The Cocktail Waitress

This was a fun book in that it had sort of a campy, "trashy novel" feed about it. The best aspect,however , was the reader, who can make or break an audiobook experience.This reader made this story come alive .The plot itself was just okay, not Cain's best work. Both audiobooks I ve listened to by James Cain have been enhanced by the choice of narrator.

Different kind of book, this one was published 30 years after the author's death. James M Cain wrote "The Postman Always Rings Twice" which was twice made into a movie. Cain was most famous as a writer in the 30's and 40's and he was one of the original writers of crime and sin before it became mainstream. He was also know for writing about femme fatale's, women who were caught up in a bad marriage or bad situation and couldn't see a way out and how that played out. "The Cocktail Waitress" fits this mold. The person who got this last novel published was a Cain fan who heard the book existed and went to work looking for it. It took him 9 years. He found some of it in the Library of Congress, some with the author's last agent, who was also dead. He put all the pieces together, edited it, and this is the result. The author was in his 80's when he wrote this. If you're a Cain fan or like these types of books, it's worth the effort, it's a fairly short book.

THE STORY TOOK A LONG TIME TO GET GOING BUT IT GOT VERY ENJOYABLE ONCE JOAN BECAME INVOLVED WITH MR. WHITE.

IT REMINDS ME MORE OF A SONG. BILLY JOEL'S "LYING EYES" THAN ANOTHER BOOK.

SHE WAS EASY TO LISTEN TO.

IN SEVERAL SITTINGS.

I WISH THE ENDING WAS BETTER. I FELT CHEATED. BUT THE BOOK WAS ENTERTAINING.

probably not

i really was really enjoying the story but the ending was very disapointing - at least to me it was. Kind of left my hanging waiting for more.

The way she read was kind of monatone - which added to the mystery of the story. I liked the was she narrated it.

yes

World view and attitudes of characters are like the (I think 1940s) black and white movies, which I enjoyed. But it does not come across as enjoyable to me in text form. I guess the movies with the black and white, classic actors, hair styles, cars, etc of the era allow you to identify with the characters mindsets and situations so you can enjoy the story in it's context. In text torm without all the visual and audio world building of the times, too much seems silly from a point of view of today and it just didn't work for me.

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