The Cocktail Waitress

This is classic pulp crime fiction, told in first person by the heroine, Joan Medford, telling her story in retrospect. Joan Medford is a true femme fatale -- she attracts men right and left, but no man seems to be able to get near her without dying, in circumstances suspicious to at least one police detective.James M. Cain never finished the book for publication. It was instead pieced together after his death by the book's editor, Charles Ardai. Ardai selected alternative versions of scenes, straightened out inconsistencies, and did his best to provide the story as Cain would have wanted.The story is full of twists and turns and even regenerates itself at points when it seems on the verge of final resolution. Joan begins her story already a widow, concerned for the future of her son, Tad. In fact, it is her desire to regain possession of Tad from her former husband's sister that provides the constant throughout the book -- Joan is driven to find a way to give what she regards as a proper mother's attention and a good home to Tad. Doing so throws her deeper and deeper into sketchy relationships with sometimes sketchier outcomes.It's interesting to think about the role Cain gives to Joan Medford as a reflection of the status of women at the time Cain wrote the book, in the mid-1970s. Joan is resourceful, smart, yet dependent on men, both financially and for the courage to meet the challenges thrown in her way. But, as we see in one core scene in which she foils a scheme by one of her male antagonists, when the game is on the line, it is Joan, not any man she depends upon, who pulls it together.I can't pretend to tell someone like James Cain how to write a crime novel, but there are a couple of things I would have liked to be different. The dialog at times seems awkward, stilted. Joan talks a little correctly, formally -- we could, and I did, decide to interpret what otherwise would just be stilted dialog as a character trying to make herself appear more elegant and correct than her appearance might suggest. If so, cool, although I didn't see other evidence that that was what Cain was intending. This might have been something he would have polished out had he lived to do so.The other thing I would have liked is more meat to the tension between Joan Medford and Private Church, the detective who is determined to find her guilty of murder. For the most part, Church is a background character -- we don't know why he is so intent on cornering Joan on a murder charge. Again, we can try to fill in the blanks -- the simple explanation being an attitude towards "women like Joan" as manipulative gold-diggers, the more complex explanation maybe having something to do with Church's own past with women.Still, this was a fun book to read. I enjoyed the atmosphere, and the plot twists.

James Cain is a member of the `big 3′ of crime fiction (alongside Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler), and when I heard that this previously unpublished piece was being released I was thrilled beyond reason. One of the first noir crime fiction novels that I ever loved was The Postman Always Rings Twice, and The Cocktail Waitress doesn't fail in any aspect; especially in creating a compelling narrative fraught with desire and suspense. Reading a novel such as this, one that is unearthed from a forgotten past, is much like opening a time-capsule. We've found a lost work from a master, lets give it the respect it deserves.The Cocktail Waitress begins casket-side, at the funeral of Joan Medford's late alcoholic husband. All eyes are fixed upon her grief, searching for some quiver in her facade, for some sign that would betray her mourning as counterfeit. Joan isn't sorry he's dead, but she's swallowing hard realities about her provider being gone. Her sister-in-law wants to take her son, the bank wants to foreclose on her house, and she's caught in a game of high stakes give-and-take with every man she meets. Her story is that of a femme fatale stripped of glamour- a white-knuckled grasping for a better life. Joan painfully explores her boundaries as she sacrifices everything for her son's future."I'm trying to tell it as it was, not leaving anything out that matters, or putting anything in that isn't true. So, I was two-faced and now I admit it. But, if you're a woman, how about you, what would you have done? If you had exactly been in my shoes, with this opportunity offered you and that little boy to think of, I think you'd have done what I did."James Cain has delivered beautiful vintage noir from beyond the grave; the final genuine article of a bygone era.1) The Seedy UnderworldThe Cocktail Waitress delivers in expected ways: the settings ripped straight from the pulps- dimly lit lounges, skin-clubs of ill repute, and clamshell driveways wrapping luxurious estates."There are livings that don't require you to dress like...a tramp.""Find me one that'll have me and I'll apply. In the meantime, I'm earning good money and all I'm doing for it is bringing people drinks and a bit of food, and a smile to go with them.""Might as well have nothing on but that smile."2) The Anti-HeroJoan Medford is a fantastic narrator. She has a sincerity that is endearing and a candor that grounds the entire novel in poignant reality. Relatively minor daily acts are spellbinding in her voice, because her desperation lends them unmistakable gravitas. Only when I began to doubt her reliability did the full impact of her character resonate- unsettling implications abound when the trustworthiness of the narrator is called into question.3) The Femme FataleIs Joan a femme fatale? I suppose it's left to the reader to decide. As she recites her story, promising to hold nothing back, explaining her desire to set the record straight once and for all, you cannot help but be taken in. This desperate woman who has experienced such hardship plays with your sympathies- You want to trust her. You pull for her throughout the novel because she's the hero right?"Always the same charge, the one Ethel flung at me of being a femme fatale who knew ways of killing a husband so slick they couldn't be proved."4) MisogynyWonderful and horrifying examples of misogyny abound in the novel- Joan understands the roles she must play in the male dominated world she inhabits. She adopts compromising and frequently fraudulent characteristics in order to appease powerful men in her life, ultimately to profit from them. Joan dances to their tune until she can change the song.5) RedemptionJoan reveals very early on that the entire purpose of her story is the hope that it will redeem her good name. Scandal mounts from the first page to the last, ever more incriminating- each detail more harrying than the last. As a reader, we're left with a mouthful of uncomfortable redemption; difficult to swallow.6) EroticismEroticism can quickly feel forced in the clumsy grip of a novice author- especially when it's a male author attempting to define a female character's sexuality. But James Cain seems to dodge these potential pitfalls, delivering a character that feels both authentic and sexually empowered. I never felt that Joan was pandering to the male readers of her story- I felt that she was allowing us a private peek into her most guarded secrets. Her candor delivered a level of eroticism not found in enough of the noir genre."Not just being good looking and young but having a presence to him, a scent almost, that took something loose inside a woman and coiled it up tight."7) Loss of InnocenceAs Joan's situation becomes increasingly dire, and as she realizes the desperate sacrifices she must make, this theme of lost innocence becomes more pronounced. Mrs. Medford's innocence doesn't vanish all at once, its evaporated by the heat of tribulation.8 ) SmokeSolace in smoke. Sometimes the only relief may be found in indulgence. The Cocktail Waitress is a smoke full lounge, burping smoke as the front door bleeds patrons out into the night."You learn, often the hard way, that satisfying a craving is no guarantee you end up satisfied in the long run."9) EmasculationPossibly the most pronounced theme of emasculation I have read in months, The Cocktail Waitress features a main character named Ernest White III. Ernest is a rich older fellow who has developed powerful feelings for Joan. We learn that he has angina, a rare heart condition that makes any form of strenuous activity potentially deadly. Particularly, we learn that if he were to have sex he would die. Mr. White is completely emasculated by his condition- effectively neutered by his inability to perform as a normal man.I was enchanted by The Cocktail Waitress. I felt unusually compelled to read, and I devoured page after page of Joan's wounded narration. Mr. Cain proves yet again that he deserves every distinction he has earned in the genre over the last 60 years.

