James M. Cain is well known to readers of noir fiction from his masterpieces of the 1930s and 1940s. He defined and perfected the genre of dark crime fiction, and his work gave rise to many imitators and numerous movies. However, as fiction deemed to be merely “popular,” Cain’s work long escaped notice from those in academic circles who devote their time to analyzing fiction of the highbrow variety. David Madden is a notable exception; as a faculty member at Louisiana State University, he has long been interested in Cain’s work and its place in American literature and popular culture.

Cain’s Craft is a collection of six essays by Madden loosely centered around Cain’s early fiction and the movies it spawned. Most of the material has been published previously (in a very scarce 1970 book) but it was revised and updated for this volume. The text of this book is reproduced in typewriter font without justified margins.; thus it has the feel of an inexpensive desktop publication.

The six chapters are as follows. Chapter 1, "The Tough and Proletarian Novelists of the Thirties,” compares Cain’s “The Postman Always Rings Twice” with Horace McCoy’s “They Shoot Horses Don’t They” and B. Traven’s “The Death Ship.” (Readers may know B. Traven from his “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”, and film- lovers will be familiar with the corresponding movie as well as the one from McCoy’s novel). Chapter 2 traces Cain’s career as a novelist, focusing in particular on his earlier work. The account is brief, but offers a useful summary.

Chapter 3 is entitled “Cain and the Movies of the Thirties and Forties.” I was interested to find how many movies were based on Cain's novels, notably including films that bear different titles than their progenitors. As portrayed in this book, Cain was far from a success as a screen-writer. The successful movies taken from his novels were adapted by others; for example, Raymond Chandler wrote “Double Indemnity.” Chapter 4, “Cain and the ‘Pure’ Novel” discusses Cain’s best novels in terms of their themes, content, and technique. Surprisingly, Maddow ranks “The Butterfly” (a largely forgotten work) with Cain’s best work (a judgment with which few readers are likely to agree).

Chapter 5 compares Cain’s “The Postman Always Rings Twice” with Camus’ “The Stranger.” The comparison may seem odd, but Cain’s work was well - regarded in France and is thought by some to have influenced Camus’ writing. Madden finds surprising and intriguing similarities between those two novels. Chapter 6 compares Cain’s “Serenade” and Wright Morris’ “Love Among the Cannibals”, in an attempt to explore aesthetics of popular culture in terms of craft and technique. I found this comparison to be rather strained. However, the comparison does raise questions about why some works are deemed literary while others are dismissed as popular fiction. Madden’s early attempts to outline criteria for analyzing “popular” fiction have been advanced and superceded, now that the study of popular culture (for better or worse) has gained legitimacy in US academia.

I acquired and read this book because I love Cain’s early fiction, and sought to understand it in terms of its content, impact, influence, and its place in popular culture. I gained a few insights, but would recommend it only to the most earnest of readers. The material from this book and an earlier book by David Madden recently has been revised and expanded in Madden’s 2011 “James M. Cain: Hard-Boiled Mythmaker,” a book probably more worthy of the reader’s time. ( )