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Double Indemnity
Tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful, Double Indemnity gives us an X-ray view of guilt, of duplicity, and of the kind of obsessive, loveless love that devastates everything it touches. First published in 1935, this novel reaffirmed James M. Cain as a virtuoso of the roman noir.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
ebook, 128 pages
Published
January 5th 2011
by Vintage
(first published 1936)
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Ooh la la...the femme fatale...
Intelligent, gorgeous, self-assured and drenched in enough sexual allure to stop a heart at 50 paces. These cold, calculating foxes are nature's consummate predators, guaranteed to ensnare any man by his short and curlies faster and tighter than a rusty zipper. In fact, the only adversary more likely to separate a man from his giblets is the femme bot toting high caliber machine-gun jubblies.
Well, Double Indemnity has one of the most memorable of these vile, vexi...more
Intelligent, gorgeous, self-assured and drenched in enough sexual allure to stop a heart at 50 paces. These cold, calculating foxes are nature's consummate predators, guaranteed to ensnare any man by his short and curlies faster and tighter than a rusty zipper. In fact, the only adversary more likely to separate a man from his giblets is the femme bot toting high caliber machine-gun jubblies.
Well, Double Indemnity has one of the most memorable of these vile, vexi...more
Sep 10, 2012
Jeffrey Keeten
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Jeffrey by:
Pulp Fiction Reading Group
“I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman.”
One of the great Noir lines of all time. Cain wrote it. Raymond Chandler used it in the movie. I could stop my review right here because that line sums up the movie perfectly.
But I can't. I love writing about books.
Walter Huff met a woman. A married woman, a woman Huff would be willing to turn himself inside out if that would insure her love. Her name is Phyllis and she has a thought, not even a plan...more
One of the great Noir lines of all time. Cain wrote it. Raymond Chandler used it in the movie. I could stop my review right here because that line sums up the movie perfectly.
But I can't. I love writing about books.
Walter Huff met a woman. A married woman, a woman Huff would be willing to turn himself inside out if that would insure her love. Her name is Phyllis and she has a thought, not even a plan...more
A day in the life of an insurance salesman, who looks for some extra bucks and meets a woman who wants to make more than just a few bucks. He thinks he knows all the tricks and has a plan, will it work? Hard boiled noir style thriller really keeps you wanting to see how the plan unfolds.
"All right, I'm an agent. I'm a croupier in that game. I know all their tricks, I lie awake nights thinking up tricks, so I'll be ready for them when they come at me. And then one night I think up a trick, and g...more
There's a reason this is a classic and has stood the test of time, and you only have to read the first few pages to fully understand why. It all starts with a delicious chill up your spine, your eyeballs riveted to the page, your breath held, the "gotta know what happens next" monster rattling the bars of his cage. Your first thought: Strap on baby, this is gonna be g-ooood
Cain is a MASTER storyteller: his cutthroat instincts for plot and pacing unerring and enviable. His ear for dialogue is eno...more
I don’t think I’ve ever read a full book in one sitting before, but since it was small (125 pages) and James M Cain wrote an exciting novella; it was quick easy, I needed to know what was going to happen. Double Indemnity tells the story of an insurance agent and a woman who set out to make a lot of money by claim the insurance of the accidental death of her husband. As you probably guessed; her husband’s death was not going to be an accident. James M Cain is the master of the Noir genre, where...more
Sep 30, 2012
K.D. Oliveros
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommended to K.D. by:
501 Must Read Books (Thrillers); 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2010)
"No one has ever stopped reading in the middle of one Jim Cain's book." - Saturday Review of LiteratureThis is true. This is my second Cain and I read this non-stop. Well, that was possible because it was Sunday today and I was just at home.
I liked this better than his other equally popular book, The Postman Always Rings Twice (3 stars). Well, I have not seen the movie adaptation of this book while when I read "Postman," I had already seen and liked the Jack Nicholson-Jessica Lange movie in the...more
Sep 21, 2012
Ed
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
classic-hardboiled-noir,
2012
An insurance agent falls for another man's wife and they end up plotting to kill him for insurance money. Short, sparse and tightly written, this book is everything I love about noir fiction; loser protagonist, femme fatale, "perfect"plots, double, triple, quadruple etc crosses.
Best line of the book, possibly any book,
"I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman."
Nice, if ever noir fiction could be summed up in two sentences it would be these t...more
Best line of the book, possibly any book,
"I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman."
Nice, if ever noir fiction could be summed up in two sentences it would be these t...more
Walter Huff is an insurance salesman who gets mixed up with a man's attractive young wife and together they conspire to murder him. While waiting for the heat to die down, Huff gets involved with the woman's stepdaughter and things spiral out of control...
