Double Indemnity (original 1936; edition 1989)

I don’t think I’ve ever read a full book in one sitting before, but since it was small (125 pages) and James M Cain wrote an exciting novella; it was quick easy, I needed to know what was going to happen. Double Indemnity tells the story of an insurance agent and a woman who set out to make a lot of money by claim the insurance of the accidental death of her husband. As you probably guessed; her husband’s death was not going to be an accident. James M Cain is the master of the Noir genre, where he can take a basic murder plot and make everything go horribly wrong.

The way Cain writes his characters is superb, you get the feeling that you know what they are thinking and when they are planning a double cross; but Cain also likes to put some unexpected twists just to keep the reader guessing. If I was going to recommend a James M Cain book to anyone, it would probably The Postman Always Rings Twice; but since this is such a short story this would also be a good book to start with. The Hardboiled & Noir genres are fast becoming my favourite of all genres, and Cain is definitely the king of Noir (from what I’ve read so far). ( )

Walter Huff sells insurance. He's always sold insurance. But at the back of his mind, he's got a plan. A plan involving murder and money. All he needs the chance to put it into action...

When that chance comes along, in the shape of Phyllis Nirdlinger, Walter can't believe his luck. Together, they plan the crime that will make them both rich. Pretty soon, Walter is out of his depth, struggling not just to avoid the law, but for his own life.

A tale of lust, lies and...err, life insurance, Double Indemnity will have you squirming from first page to last.

My complete review is right here:
http://booktothefuture.com.au/?p=1547 ( )

This book is brutal, short and completely ingestible in one sitting. I can’t the plot twists achieved through the smallest amount of writing. Wonderful. ( )

Noir perfection. Every word, character, and moment in this book are right. ( )

BkC12) DOUBLE INDEMNITY by James M. Cain: I liked the book better than the movie.

I don't think I agree with myself on this one. I like both book and movie, and the movie version is a wonderful treat available free on YouTube. I'll put the two on a par.

Rating: 4.875* of five

The Book Report: Yet again I feel like a fool offering a summary of a story doubtless extremely well-known: Young wife of older, boring man seeks life insurance for the coot from desperately smitten insurance agent. His lust for her leads him way past the usual level of customer service, leading him to establish an alibi for them both AFTER killing the old bore...errr, boy. Hardly a spoiler since it's the whole point of the movie.

The payoff doesn't go quite as smoothly as the conspirators might wish, and after various cool twists and turns, the story wraps up with a humdinger of an ending that I am gnawing my knuckles to the bone not to reveal. Many, including >moi, saw it coming on p2, but let me assure you that, while almost fanning the last pages of this short novel in your haste to find out what you probably already know is going to happen, you will not be bored.

Or if you are, please, if you value our friendship, don't tell me.

My Review: *gruntled sigh* Noir books and films explain, if one needs an explanation, the concept "it hurts so good." The characters are low, vulgar trollops and cads (my favorite kind of people!), and the good guys...the cops, the mothers, the priests...are all such knobs, such squares, so unspeakably unhip as to be dismissable.

Yeah, that's a life worth livin', that is. And we get to live it vicariously through these louche, blowsy people while maintaining our public solid-citizen-ness. For some folks, it's horror novels; for some, it's technothrillers; for just about everyone in the world, based on sales figures, it's online porn; all of us, each and every one, need to get out of our own humdrum skins and into the world of another, very different character once in a way. (Of course, by that reasoning, I'd read John Cheever and John Updike like a madman, with their dull straight boys lusting after slatternly women, this being the polar opposite of my own needs and desires. There are exceptions to every rule.)

And in Double Indemnity, what could be more deeply satisfying that the idea of dressing in the coolest clothes, wearing the hottest, sexiest shoes, and causing such an insane level of desire in someone that he's willing to murder another human being to be with you? What more powerful feeling in the world can there be than to make a reasonable, adult male go bonkers, throw away every scruple and moral that he's ever had, and do your bidding? And for the boys, what could possibly be hotter than a lust-object that teases and promises and offers oh-so-coyly to fulfill the dark fantasy of total control, of ownership, that comes (pardon) from breaking every rule *at the desired one's behest and behalf*? It's mutual submission and mutual domination in a subtle, minute-by-minute exchange of roles.

OF COURSE one wouldn't do that in Real Life, would one?, so that's why James M. Cain wrote the story. And it is BLAZING HOT, on screen or on page.

Read this bad boy. You get to channel your inner naughty, naughty, naughty self. I don't suggest doing either the reading or the movie-viewing alone. If I need to explain why, you shouldn't be reading this review. ( )