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Mildred Pierce [Kindle Edition]

James M. Cain (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews) |
Print List Price: £7.99
Kindle Price: £4.99 includes VAT* & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
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Product Description

Review

'Cain's grasp of human deviousness has rarely been equalled.' (Simon Shaw DAILY MAIL )

'Forget the Kate Winslet television adaptation, this is the real deal, a hothouse of suppressed emotions, jealousy, sexual tension, and rage told in elegant prose.' (CATHOLIC HERALD )

'A supreme timeless classic.' (TELEGRAPH & ARGUS )

Review

"Vivid, gritty, real...this is crime writing at its very best" MY WEEKLY
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Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 525 KB
  • Print Length: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Orion (9 Sep 2010)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B0043M676W
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #15,763 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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More About the Authors

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James M. Cain
James M. Cain
Ranald MacDougall
Ranald MacDougall

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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Well worth reading 20 Oct 2011
By NorthBrit TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Mildred Pierce is a gripping tale. It is the story of an abandoned wife, her business ventures, her love affairs and her family life against a background of an economic slump. She is a great character Mildred Pierce in that she is not a perfect, brave heroine, but she is a human with failings and one VERY blind spot, her love for the unworthy daughter.

The descriptions of cake-making, book-keeping, Californian middle-class homes, music lessons etc etc are so vivid that you see them with your own eyes, you live them. After reading this book, I felt as if I had visted pre-war California and begun to understand its ways, it society and its snobberies.

The book has a flaw, though. The author writes with Mildred as his focus in every scene, we are taken into her head and into her heart, BUT Mildred is female and the writer is not. At just a few points one thinks that a woman would not say or do or feel as described.

This was my first James M Cain novel. I enjoyed so much I have ordered The Postman Always Rings Twice.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
pies, pies, pies 1 Oct 2010
Format:Paperback
This is a great book on lots of levels. There is fantastic detail about all sorts of topics: pies and how to make and sell them, the restaurant and real estate businesses, class differences (particularly in interior decoration), and the competitive world of professional musicians. The characters and situations are nicely varied and all very believable and you really care what happens. It is quite different to the film, so don't be put off by thinking you know the plot already if you've seen it (though I've heard rumours of a Kate Winslet remake which could be more faithful). This is an excellent option if you like the idea of 'hard-boiled' US fiction of the '30s and '40s but find crime writers like Hammett and Chandler objectionably macho. There's none of that here - we see the story from Mildred's point of view and it stays firmly rooted in a domestic and family context that makes the climactic events all the more plausible. If you like this I would also recommend Cain's 'Serenade', again a non-macho yet still hard-boiled(ish) classic with similar strengths.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Perhaps not technically in the 'film noir' genre as there is no smoking gun (unlike the joan Crawford film), Cain's writing is however gripping, and has a very modern feel. Cain achieves strong characterisation, principally by the excellent use of dialogue combined with earthy realism.

The story revolves around the destructive love of a mother for her spoilt, cold and manipulative daughter, upon whom she projects material ambitions buit fails to inculcate any moral index. Initially a victim, the eponymous hero becomes a self-made all-american success, only to be destroyed by those she loves and who have motivated her efforts to succeed.

The plot is startlingly different from the film adaptation, more convincing and bleaker if less dramatic. A suoerb holiday read

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great Book
This was a really good old-fashioned read. It's set in a time when women were home bodies, men made the money and kids were well behaved. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kindle Junkie
THE UNKINDEST CUT OF ALL...
Having loved the film, I looked forward to reading this classic novel upon which the film was based. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lawyeraau
Engrossing story
When Mildred's marriage ends in 1930s California she is forced to seek work with thousands of others if she is to feed her daughters and maintain her middle-class lifestyle. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Reddy
A (not so) modern fable
Mildred Pierce has been given a Hollywood and HBO treatment and the recent adaptation has been laden with awards. I haven't watched either and wanted to read this book 'clean'. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Syriat
Well written book
I had seen the TV series, which made me want to read the book. I wasn't disappointed. It was a really good read.
Published 7 months ago by molly
Mildred Pierce
It was a joy to read this book. I recently watched the mini-series on TV and it seemed so very real. Read more
Published 9 months ago by janetann
When odds are stacked against us, we adapt and keep moving forward.
Although this book is set in the 1930s depression, eighty years on and it fits extremely well into current climates. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Andrea Bowhill
Motherhood and apple pie
This 1941 novel opens ten years earlier, on the day Glendale housewife Mildred Pierce becomes a single mother. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Miss Moppet
You do it to yourself, that's what really hurts
Cain is 1 of my favourite noir authors with a taut style that brilliantly evokes the depression era and one woman's American dream. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Zigden
Forget the film ...
Because there's no crime of passion in the novel, so this isn't a film noir flashback ...
Rather it's a story of the Depression, of easy money made in the 1920s and lost in... Read more
Published 24 months ago by booksetc
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She preferred to remain at a distance, to enjoy this child as she seemed, rather than as she was. &quote;
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