While I wouldn't go as far as to call this my favorite noir novel, it's definitely as good as, if not better than, The Postman Always Rings Twice. Cain does a phenomenal job building the tension with his minimalist style. It may only be 128 pag...more
While I wouldn't go as far as to call this my favorite noir novel, it's definitely as good as, if not better than, The Postman Always Rings Twice. Cain does a phenomenal job building the tension with his minimalist style. It may only be 128 pag...more
1936. A spare suspenseful story that grabs you from the opening scene.
Insurance agent Walter Huff calls on oil executive client Mr Nirdlinger to renew his policies. Mrs Nirdlinger answers the door in her bathing suit. Huff is hooked. The dame knows it.
What follows is a taut tale of murder, guilt, and betrayal. Huff, a reasonably successful agent, falls into the clutches of the femme fatale for what? Lust? Greed? Weakness? He just falls. Hard. And does her bidding. He's as successful at murder as...more
Insurance agent Walter Huff calls on oil executive client Mr Nirdlinger to renew his policies. Mrs Nirdlinger answers the door in her bathing suit. Huff is hooked. The dame knows it.
What follows is a taut tale of murder, guilt, and betrayal. Huff, a reasonably successful agent, falls into the clutches of the femme fatale for what? Lust? Greed? Weakness? He just falls. Hard. And does her bidding. He's as successful at murder as...more
Sep 29, 2012
Pamela
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who likes a good story
(I think this is the first 5-star review I've given a book for a long, long time.)
Some books are ok. Some are good. And some, like this, are classics. The book is short (around 3 hours on the audio version), but it packs a lot--a whole lot--into a small space.
There are twists, double crosses, and double twists with a cross that turn out not to be a cross after all. Just when you think you've got it all figured out, BAM! Cain sends you spinning off in a different direction.
And the ending.
What ca...more
Some books are ok. Some are good. And some, like this, are classics. The book is short (around 3 hours on the audio version), but it packs a lot--a whole lot--into a small space.
There are twists, double crosses, and double twists with a cross that turn out not to be a cross after all. Just when you think you've got it all figured out, BAM! Cain sends you spinning off in a different direction.
And the ending.
What ca...more
Walter Huff came up with a "genius" scheme to make $50,000. He told the idea to Phyllis Nerdlinger. Mrs. Nerdlinger's husband would be duped to sign an insurance policy with a double indemnity clause. Then they killed him. Well, Huff did it. But Huff was not aware that Dolores wasn't as innocent as she looked. He thought he was puppetmastering the whole scheme. But he didn't. No he didn't. Then Huff's colleague at the insurance agency, the Head of Claims Dept., a man named Keyes began to suspect...more
Jan 26, 2013
Colin Miller
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
short-stories-novellas,
reviewing-commentary
James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity is what noir should be: fast and exciting.
Walter Huff is a great insurance salesman, but when Phyllis Nirdlinger discusses taking out life insurance on her husband, Walter knows this is bad news. He should just walk away, but instead he considers helping her get away with murder. First published in 1935, it’s easy to see why this brief novella was highly influential and why it still holds up today. At 115 pages, you’d expect Cain to build to a simple finale, but...more
Walter Huff is a great insurance salesman, but when Phyllis Nirdlinger discusses taking out life insurance on her husband, Walter knows this is bad news. He should just walk away, but instead he considers helping her get away with murder. First published in 1935, it’s easy to see why this brief novella was highly influential and why it still holds up today. At 115 pages, you’d expect Cain to build to a simple finale, but...more
James M. Cain is one of the smartest, leanest prose stylists of the 20th century. For their time, the pulp novelists were writing soft porn--all the market could bear at the time--and appealed to what was at that time called "prurient interest." Little did most readers know that they were consuming masterful writing at the same time.
I've seen the movie version of Double Indemnity many times, but never read the book until now. Cain investigates the process of murder at a snail's pace, and far fr...more
I've seen the movie version of Double Indemnity many times, but never read the book until now. Cain investigates the process of murder at a snail's pace, and far fr...more
This is one of those books that wound up the victim of its own success. That is to say, I've seen the Billy Wilder movie, and I thought it was better -- it certainly had a much better ending anyway; this one is melodramatic to the point of being nonsensical -- and I also saw Body Heat, which is basically the same story except everything is more sexy and violent and there's a lot of that nudity you only find in movies from the '80s, and also it was filmed during the brief window of time when Kath...more
More a pamphlet than an actual book at 115 pages, this rip roaring noir is a classic that is both a little ridiculous and yet totally satisfying in every way. The action per page ratio is as high as any book I've ever read. And yet Cain still crams in incredible asides like this:
"I stared into the darkness some more that night. I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman."
effectively defining the whole genre.
