As other reviewers have noted, this book is not really like the movie starring Joan Crawford (especially the ending). This book was placed in the 'Crime' section of my local library but I don't really think it belongs there. The book is a tightly-paced thriller revolving around a mother and daughter's obsessive and unhealthy relationship. The suspense woven through the book keeps you going and I read this in a couple of days. What I found fascinating is that I didn't like any of the characters yet I still wanted to know what happened to them... The book ends on a much less sensational note than the film but somehow the book's ending of a severed relationship between the obsessive mother (Mildred) and the psychopathic compulsive-liar daughter (Veda) is more grim. A very good read. ( )

Somehow it seemed utterly appropriate to finish Ms. Pierce's story while sitting in my car in a parking space in downtown Marysville in the pouring rain waiting for my local yarn store to open. Not that Mildred Pierce has anything to do with yarn or parking spaces, although automobiles and rain do play major roles. No, the appropriateness had to do with the bleakness that permeates the book: today's gray sky, the car headlights shining on wet pavement, the pedestrians frantically rushing down the sidewalk to get to the next store awning and a little shelter from the rain: all reminiscent of Mildred's bleak frenzy to get ahead, to make money, to be somebody, to overcome a tragic loss by overcompensating in every area. The reader is well aware of the futility of Ms. Pierce's efforts long before she herself recognizes this fact, but the journey to her self-awareness, belated though it may be, is worth reading. ( )

A character study of a woman who has what it takes to succeed in life but who lets her obsessive love for her daughter and her need for her daughter's approval to blind her to reality. None of the characters are especially likable but the are understandable. The book has a different ending from the movie but somehow it seems more realistic. ( )

http://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/2007... ( )

3345. Mildred Pierce, by James M. Cain (read Sept 7, 2000). I got this for a nickel or dime at a rummage sale, so I thought I should read it. It is the third book by Cain I've read, and surprisingly of the three I've read the one I liked best is the one least known: Love's Lovely Counterfeit (read Oct 19, 1997). The eponymous character of this book is mostly amoral, but in the end she remarries her bitchy daughter's father, which is a scenario not often seen in plots nowadays. But this book was published in 1941. The book was easy to read, but not too interesting. It is not a detective or gangster story. ( )