I Married a Dead Man [Mass Market Paperback]

Cornell Woolrich (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (June 12, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345306708
• ISBN-13: 978-0345306708
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,038,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Father of noir, January 30, 2002

By 

Dave Schwinghammer "Dave Schwinghammer" (Little Falls, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I Married a Dead Man (Crime, Penguin) (Paperback)

Cornell Woolrich was the father of film noir and this book certainly reads like it. Think Barbara Stanwyck, who starred in the movie version. One of Woolrich's other stories eventually became REAR WINDOW.
The pacing in the novel is remarkable. At first it almost stops as the girl stands in front of a door and later listens to the dial tone as she tries to reach her lover who has left her pregnant and alone. But then it picks up as the girl heads west on a train, meets a newlywed and her new husband who show her compassion. The train crashes and somehow the two switch places and the girl is summoned back east where she becomes Patrice, the rich girl.
I was also impressed by Woolrich's pronoun usage. He refers to the girl as "she", although she does have a name, Helen. He begins several sentences in a row with the word "she", doesn't worry about varying his paragraph beginnings. Yet, this doesn't bother the reader a bit. Later on when she switches places with the rich girl, she becomes Patrice, so I imagine Woolrich is saying something about social class.
The setting, The Great Depression, adds a lot to the story. When she dials her lover, the girl asks the operator for her nickel back because it's the only money she has. Her former lover does leave her five dollars, along with railroad tickets, but when she boards the train, she's left with only seventeen cents, which she keeps throughout the novel.
I was bothered by the beginning which, in effect, told us how the novel would end. I imagine this was supposed to add suspense, but all it did for me was tell me Patrice and Bill would eventually hook up. Also, that despicable heal Georgesson giving Helen five dollars didn't quite ring true, and I was wondering why he would travel thousands of miles to identify Helen's body when he obviously couldn't care less what happened to her. I can only surmise that Woolrich needed Georgesson to give her the railroad tickets as a plot device (which should be hidden).
The ending will also rattle some cages as the reader must furnish her own. You'll read it over several times, I can guarantee you.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Intense Story of Deception and Murder - Woolrich Classic, January 31, 2004

By 

Michael Wischmeyer (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I Married a Dead Man (Crime, Penguin) (Paperback)

Cornell Woolrich, along with Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain, was a key innovator in the development of the noir genre of crime fiction in the 1930s and 1940s. I Married a Dead Man is considered a classic of this uniquely American genre.

I am fairly new to Cornell Woolrich as I have only previously read one of his novels, the suspenseful The Bride Wore Black. Woolrich wrote a large number of suspense novels, apparently of uneven quality. His best stories are very good and include The Phantom Lady, I Married A Dead Man, and his 'Black' series (so-named from their titles).

The plot for I Married a Dead Man twists and turns in an unpredictable manner. The layered, complex ending is quite good. I was completely unfamiliar with the plot and was continually surprised. If you are new to this book, avoid reading the summary on the dust jacket or elsewhere. Ignorance may not be bliss, but too much knowledge may spoil some of the surprise.

But it won't hurt to think about the seemingly incongruous title. In my limited experience Cornell Woolrich selects his titles carefully. In retrospect, a simple title may suddenly have multiple meanings.

I Married a Dead Man may be best compared to an Alfred Hitchcock movie. And, as matter of interest, Woolrich was the author of Rear Window.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars YOUGOTTAREADTHISONE!, April 27, 2005

By 

T. Gabrielli "Thomas R Gabrielli" (Las Vegas, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I Married a Dead Man (Crime, Penguin) (Paperback)

Last week, I was in-between books, not knowing what to read, and went browsing through my bookshelf. I found a paperback I had bought some 20 years ago, never having read it. It was Woolrich's "The Black Curtain." I was awe-struck. Not only with the plot, but his prose just jumped out at me. After years of Grishoms, Pattersons, Kings, Balduccis,and others, I realized that THIS was what a true genius writes! He uses words that you swear should never belong in some sentences, yet work. Of course, I then went to the library and read "I Married A Dead Man", which was even better. It was like reading a VERY suspenseful film noir script...only better. There is a quote on the cover of this book by Ray Bradbury that reads, "...Woolrich deserves to be discovered and rediscovered by each generation." How true. If you've never read Woolrich's work, you owe it to yourself. And if you have, then you know what I write here is accurate.