Yes, as Sally notes, it is occasiona...more
"I stared into the darkness some more that night. I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman."
effectively defining the whole genre.
Yes, as Sally notes, it is occasiona...more
I'm pretty new to noir, the 'potboiler', and certainly to James. M. Cain. I'd heard of Double Indemnity for some years but had never gotten around to reading it before now. It's one hell of a page turner, a novella of slight constitution that nonetheless barrels along telling a quite riveting story of a weak, misguided man totally corrupted by the most cunning and beguiling of women.
Cain's writing is as tight as you can imagine, clinical and sharp with utterly no sense of fat to his prose. In th...more
Cain's writing is as tight as you can imagine, clinical and sharp with utterly no sense of fat to his prose. In th...more
Anche voi, come me, leggete un noir ogni morte di papa o non ne leggete affatto?
Bene, fa niente, chissene, prendete La fiamma del peccato - anche La morte paga doppio - e provate.
Ritmo fascinosamente serrato, macchinazione geniale, peccato solo che le vampate sentimentali dei personaggi assomiglino molto a scosse elettriche infilzate a marionette per scopi chiaramente utilitaristici. Persino divertente il fatto che in questo caso dire "mi sono innamorato di Tizia" non sia reso in modo particolar...more
Bene, fa niente, chissene, prendete La fiamma del peccato - anche La morte paga doppio - e provate.
Ritmo fascinosamente serrato, macchinazione geniale, peccato solo che le vampate sentimentali dei personaggi assomiglino molto a scosse elettriche infilzate a marionette per scopi chiaramente utilitaristici. Persino divertente il fatto che in questo caso dire "mi sono innamorato di Tizia" non sia reso in modo particolar...more
On a short holiday in Montana, I picked up a used copy of this book at a tiny used book store in Whitefish for only $2. I read it all that afternoon -- it's rather short, but a lot is packed into those pages.
As a long-time fan of the movie, I was excited about reading the work which inspired it. As a rule, I generally enjoy comparing books and the films derived from them, as it comparing e.g. the changes that the screenwriter/fimmakers had to make to make the story work on screen can be very edi...more
As a long-time fan of the movie, I was excited about reading the work which inspired it. As a rule, I generally enjoy comparing books and the films derived from them, as it comparing e.g. the changes that the screenwriter/fimmakers had to make to make the story work on screen can be very edi...more
Folks following my feed will detect a trend; I'm a sucker for classic, golden age hardboiled fiction. And really, you don't get any more classic or golden in the realm of hardboiled fiction than James M. Cain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and this one -- "Double Indemnity."
"Double Indemnity" starts innocuously enough, with an insurance salesman and a woman he can't pin down on a policy for her husband. When he goes back to talk to the husband, he gets in a little deeper with the folks at th...more
"Double Indemnity" starts innocuously enough, with an insurance salesman and a woman he can't pin down on a policy for her husband. When he goes back to talk to the husband, he gets in a little deeper with the folks at th...more
I enjoy staying up very late and finishing a very satisfying novel. “Double Indemnity” by James Cain is a fabulous book. I’ve read it before, and I’ll read it again. It’s hugely pleasurable, top-notch fiction of a caliber that’s rarely seen. “Double Indemnity” is such a powerful and intriguing novel that it inspired Camus to write “L’Etranger.” How’s that for influential?
Think of mysteries in the 1930's and you immediately think about hard-boiled crime writers. Cain is one such novelist, but “Do...more
Think of mysteries in the 1930's and you immediately think about hard-boiled crime writers. Cain is one such novelist, but “Do...more
BkC12) DOUBLE INDEMNITY by James M. Cain: I liked the book better than the movie.
I don't think I agree with myself on this one. I like both book and movie, and the movie version is a wonderful treat available free on YouTube. I'll put the two on a par.
Rating: 4.875* of five
The Book Report: Yet again I feel like a fool offering a summary of a story doubtless extremely well-known: Young wife of older, boring man seeks life insurance for the coot from desperately smitten insurance agent. His lust f...more
I don't think I agree with myself on this one. I like both book and movie, and the movie version is a wonderful treat available free on YouTube. I'll put the two on a par.
