Mildred Pierce
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 5/16/2019
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 5/16/2019 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this paperback at a local Savers thrift shop, for another release copy.
I'd enjoyed the film version (the one that got Joan Crawford an Oscar), and as author James M. Cain was also responsible for such wondeful noirs as Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice I figured I'd like to try this one.
And wow! I hadn't expected quite so much suburban-angst and casual infidelity - never mind the desperation of a wife and mother with no job training at all having to find a job in a climate where there were few openings for women, and most of the legal ones very low-paying. I could feel the blows to Mildred's pride, and even though she wasn't all that likable a character herself, her situation wasn't good.
She's also saddled with one prickly head-case of a daughter, not to put too fine a point on it. While young Ray is a sweet, biddable child, Veda is even more proud than her mother, and unwilling to accept any compromises regarding their living conditions. [I should note that she has one all-consuming passion of her own that her mother promises but can't provide; it's the one thing that seemed to make Veda come out of herself. Would things have been different if Mildred had been able to follow through on that agreement? Hard to say... But if Mildred had been able to control her own obsessive devotion to Veda it would have been a lot better for both of them.]
Much of the story involves the way Mildred parlays her gifts at baking into a successful restaurant; there are pages of detail on prices [though it hurts to see the 1930s prices: three chickens for a dollar, that kind of thing], and descriptions of the process of finding a location, furnishing it, doing preparation and meal service... Possibly more than one would really want to know, but it certainly established how hard Mildred was working! And it makes the climax that much more painful.
There are some key changes between the book and the film, some of them having to do with the pacing of events, and some major ones regarding the end of the story. [More impact in the film; something more resignedly-believable in the book.] Mildred seems to have lapses of judgement at the worst possible times, and Fate doesn't give her many breaks...
[There's a TV Tropes page on the film and book, with some entertaining tidbits.]
I'd enjoyed the film version (the one that got Joan Crawford an Oscar), and as author James M. Cain was also responsible for such wondeful noirs as Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice I figured I'd like to try this one.
And wow! I hadn't expected quite so much suburban-angst and casual infidelity - never mind the desperation of a wife and mother with no job training at all having to find a job in a climate where there were few openings for women, and most of the legal ones very low-paying. I could feel the blows to Mildred's pride, and even though she wasn't all that likable a character herself, her situation wasn't good.
She's also saddled with one prickly head-case of a daughter, not to put too fine a point on it. While young Ray is a sweet, biddable child, Veda is even more proud than her mother, and unwilling to accept any compromises regarding their living conditions. [I should note that she has one all-consuming passion of her own that her mother promises but can't provide; it's the one thing that seemed to make Veda come out of herself. Would things have been different if Mildred had been able to follow through on that agreement? Hard to say... But if Mildred had been able to control her own obsessive devotion to Veda it would have been a lot better for both of them.]
Much of the story involves the way Mildred parlays her gifts at baking into a successful restaurant; there are pages of detail on prices [though it hurts to see the 1930s prices: three chickens for a dollar, that kind of thing], and descriptions of the process of finding a location, furnishing it, doing preparation and meal service... Possibly more than one would really want to know, but it certainly established how hard Mildred was working! And it makes the climax that much more painful.
There are some key changes between the book and the film, some of them having to do with the pacing of events, and some major ones regarding the end of the story. [More impact in the film; something more resignedly-believable in the book.] Mildred seems to have lapses of judgement at the worst possible times, and Fate doesn't give her many breaks...
[There's a TV Tropes page on the film and book, with some entertaining tidbits.]
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Little Free Library, Exeter Rd in Hampton, New Hampshire USA on Thursday, May 16, 2019
GoryDetails at Little Free Library, Exeter Rd in Hampton, New Hampshire USA on Thursday, May 16, 2019
Released 4 yrs ago (5/17/2019 UTC) at Little Free Library, Exeter Rd in Hampton, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I left this book in this lovely new Little Free Library in Hampton NH; hope someone enjoys it![See other recent releases in NH here.]
*** Released for the 2019 Mothers Day release challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2019 Movie release challenge. ***
