuisine. Mildred Pierce is a yuppie establishment, serving white fusion. By white fusion I mean the sad attempt at hodgepodge described by some whitey-white liberal college students searching for cultural identity: "Irish, British, Swedish, and German." Meh. What made it international gossip was that this highbrow eatery has la [...]
Well-written and with an interesting lead character, but it drags too long and gets a bit too soap opera-ish for my tastes. It's a cool little peek into Depression-era Los Angeles though!
I picked up Mildred Pierce without realizing the book was written by the same author who penned The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity, now after finishing Mildred Pierce, I've decided to put the latter two books to the top of my To-Read list.Mildred Pierce is a young woman who had recently divorced her unfaithful husband and now she must look after her two daughters at the time of The Great Depression, and life isn't easy for a single mom of that time. Mildred's struggle had been m [...]
Con una scrittura molto piacevole ed accattivante, M. Cain ha raccontato la storia di Mildred Pierce che per un certo verso si può far rientrare nella cerchia delledark ladiestanto in voga nei romanzi degli anni '40.Una donna pregna di un orgoglio che si trasforma in diabolica superbia nella primogenita Veda.Il contesto è quello di un'America pre e post -depressione dove Mildred e Veda si distinguono perchè non vogliono solo sopravvivere alla crisi ma emergere e posizionarsi nelle alte sfere [...]
Of course, I saw the movie first. "Mildred Pierce" is one of my favorites, and I'll watch it every time it's on TCM, because Veda, Mildred's daughter, is such an fabulously unmitigated bitch. Then I found out the movie was adapted from this book, written by the same guy who wrote The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity. Really, I don't have to write a review: the book's credentials recommend it without my help, don't they? But I'll write one, anyway.This book is dark. One of the reas [...]
Mildred Pierce é um excelente romance de época, que retrata na perfeição a época que sucedeu a Grande Depressão de 1929. Com o desemprego a aumentar, fruto da derrapagem de muitas empresas, a vida de Mildred não é diferente da maioria das famílias norte-americanas. Opinião completa: marcadordelivros/2
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this! It was like a melodramatic soap opera dated 1930s. The things parents do for their childrend ungrateful ones, too! I felt like I'd been transported back in time and I appreciated the author's knowledge on subjects like running a business and art/music. I think it was better than the movie, surprisingly. "Let's get stinko!"
This is a story about a mother's unhealthy relationship with her daughter and the mother's obsessive desire to do anything to gain love and acceptance from the daughter. Veda was a very self-centered and ungrateful daughter. She's the type of daughter who takes all the credit for her success but would blame her mother for her pitfalls. Her mother bent over backwards trying to please Veda but Veda was the daughter from hell. The book is a total family tragedy and a definite classic. James Cain is [...]
Set during depression era America, this family drama takes the reader deep into inner suburbia where a housewife, mother, and businesswoman can echo noir with the best of them.Mildred Pierce is the type of book I imagine modern day authors such as Megan Abbott writing. It's seeped in darkness that bubbles to the surface yet never really shows its intentions. Rather using a subliminal tone delivered through deep characterization and a slight of hand twist in plot direction. Veda, Mildred's daught [...]
With a HBO miniseries of Mildred Peirce (Staring Kate Winslet, Guy Pearce & Evan Rachel Wood) coming up soon; I thought I needed to read this James M. Cain classic. The story of Mildred Pierce follows the titular mother who, during the Great Depression finds herself separated from her husband, opening a restaurant of her own, and falling in love with a new man, all the while trying to earn her daughter's love and respect.Sounds like a nice little story, right? Wrong; James M. Cain brings his [...]
This book is by far the best James M. Cain book I've read. After reading Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice, I was curious about how Cain would translate his hardboiled crime style into a story about a 1930s housewife who is down on her luck but cannot give up, due in part to her aristocratic, haughty daughter. I've always been interested in that decade, and this book did more to illuminate it (and what it might have been like to be a woman in that time) than any other novel for [...]
(Recensione natalizia dal blog)Avere tra le mani Mildred Pierce e leggerlo dopo la valanga di romanzi contemporanei (che siano d'amore, fantasy o di qualsiasi altro genere) è come rientrare a casa dopo un lungo viaggio, mettersi comodi in poltrona e riposarsi, oziando. Perché sappiamo che c'è qualcuno che farà la nostra parte mentre noi prendiamo fiato.Così ha fatto James Cain: mi ha raccontato questo romanzo e ho avuto l'impressione che dentro ci fosse tutto ciòdi cui avevo bisogno. Come [...]
“They spoke quickly, as though they were saying things that scalded their mouths, and had to be cooled with spit.”This is a train wreck of a story. Mildred is subtly twisted, with a low grade desperation to her that kept me turning pages. The combination of her drive and her aloofness made her interesting and unpredictable, and the more that is revealed about her relationship with her daughter, the more things get dark and ugly.“It always came back to the same thing. She was afraid of Veda [...]
I read a description of Mildred Pierce somewhere that described it as a "hard boiled" novel. I wasn't exactly sure what that meant. But if all hard boiled novels are as juicy and good as Mildred Pierce, then I'm hard boiled. Mildred Pierce had me hooked almost from the first page. Dramatic and melodramatic, Dallas and Dynasty could be direct descendents of Mildred Pierce with the adultery and sultry affairs, the shady business deals, marriages for anything but love, and dames with great legs (al [...]
Cain sure wrote a very character driven novel when he wrote Mildred Pierce. Hard to forget these characters because they epitomize dysfunctional. Mildred, divorced in the early 40's when divorce was a word whispered and not spoken, has a penchant for worthless men. Although competent and successful in starting her own business, Mildred could not manage a relationship that wasn't on sinking sand. She sure knew how to pick shiftless and arrogant men. And she also knew how to use these men to her a [...]
Like many others, I saw the recent Kate Winslet mini-series “Mildred Pierce,” and finally saw the film starring Joan Crawford on Mother’s Day weekend, so I decided to read the book to further explore this story that deviates from many clichés of men, women, and children’s interpersonal relationships.First, I like period stories that take in as a whole the economic effects, which is expected during the Great Depression. Mr. Cain not only explained it from the viewpoint of the lead charac [...]
James M. Cain
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James M. Cain
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