Rating: 4.875* of five
The Book Report: Yet again I feel like a fool offering a summary of a story doubtless extremely well-known: Young wife of older, boring man seeks life insurance for the coot from desperately smitten insurance agent. His lust f...more
Jun 05, 2011
El
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
early20th-centurylit,
sunday-reading-plan
My first experience with James M. Cain was in high school, I think my Senior year. I was taking a film class which was absolutely awesome because we watched movies. And maybe took a quiz or two on the movies we watched. I actually learned a lot from the class, about films, film-making, what makes films good, etc. The 1944 classic film directed by Billy Wilder, Double Indemnity, was one of the movies we watched.
It was the only movie we watched that I slept all the way through. I remember seeing F...more
It was the only movie we watched that I slept all the way through. I remember seeing F...more
The 1944 film version of James M. Cain‘s Double Indemnity is one of my all-time favorites and perhaps because I haven’t seen it in years is why this book is so refreshing to me. I was frequently surprised by the story’s twists and I found myself wondering what exactly was changed to make the film adaptation, though I am certain many changes were made. This novel just didn’t give me the sense of deja vu I was expecting. I must give it a rewatch some time.
One of the pleasures of reading this novel...more
One of the pleasures of reading this novel...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
The hard-boiled detective story isn't too new of a device anymore, but in the early '40s and '50s, readers were clamoring for these crime dramas starring edgy main characters and sexy or fast-paced dialogue with a smattering of pulpy detective work thrown in. James M. Cain is perhaps one of the more influential of these writers, and you can see his influence at work even in more contemporary crime dramas (I'd say the quips of, say, CSI: Miami perhaps take an interest in the early roman noir).
Do...more
Do...more
For crime novels, it is hard to beat James M. Cain. He has a very direct writing style, pre Hemingway that is very direct and simple. His action comes almost at a machine gun pace. His characters, like most crime fiction, are caught in a nightmare world of naturalism where happiness doesn't really exist and existance seems like a punishment. Why not kill in order to make life just a little better? His situations are Darwinian in the extreme, the heroes only make a show of beleiving in right and...more
A short crime novel first published in serial form in 1936, although it has a more modern feel to it. Could be classified as belonging to the noir subgenre, but to try and categorise the book does not do justice to the originality and brilliance of the writing. In literary terms, a bit like a cross between Macbeth and Crime and Punishment.
Part of the book's brilliance lies in the way Cain re-arranges the normal structure of the crime novel. The narrator, Walter Huff, is an insurance salesman who...more
‘Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money and for a woman. I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman’ – The Noir genre summed up in one sentence of James M. Cain’s wonderful novella.
Walter Huff is a great insurance salesman. Phyllis Nirdlinger is a man eater, a manipulator and the very definition of a femme fatale. Together, they hatch a plan to get rid of Phyllis’ husband and make off with the insurance money using the Double Indemnity clause but some things just never end the way they...more
Walter Huff is a great insurance salesman. Phyllis Nirdlinger is a man eater, a manipulator and the very definition of a femme fatale. Together, they hatch a plan to get rid of Phyllis’ husband and make off with the insurance money using the Double Indemnity clause but some things just never end the way they...more
Wow, this was dark. An insurance agent who thinks he knows all the angles meets an attractive woman who seems to have some interest in him, and in organising her husband's death. Aroused by greed and - well, arousal - he throws his lot in with her and plans what he thinks is the perfect murder-cum-insurance scam. Are there degrees of evil, as the Christian conception of hell with its division into purgatory and inferno would have us believe? In any case, our corrupt little protagonist gradually...more
Insurance agent Walter Huff helps his client Phyllis top off her husband to collect the life insurance policy he just closed off. In order to be paid out the double amount, they have to make sure the man dies in a train accident, which is covered by a 'double indemnity' because of the unlikeliness of such an event.
The murder plot is one of the most intelligently devised set-ups I have ever encountered in any detective book. Just for the sheer cleverness of the thing, you would want them both to...more
The murder plot is one of the most intelligently devised set-ups I have ever encountered in any detective book. Just for the sheer cleverness of the thing, you would want them both to...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pulp Fiction: September 2012 - Double Indemnity | 30 | 59 | Dec 28, 2012 10:26pm | |
| Goodreads Librari...: Can't quite find the right edition? | 3 | 33 | Oct 02, 2011 03:07pm |
James Mallahan Cain was an American journalist and novelist. Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labelling, he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of American crime fiction and seen as one of the creators of the 'roman noir'.
He was born into an Irish Catholic family in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of a prominent educator and an opera singer. He inherited his love for music from h...more
More about James M. Cain...
He was born into an Irish Catholic family in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of a prominent educator and an opera singer. He inherited his love for music from h...more
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“I loved her like a rabbit loves a rattlesnake”
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“I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman.”
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