![]() ![]() ![]() A judicious editor would undoubtedly prune large swaths of the plot and no reader would miss them. The big problem here is that there’s only enough material for a short story or, at most, a novella, but Cain insists on stretching the story out into a full novel. Instead, Mildred is a character study about an independent woman whose only weakness is enabling her vile daughter. ![]() I can only assume that it has been given the noir label because of the twists added to the movie and because its author, James Cain, is regarded as a master of the noir genre. Mildred was labeled a noir classic when I picked it up, but it completely lacks the trappings of the genre. The novel has no sense of flavor or interest. I haven’t seen the movie, so I can only surmise that if Mildred Pierce works on screen it is only because it adds a murder mystery into the plot. When James Cain’s Mildred Pierce was adapted for film, it won Joan Crawford an Academy Award for her role as the titular long-suffering mother. ![]()
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