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The Postman Always Rings Twice

by James M. Cain

A crime story built around one dangerous solution

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A crime story built around one dangerous solution

First published in 1934, James M. Cain’s novel brings a chance encounter between a drifter and a married woman into the territory of American noir. The couple’s effort to resolve the obstacle posed by her husband sets off further complications, making the story’s central crime inseparable from its consequences. Its hard-boiled crime-fiction framing and focus on violence, desire, and a bleak underside of American life place it firmly within the crime writing of its era.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in hard-boiled crime fiction and classic American noir.
  • Readers seeking a compact premise centered on a crime and its consequences.

Themes

Crime and consequenceDesireViolenceAmerican noir

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

The bestselling sensation--and one of the most outstanding crime novels of the 20th century--that was banned in Boston for its explosive mixture of violence and eroticism, and acknowledged by Albert Camus as the model for The Stranger. The basis for the acclaimed 1946 film.

An amoral young tramp. A beautiful, sullen woman with an inconvenient husband. A problem that has only one grisly solution--a solution that only creates other problems that no one can ever solve.

First published in 1934, The Postman Always Rings Twice is a classic of the roman noir. It established James M. Cain as a major novelist with an unsparing vision of America's bleak underside and was acknowledged by Albert Camus as the model for The Stranger.
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