More roman noir than hard-boiled. It is a page turner but pretty low-brow. The unreliable narrator is Joan the femme-fatale waitress who is mysteriously recounting her tale via a tape-recorder. She gets picked out,shaken up and turned into someone new, eventually finding the world at her feet.The male author(s) struggles as the female narrator; far too much 'pantyhose' and 'fullness' of breast. Cain seems stuck in the 1950's, yet this was 'written' in 1975. So, so redolent of the author's massively superior "Mildred Pierce". The aura of the bar and Joan's double life do not convice. Yet for all these shortcomings it sped by; certainly worth a read. That much is true.

I last read the Cain novels back in the 1980s and thoroughly enjoyed them if indeed one can actually "enjoy" a Cain novel as he takes you on a journey into the dark side of the human psyche. So therefore I was naturally very excited to learn about this final novel.First and foremost I love the evocative hardboiled cover. However the book itself is somewhat slow and laboured. The reader can never be entirely sure Joan Medford fits the role of the classic "femme fatale" and this is possibly due to the the story being written in the first person from her perspective and so inevitably one feels a degree of sympathy for the various situations she keeps finding herself in arguably through no fault of her own. Rather than the scheming predator ruthlessly controlling the men in her life tgo achieve her aim she comes across as a victim at the mercy of men who take advantage of her personal situation for their own advantage .......or is she.....As for the so called "twist" or shock ending unless I missed something completely any reader of a certain age should have spotted warning bells long before the final page.So in summary a good read but definitely not Cain at his best. Anyone new to Cain should start with his classics like "The Postman Always Rings Twice" or "Double Indemnity"

I have just finished reading this and award it 3.5 stars.Other reviewers have given brief summaries of the story. Joan is unlucky in her choice of men and of course in what happens to three of them.Cain as usual can describe succinctly relationships between men and women and can nail sexual encounters like few other hard boiled writers.I was disappointed by the ending but the reader is left with the thought that more heartache would befall Joan in the future.All in all a good read that encourages one to read the next chapter and the next.Not one of Cain's best but well worth reading.

2 dead husbands and a dead loverthe book is narrated by the women accused of murdering all 3 !!!a Cocktail waitress who stands to inherit her latest late husband's fortuneshe maintains her innocenceshe cant help it if men fall for hereven fabulously rich men with dicky heartsmethinks the lady doth protest too much

I was a little nervous about ordering this book because James M. Cain is one of my Top 5 old masters of the genre. My worry was that it would not reach my expectations. Well, I need not have worried. Excellent story telling and not in the least dated. I am happy to say that the author keeps his place in my Top 5. Comfortably-