• The Postman Always Rings Twice

  • By: James M. Cain
  • Narrated by: Stanley Tucci
  • Length: 2 hrs and 49 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (513 ratings)

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The Postman Always Rings Twice  By  cover art

The Postman Always Rings Twice

By: James M. Cain
Narrated by: Stanley Tucci
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Publisher's summary

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 and banned in Boston for its explosive mixture of violence and eroticism, 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.

©1934 James M. Cain (P)2005 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A good, swift, violent story." (Dashiell Hammett)

What listeners say about The Postman Always Rings Twice

Average customer ratings
Overall
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Tucci's performance of "Postman" is exquisite!

I have long been a huge fan of James M. Cain, having read several times his best novels: The Postman Always Rings Twice; Double Indemnity; and Mildred Pierce. Stanley Tucci's reading of The Postman Always Rings Twice was absolutely terrific! His intonations, accents, emphases, pauses--every aspect of his performance is spot on, as he catches subtle nuances that a less sensitive reader might easily miss. I cannot overemphasize how satisfying this audio version of Cain's classic novel is. First-rate, in every way.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Underwhelming

This book did not age well. It may have been regarded as important and novel in its time, but the blatant racism and lack of character complexity leaves much to be desired. The characters are flat, two-dimensional parodies of who they were supposed to represent. This book had lots of reviews in the noir circle that made me want to give it a go, but I found it underwhelming at best. Admittedly, the narration is a great example of the noir genre, but I expected more depth.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Cain always good

It's hard to go wrong with this one. good narration. great noir/existential story. a classic and another that i can return to and enjoy many times. Cain is great and look forward to newly discovered Waitress.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Hard to Follow Performace

Never read the book and haven’t seen the movie version yet. I enjoyed the story, but Stanley Tucci doesn’t give a great performance of the material. Another reviewer already commented it was hard to tell a lot of the time who was talking. He gives accents to two of the characters, but the two main ones, male and female, talk back and forth a lot and there is no different of inflection between the two.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

good but frustrating

struggled to understand which character was speaking some of the time because of the speaker.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

performance was great!

the narration of this audio book was great! I was a little skeptical if such a short book would grab me but this one kinda did, I wish it just had more meat to it. over all though it was a great quick listen.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Poor narration

This is one of my favorite short novels. My problem is the audio version is 'read' and not performed. Performance is what I expect when I choose and audible book - see Samuel L Jackson's performance of Chester Himes' 'Rage in Harlem. Stellar.

I'll be returning this one and stick to reading the text every other year.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wow!

I was amazed at how brief, but packed this book was...I had heard about it for years, but never read it..Sparse, evocative, brutal and heart-wrenching...Stanley Gucci gave a no-nonsense, expert reading..no frills, straight to the bone...Noir at it's best...I'll be reading the rest of McCain...

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wickedly fun and well narrated

I liked everything about this dark story with lots of twists and turns in the plot. I am new to this author and highly recommend him to someone who would like discovering a new author. All four of Cain's audiobooks that I have heard have the uncanny trait of outstanding narration. I wish other book narraters were as expertly chosen.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible Tale

Getting the bad out of the way first: Stanley Tucci is one of the worst narrators I’ve heard. I’m aware he’s an actor, but this narration just drove me batty. Apparently he thought that the whole thing should be read in a rapid monotone. That’s what it was. No more no less. Utterly toneless emotionally and otherwise.

As for the writing itself, this is a classic. It should probably rank up there with Steinbeck as a great American novel. On its surface, it’s a story of murder and passion. But it’s also a story of racism, sexism, survival, loss and the Great Depression. It reads like a burner novel - some formula thriller you would pick up in a bus depot - but it’s meant to make you think about how close we always are to our darkest impulses and how love and hate and death and life get mixed up together.

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