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Career in C Major and Other Fiction
A final volume of previously uncollected short fiction and dramatic dialogues includes the long out-of-print short novel, "Career in C Major"
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1943
About the author
James M. Cain
169 books891 followersJames Mallahan Cain (July 1, 1892–October 27, 1977) was an American journalist and novelist. Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labeling, he is usually associated with the hard-boiled 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 his mother, but his high hopes of starting a career as a singer himself were thwarted when she told him that his voice was not good enough.
After graduating from Washington College where his father, James W. Cain served as president, in 1910, he began working as a journalist for The Baltimore Sun.
He was drafted into the United States Army and spent the final year of World War I in France writing for an Army magazine. On his return to the United States he continued working as a journalist, writing editorials for the New York World and articles for American Mercury. He also served briefly as the managing editor of The New Yorker, but later turned to screenplays and finally to fiction.
Although Cain spent many years in Hollywood working on screenplays, his name only appears on the credits of three films, Algiers, Stand Up and Fight, and Gypsy Wildcat.
His first novel (he had already published Our Government in 1930), The Postman Always Rings Twice was published in 1934. Two years later the serialized, in Liberty Magazine, Double Indemnity was published.
He made use of his love of music and of the opera in particular in at least three of his novels: Serenade (about an American opera singer who loses his voice and who, after spending part of his life south of the border, re-enters the States illegally with a Mexican prostitute in tow), Mildred Pierce (in which, as part of the subplot, the only daughter of a successful businesswoman trains as an opera singer) and Career in C Major (a short semi-comic novel about the unhappy husband of an aspiring opera singer who unexpectedly discovered that he has a better voice than she does).
He continued writing up to his death at the age of 85. His last three published works, The Baby in the Icebox (1981), Cloud Nine (1984) and The Enchanted Isle (1985) being published posthumously. However, the many novels he published from the late 1940s onward never quite rivaled his earlier successes.
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 his mother, but his high hopes of starting a career as a singer himself were thwarted when she told him that his voice was not good enough.
After graduating from Washington College where his father, James W. Cain served as president, in 1910, he began working as a journalist for The Baltimore Sun.
He was drafted into the United States Army and spent the final year of World War I in France writing for an Army magazine. On his return to the United States he continued working as a journalist, writing editorials for the New York World and articles for American Mercury. He also served briefly as the managing editor of The New Yorker, but later turned to screenplays and finally to fiction.
Although Cain spent many years in Hollywood working on screenplays, his name only appears on the credits of three films, Algiers, Stand Up and Fight, and Gypsy Wildcat.
His first novel (he had already published Our Government in 1930), The Postman Always Rings Twice was published in 1934. Two years later the serialized, in Liberty Magazine, Double Indemnity was published.
He made use of his love of music and of the opera in particular in at least three of his novels: Serenade (about an American opera singer who loses his voice and who, after spending part of his life south of the border, re-enters the States illegally with a Mexican prostitute in tow), Mildred Pierce (in which, as part of the subplot, the only daughter of a successful businesswoman trains as an opera singer) and Career in C Major (a short semi-comic novel about the unhappy husband of an aspiring opera singer who unexpectedly discovered that he has a better voice than she does).
He continued writing up to his death at the age of 85. His last three published works, The Baby in the Icebox (1981), Cloud Nine (1984) and The Enchanted Isle (1985) being published posthumously. However, the many novels he published from the late 1940s onward never quite rivaled his earlier successes.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 5, 2010
The postman doesn't ring twice or even once in this light-hearted comic romp, a sort of benign "Serenade". A meat-and-potatoes wartime engineer suffers his no-talent wife smitten with the opera singing bug until he meets a mysterious prima donna who convinces him he has opera singing talent himself, eventually eclipsing his wife's career. Infidelity abounds but not a whit of larceny or murder. Still, Cain's writing style is immensely readable. This is the kind of movie Evelyn Keyes and Dick Powell used to specialize in at their prime.
August 12, 2017
A vintage domestic thriller by the author of Double Indemnity
October 9, 2012
Career in C major: (Spoilers)
Written in 1937.
I liked this whimsical little novella that mostly poked fun at the opera crowd ... It is sooooo politically incorrect, and while it was intended to be humorous in a 1930's-1950's romantic comedy way, this adds an additional dynamic that will cause you to burst out laughing more than once.
Everyone in his social circle seems smitten with opera and his wife is striving to become a singer herself. Leonard (our first-person protagonist) must look like a movie star, because not only is his wife hot ... but he is maneuvered into meeting a drop-dead gorgeous, and famous Soprano, who has set her sights in his direction.
What we end up with is a torrid affair involving Leonard and his wife's idol; a state of affairs which becomes surprisingly workable, albeit complicated.
At this point, Leonard himself turns out to be the one with natural talent, and the cute soprano begins to builds him into an in-demand Baritone. His public performances are under a stage name, but this is still a recipe for disaster and sets things on a collision course. Everything does blow up toward the end, but Cain provides a sort-of happy ending. In my view, Leonard selected the wrong girl when forced to finally choose ... but such is fictional life.
Notes:
-This story became the basis for two movies, "Wife, Husband, and Friend" (1939), and "Everyone Does it" (1949).
-No one gets shot or seriously harmed; other than our narrator who suffers a brutal beating at the hands of one of his two love-interests. He pretty much deserved it so that was OK.
-I had always thought of opera singers as being on the large side. It turns out that they are young, cute, and hot. ... at least in the world of James M. Cain.
Written in 1937.
I liked this whimsical little novella that mostly poked fun at the opera crowd ... It is sooooo politically incorrect, and while it was intended to be humorous in a 1930's-1950's romantic comedy way, this adds an additional dynamic that will cause you to burst out laughing more than once.
Everyone in his social circle seems smitten with opera and his wife is striving to become a singer herself. Leonard (our first-person protagonist) must look like a movie star, because not only is his wife hot ... but he is maneuvered into meeting a drop-dead gorgeous, and famous Soprano, who has set her sights in his direction.
What we end up with is a torrid affair involving Leonard and his wife's idol; a state of affairs which becomes surprisingly workable, albeit complicated.
At this point, Leonard himself turns out to be the one with natural talent, and the cute soprano begins to builds him into an in-demand Baritone. His public performances are under a stage name, but this is still a recipe for disaster and sets things on a collision course. Everything does blow up toward the end, but Cain provides a sort-of happy ending. In my view, Leonard selected the wrong girl when forced to finally choose ... but such is fictional life.
Notes:
-This story became the basis for two movies, "Wife, Husband, and Friend" (1939), and "Everyone Does it" (1949).
-No one gets shot or seriously harmed; other than our narrator who suffers a brutal beating at the hands of one of his two love-interests. He pretty much deserved it so that was OK.
-I had always thought of opera singers as being on the large side. It turns out that they are young, cute, and hot. ... at least in the world of James M. Cain.
September 23, 2012
Mostly mediocre collection of short pieces, with introductory notes by a Cain scholar. I've enjoyed Cain up till now and am a bit worried about a comment in the notes that Cain's work after the late 1930's never reached the same levels as his first few (excellent) novels.
June 23, 2016
Mostly forgettable vignettes and small pieces. The titular piece was a nice little story on the ego and lives of opera singers, a subject near and dear to Cain's heart. Nice story but the collection as a whole is a lot of filler.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews