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Three of a Kind
This volume contains three novels by James M. Cain: Career in C Major, The Embezzler, and Double Indemnity. Like his great successes, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Serenade—like almost everything he has written—they deal with violent deeds and violent emotions. Passion and murder are their materials, and they are presented with the amazing skill that makes any Cain story an adventure in suspense. They are indeed three of a kind—and every one of them an ace.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1943
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About the author
James M. Cain
144 books878 followersJames Mallahan Cain (July 1, 1892–October 27, 1977) was an American journalist and novelist. Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labeling, he is usually associated with the hard-boiled 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 Baltimore 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.
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 Baltimore 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.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
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July 29, 2020Found this one at one of those resale/antique shops my wife likes to "drag" me to. 2 bucks for three by Cain. It's a book club edition from 1943. Dust jacket shows years of use, but suprisingly in decent shape. The book is perfectly fine. Double Indemnity, which was made into that great noir film with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck. The book is told by Walter Neff insurance salesman. He stops by a client's house to remind him that his car insurance is due and meets his beautiful younger wife. So the very good insurance man knows right away that she is trouble, but he can't help himself and can't walk away even after he tells himself to get the hell away from her. Trouble ensues. Cain is noir to the core. Crime told by one of the criminals. It's a good read.
One of Cain's recurring themes is that the man in the story can't help himself when there is a beautiful woman around. They do dumb things for dumb reasons. Usually a murder. It's dark stuff. Hence the term Noir. You will like his writting.
One of Cain's recurring themes is that the man in the story can't help himself when there is a beautiful woman around. They do dumb things for dumb reasons. Usually a murder. It's dark stuff. Hence the term Noir. You will like his writting.
May 3, 2015
This collection offers three sterling examples of Cain's great first-person depression-era storytelling, and only one of them is associated with a famous movie version--so the other two felt wonderfully fresh and new to me.
But the reason to seek out this edition in particular is the Preface.
In it, Cain tells us how--after false starts during the course of more than 10 years--he evolved his technique for structuring the novels he wrote at the height of his powers.
This Preface is one of my Writing Essentials (along with Elmore Leonard's Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing and Blake Snyder's Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need.
But the reason to seek out this edition in particular is the Preface.
In it, Cain tells us how--after false starts during the course of more than 10 years--he evolved his technique for structuring the novels he wrote at the height of his powers.
This Preface is one of my Writing Essentials (along with Elmore Leonard's Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing and Blake Snyder's Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need.
October 24, 2007
I don't usually leave reviews, but I feel kind of obliged when I'm rating a book containing multiple works, unless I feel very equally about them all or that they are really part of one whole work. Neither is true about this collection. I would have reviewed them separately, but could not find Career in C Major by itself.
My first exposure to Cain, I picked this book up randomly from the school library for fifty cents, thinking, hey, I liked the movie Double Indemnity, perhaps I would like the book. I did, although not as well as the movie or as well as the other two novels (novellas?) in the collection. My favorite is Career in C Major. It was enough to cause me to seek out some of his other works, although this collection remains my favorite of the ones that I've read.
My first exposure to Cain, I picked this book up randomly from the school library for fifty cents, thinking, hey, I liked the movie Double Indemnity, perhaps I would like the book. I did, although not as well as the movie or as well as the other two novels (novellas?) in the collection. My favorite is Career in C Major. It was enough to cause me to seek out some of his other works, although this collection remains my favorite of the ones that I've read.
June 6, 2023
Read two of these before as separate volumes, and I have to say that combined like this generates a narrative force multiplier. As Cain notes in the preface, these are products of a time. Written in the darkest days of the Great Depression, the stories revolve around the characters' passion for respectability or with making money, and their inescapable loveless marriages that exist but are casually ignored.
The opener, Career in C Major, is simultaneously a lightweight bedroom comedy and a tragic noir (without the murder). Plausability aside, this novel hefts all of Cain's most cynical takes on humanity and still arrives at true love. It's a very weird, but very fun story that feels like it shouldn't exist.
The Embezzler is a more conventional noir story of how everyone is a con at heart, and the male characters are easily convinced to destroy their lives simply because a woman asked. The only flaw in this story is that it is conventional noir and positioned in this collection between the dark comedy strangeness of Career in C Major and the towering achievement that is Double Indemnity
Double Indemnity needs no introduction or explanation. Keeping the secret of a perfect crime unravels everything between two people who instantly recognized the other as sharing an equally amoral worldview. Chilling and classic. I'm always a little let down with the conclusion of the novel, but that takes away nothing from this masterpiece of cynicism.
The opener, Career in C Major, is simultaneously a lightweight bedroom comedy and a tragic noir (without the murder). Plausability aside, this novel hefts all of Cain's most cynical takes on humanity and still arrives at true love. It's a very weird, but very fun story that feels like it shouldn't exist.
The Embezzler is a more conventional noir story of how everyone is a con at heart, and the male characters are easily convinced to destroy their lives simply because a woman asked. The only flaw in this story is that it is conventional noir and positioned in this collection between the dark comedy strangeness of Career in C Major and the towering achievement that is Double Indemnity
Double Indemnity needs no introduction or explanation. Keeping the secret of a perfect crime unravels everything between two people who instantly recognized the other as sharing an equally amoral worldview. Chilling and classic. I'm always a little let down with the conclusion of the novel, but that takes away nothing from this masterpiece of cynicism.
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February 26, 2016-0- libr/tb, #2 @ pbs
November 17, 2018
Something about 40s noir. Men instantly fall for dangerous dames because of their "shape" and are willing to commit murder. There are also the racist and sexist statements that make you go hmm. Like the assessment of Filipino fashion and spending habits or the casual slurs used against Italians. A product of its time to be sure, especially when a place is described as "big as a blimp hanger." Still enjoyable if a bit 2 dimensional. Gosh I wonder, everyone has servants and the wife doesn't work, how'd they swing that? A look into a bygone era.
March 29, 2021
Fun book with detective/mystery type stories. Cain wrote Double Indemnity and that was made into a very good movie that we have watched several times with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray.
September 8, 2013
Trois récits proches : un homme, séduit par une femme, va faire des choses folles (et parfois illégales) pour elle. Et le talent de Cain est de montrer le cheminement qui les amène à ça, d'être dans leur tête, à leur place et de faire passer leurs décisions, leurs actes comme tristement logiques. Noires sans être nécessairement meurtrières, ces histoires sont des réussites, même si j'ai trouvé Faux en écriture un peu décevant.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews