The story is compelling---a woman wronged by her husband, who had also lost his profitable business to the aftermath of the stock market crash, throws him out, and finds a way to "make it on her own". (Cain likes to toss phrases like that around, and always frames them with quotation marks.) Although Mildred has a lot of gumption, she is no judge of character, and is repeatedly disillusioned by the people she chooses to trust. She turns her flair for cooking and baking into a phenomenally successful business, but cannot figure out how to do the same for her personal relationships with men, or with her own daughter. The dialog is frequently wretched. I don't think Cain ever met a 14 year old girl; he certainly never listened to one talk. Despite that, the characters come alive, and the book is well-crafted. L. A. Confidential without the crime. ( )

“Mildred Pierce” by James M. Cain is a 1941 publication.

This month, "Turner Classic Movies' has been airing their “Thirty Days of Oscar” special collection of movies. As I scrolled through all those incredible movies, I was struck by how many of them I had never seen, which included “Mildred Pierce”.

But, every time I considered watching the movie, I decided to wait and read the book first. So, I set my DVR to record the movie and then set out to find a copy of the book at the library… and so FINALLY- I have read a book I’d been meaning to read for ages.

Okay- so my thoughts on the book:

I love noir- and this book is labeled as classic noir- but it is not a detective novel or a piece of crime fiction, which is how I normally think of noir. The story is often bleak, dark and moody, and chock full of flawed, morally bankrupt people. It’s a look at a complicated mother/daughter relationship during the depression era, and a cautionary tale about the ugly side of ambition.

Overall, the book is highly absorbing and thought-provoking. Although there are words that the author used, rather too frequently, that were offensive, and some violent scenes made me uncomfortable (which is something that is going to pop up in anything categorized as “noir” or hard-boiled that was written during the 1940s), this is yet another novel I wish I had read a lot sooner.

The characterizations are incredible and will stick with me for a long while.

4.5 stars

*I FINALLY watched the classic movie starring Joan Crawford, as well. The movie is very good- but while some parts were close to the book, there were many changes to the story that gave it an entirely different slant- but that's par for the course in Hollywood. I liked the book better- but the I understand why the movie received such high praise. I recommend enjoying both the book and the movie, if you haven't already. ( )

A young wife, Mildred, faces life as a divorced, single mother during the depression. She takes the only work she can find as a waitress and slowly builds a restaurant empire.

As this is going on, both tragedy and triumph follows Mildred. The biggest tragedy of all is her awful oldest daughter. Self-involved and a complete snob, daughter Veda repeatedly betrays Mildred.

I found the book is a little different from the movie with Joan Crawford, but both the book and the movie are fantastic! ( )

Mildred Pierce by James Cain is an in-depth portrait of a woman, the rise and fall of her life and her emotional dependency on her coldblooded, greedy, manipulative daughter. Although Cain is well known for his Noir thrillers, this book is quite different being more of a novel of social observations.

Set during the years of the Great Depression this is a well crafted story peopled with excellent characters, some you love and some you hate. For me, Mildred was someone that I mostly pitied. No matter how well things were going in her life, her happiness rested solely with her daughter, Veda. As her marriage fails and new men enter her life and as she slowly builds up a good business from her humble beginnings as a waitress, all she can think about is how to please her demanding daughter. But Veda is impossible to fully please. She sees people as stepping stones to help her get where she wants to go, and she holds her mother responsible for everything that she sees as lacking in her life.

Mildred Pierce is a dark portrayal of human weakness and greed. Mildred is a strong but flawed woman whose aspirations are not for herself but rather for her children. Unfortunately her daughter is an empty vessel that no amount of caring or love will every fully satisfy. I found myself compelled by the characters and their story and also intrigued by the economic upheavals of 1930s California. ( )

Ok, I'd seen "The Postman Always Rings Twice" & even referenced it in a filmstrip title of mine ("The Postman Always Rings the Homunculous of Woody Allen & Hollis Frampton Twice") & used some sampled sound from its soundtrack for the aforementioned filmstrip's sound. & I'd seen "Double Indemnity" & liked that. But I'd never wanted to read Cain b/c I always had the impression that he was a realist writer who hadn't progressed that much on 19th century European literary forms.

But then I met Chelsey Minnis Schmidt & we bonded over James Ellroy & she got me a little interested in Cain so I picked up this novel by him when I was in Boulder w/ my conversation w/ Chelsey still on my mind. The back of the bk identifies it as "FICTION/CRIME" so I wasn't sure whether there'd be a murder or not.

Probably one of the things that ultimately impressed me about it is that Cain led up to quite a few scenes where a murder or other such violent death might happen.. & it DIDN'T. Cain's manipulation was obviously that of a writer accustomed to building up to crimes of passion & the like - but here he didn't need to resort to such shallow sensationalism in order to make the drama emotionally compelling.

Interestingly, in the 1945 Hollywood version of the novel, there IS a murder - thusly providing 2 versions for the world - one in wch someone gets their probably come-uppance & one where things are a bit more subtle.

The subtle part is about class. The despicable daughter is 'classy' & utterly unscrupulous. The mother WORKS & is honest. The novel is clearly on her side & so am I. Reading this was somewhat like watching a Fassbinder movie - something like "Fox and his Friends" - an agonizing experience for me personally since I have a particular hatred for parasites. Cain's novel, however, isn't quite so heavy-handedly tortuous as Fassbinder almost always was.

Despite the daughter's successful machinations, Mildred isn't completely destroyed & one can at least imagine that her life continued post-daughter w/ some degree of happiness & success. More power to the Mildred Pierces of the world - may they be less foolish & more rewarded. ( )