Customer Reviews

Serenade (Crime Masterworks)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If not in the top 10, certainly among the top 100 best books I have ever read. Absolutely stunning images, an entirely unique plot, and a whole new meaning to the song "Cielito lindo."

"Postman" was OK, but I think "Serenade" was Cain's masterpiece. It compares favorably with Charles Willeford's "The Way We Die Now", which is high praise indeed.

One of the greatest love stories ever written, in my mind. Full of aggression, cynicism, pace but also of passion. His picture of pre-War Mexico is magical, if somewhat seedy. It is a tragedy that it is out of print - the Postman Always Rings Twice shadowed this more sophisticated, but just as readable novel, due to the Film.

Everyone should read three James M. Cains: "The Postman Always Rings Twice," "Double Indemnity," and "Serenade." His writing reached its peak with these three. The first two are hard-boiled and terse and nasty, and they move like bullets to their sordid ends. But "Serenade" is almost lyrically operatic, in keeping with the soap opera that is the protagonist's love life. This tremendously forward-looking and unpredictable (and brief and economical) book melds a number of Cain's loves into a tapestry of nearly ludicrous proportions. Read it! You won't be disappointed.

Fantastic evocation of down and out-er in Mexico; but the plot becomes so unbelieveable insofar as a hobo miraculously becomes a Hollywood star only to scorn a 3 movie contract for stupid reasons. Cain tries too hard maybe to blend Chandler and Hemingway. This also shows the limitations of 1st person narration. Eventually, I couldn't stand the "Then I did this. . . Then I did that" so many times on the same page. Runs around too much to get to a fairly predictable ending.

Serenade by James M. Cain, the story of an opera singer, has an ambitious, over-the-top plot. A plot which, quite befittingly, could be turned into a pretty good modern day opera.
As the novel opens, John Howard Sharp, once the toast of Europe because of his magnificent operatic voice, is now penniless in Mexico. He meets and falls in love with an illiterate prostitute who turns his life around. Together, they enter the United States, where Sharp's singing ability again brings him fame and wealth. But, Sharp carries the seed of tragedy within him and by novel's end tragedy is in full bloom.
Had Serenade been written in today's world, it would correctly be criticized as homophobic and racist (toward Mexicans). But, when first published in 1937, it must have been described as risque and avant garde. This is a bold, full speed ahead example of fiction writing. Despite its over-the-top storyline, Serenade is well worth reading.

'Serenade' is one of the oddest books I've read, and unfortunately it is not among the author's better efforts. Although quite readable and, at fleeting moments, very interesting I found 'Serenade' to be a rambling mess. The characters were not well developed, or believable, and the plot was absolutely ludicrous. I think it would be merciful for fans of James M. Cain, and indeed mankind, to let 'Serenade' and his equally miserable 'The Butterfly' go quietly out of print.

Oh, let me add some words about the plot. We have a washed up American opera star trying to scratch a living in Mexico, circa 1935. He meets a prostitute, falls in love, then brings her back to America. Miraculously his voice is restored to Caruso-level brilliance. Oh, they then run into misadventure. And we also discover our opera star had a homosexual dalliance with a rich British promoter. Shock, horror, boredom.

Bottom line: a real mess.

Taken in parts or out of the context of when it was written, this book could offend some sensibilities.

Taken as a whole, this book can be compared to a spur of the moment road trip through the hills and backcountry that goes tragically awry. And a trip it is, filled with twists and turns that were certainly not on the map! Enjoy!

Compared to his earlier and much better The Postman Always Rings Twice, which tells a story as taut and inevitable as a Greek tragedy, James M. Cain's Serenade offers a plot as giddily rococo and improbable as the grandest of operas. I suppose that's appropriate, as this is the only hard-boiled novel I know of that features an opera singer hero/narrator; he may sing Rossini, but he talks like the sort of tough guy Bogart and Mitchum used to play. The settings have an operatic range as well, running the gamut from a verismo account of Depression-era Mexico to a phantasmagorically high-camp vision of New York's 1930s gay bohemia.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid I'm making this book sound like more fun than it is. The last third of this relatively short novel explores an intense, unusual (and, I suppose, daring for its time) sexual triangle leading to a crime and its ultimate punishment. The first two-thirds, however, are slow-going, as we follow John Howard Sharp, a down-and-out opera singer in Mexico, as he falls in love with Juana, an Aztec princess variant on the prostitute-with-a-heart-of-gold theme. After a brief romantic idyll in an empty church on the way to Acapulco, during which Sharp displays the sort of wilderness survival skills not seen since the heyday of James Fenimore Cooper (and at the same time regains his singing voice), the pair flee north to Los Angeles, where Sharp becomes the overnight star of Nelson Eddy-esque Hollywood musicals.

Then the story gets good. Dissatisfied with his success in movies, Sharp comes to New York to sing at the Met (Juana comes along to take night school classes in English) and reencounters his old mentor/tormentor Winston Hawes, a fabulously wealthy composer, conductor and apostle of the love that dared not speak its name (at least back in 1937). While the plot from here is riveting without being particularly surprising, I don't want to give anything away.

If the whole novel were as good as this last section, it would merit at least another star. However, if you are easily offended by outmoded social attitudes toward Mexicans and gays (in other words, if you don't read anything that borders on the racist or homophobic), please deduct a star or avoid this book altogether. For my part, I certainly think Serenade deserves to be in print, although I'd say anyone new to Cain would do well to read Postman and Double Indemnity first.

I enjoyed the first 2/3 of the book, although the racist epitaphs and negative descriptions of Mexicans and other foreigners were turning me off. But I was enjoying the flavor and style of the book. There are some really beautiful, poetic passages; The one in the church during the rainstorm, and his emtpy attempt to reinforce his sexuality with a prostitute. However, in the last third, where the plot took a left turn into the writers latent homosexuality (All men have 5% of that in them!) and his mexican prostitute/lover's reaction to that, the book completely lost me. The book immediately seemed dated,and the whole plot twist seemed awkward and forced. It pretty much ruined the book for me as far as the change of tone, and the whole ridiculousness of the twist. But, for 1937 I guess it was 'daring' and risque'. By todays standards it seemed pretty silly and naive. I like Cain, but this won't be on my top shelf. Nicely written and paced, but kind of like watching "Reefer Madness".