The Postman Always Rings Twice | James M. Cain

This episode of Books for Men features The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain. A classic noir novel about a young drifter who falls for the discontented wife of a diner owner, and the dilemma that ensues as they fight for each other and their lives. It was (basically) the springboard for an entire genre. Listen for more!

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Welcome back to Books for Men, a podcast to inspire more men to read and bring together men who do. So I have a really cool book to share with you this week, and it's on the heels of the last fiction book that we shared, which was Queenpin by Megan Abbott. So that book was a take on classic noir, even though it was written or published in 2007. The whole point of the work was to emulate classic noir. And so I thought it would be really cool to feature one of the OGs in the genre, so to speak. And that is James M. Cain. And his book titled The Postman Always Rings Twice. And I guess I can't go any further than by saying how much I love the title of this book. It's a little obscure. It's a little unclear, and I think it will become more apparent why it is titled what it is titled once you read the book or if you read the book.

(01:09)

And I don't really want to spoil that for you, so I'm not going to go too much into it. But I will say it's sort of indirect, right? There's no postman. It's just a saying and it means something. And after you read the book, like I said, it should be intuitive why it is named that. I mean, there are some differing takes on what the title could mean, but I think it's pretty clear what it's insinuating. But read it and you could be the judge. So another just quick note about the book is that it is extremely short. It's only 123 pages, and that is sort of a trait of all the classic noir novels. They tend to be relatively short. So I guess in that way there might be more like novellas. And this book was published in 1934, so it is indeed old or almost 90 years or yeah, something like that.

(02:03)

It's crazy. And although it wasn't the first classic noir novel, that would probably be Dashiell Hammett. The reason why I featured this book specifically is because it really was the springboard for the genre. It was a massive success when it came out. It was actually banned in Boston for its violence and its sexuality, which is pretty comical now as you read it, because compared to what we consume today, this would be pretty mild as far as violence and sexuality is concerned. But since I mentioned Hammett, I should also say that he is said to have been an inspiration for Cain, along with Hemingway and some of the other American writers of their time, which makes sense. If you read the work, you could probably see the links. And I feel like this is another link to The Stranger by Albert Camus, which we've had multiple books now linked in various ways to that work.

(03:05)

And the reason why this book is linked to it is that Camus has said before that this book, The Postman Always Rings Twice, was actually an inspiration for his writing of The Stranger, which is pretty unique. And although the books couldn't be from a story perspective anymore different, it's still cool to know that tie is there. And just a last cool note about the book before I tell you what it is actually about is that it was actually an A.S.E. And so, an A.S.E. was an armed service edition, which is basically just a print run of a specific book that would be designated for distribution to the American military during World War II. And of course, these were usually popular books of their time. And it's sort of funny to think about this book being read somewhere in a tent during World War II, but it was, and along with many other books, but this was one of them.

(04:03)

So anyway, who is James Cain and what is this book about? So he was a crime writer, obviously, but this was his debut at age 42. So he had a long life before he started publishing novels. He was in the military, he was a journalist for 15, 20 years. I don't remember the paper that he wrote for, but the point is that he had a long life before. And although that might seem trivial, right, as an idea, it means that they're approaching the work with a point of view. And that's not to say that I don't like young artists who come at their work in the same way. It's just harder to do so when you don't have as much life experience, right? It's much easier to fall into somebody else's point of view or a point of view that you're taught, let's say, rather than utilizing your own life experience to form that point of view inside your work.

(05:00)

And a lot of times you could tell the difference. You could see that life experience in someone's work, and it helps with the performance of whatever it is. It's not just writers. You see this with musicians and actors. Some people just come at it with their point of view attached to their performance. And a lot of times that is the thing that makes it so engaging. So I don't want to turn this into a lesson in point of view or my opinions, but I mean, it is my show. So I guess there is some relevance. Anyway, the reason why I brought this up was James Cain is not a young writer when this book comes out. And perhaps that informs the whole direction of noir and the edgy, unbridled nature of the genre. Maybe it doesn't, maybe it does. What I can say is that between Cain and Raymond Chandler, who is most known for his private eye, Philip Marlowe, it was clear that their books had a very specific tone and style to the writing.

(06:05)

And perhaps that's best illustrated in the preface to another one of Cain's books called Double Indemnity. And in it, there's a little note from Cain and he says, “I make no conscious effort to be tough or hard-boiled or grim, or any of the things that I am usually called. I merely try to write as the character would write. And I never forget that the average man from the fields, from the streets, the bars, the offices, and even the gutters of his country has acquired a vividness of speech that goes beyond anything I could invent. And that if I stick to this heritage, this logos of the American countryside, I shall attain maximum effectiveness with very little effort.” So I love that. And I obviously think that there's no better way to share what the writing style actually is than to feature straight from the horse's mouth.

(06:58)

With that being said, is it possible that we have gone, I don't know, 7, 6, 7, 8 minutes already, and I haven't told you what the book is about? Well, we'll keep it brief because this is usually the least interesting part of these episodes, at least from my perspective. Cause I don't want to ruin the story for you. But what you should know is it's about a man named Frank Chambers. He's a drifter. He stumbles into a gas station, and he meets this beautiful woman, or he thinks she's beautiful, her name is Cora, and she's married to the gas station owner, Frank and the woman become captivated with each other. They begin an affair and they form a plot to knock off the husband and flee to a better life. And this is basically what the story is and what happens to Frank Chambers, what happens to Cora, and what happens to the gas station owner, Nick Papadakis, you will find out if you read it.

(07:54)

The thing I love the most about noir is the stories are super, super simple. They're not ornate. And I think I talked about that in the episode that I did on Queenpin. I love that about the genre. I love that they unfold exactly how they are supposed to unfold, not in a way that you know what is going to happen next, but there's just not a lot of fluff in the novels at all. They move fast and they do what they say and mean what they do. I think that's how the saying goes. Anyway, that's all I've got for today. This episode is a wrap. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please remember to share it with a family member, a friend, a coworker, a colleague, or anyone who you think might enjoy it, or perhaps they might enjoy another episode that you listen to on the podcast.

(08:45)

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