The Root of his Evil
Published on 21. May 2024
185 pages
978-1-5040-9475-7 (ISBN)
Description
From the author of
Double Indemnity, a tale of an ambitious young waitress whose fairy-tale romance may have an unhappy ending...
Carrie Selden is not at all like the woman you've read about in the papers. Though she spent time in an orphanage, she isn't an orphan. She didn't finish high school until she was nineteen, not because she struggled to make the grade but because she was waitressing tomake the money she needed. . And though Carrie is very cunning, well, she's no femme fatale. But her beauty... oh yes, her beauty is everything you've heard.
At twenty-one, Carrie takes her savings and moves to New York City, landing a job at a diner called Karb's, at the bottom rung of the restaurant chain's tall corporate ladder. Though she makes minimum wage, Carrie is smart, and it isn't long before she starts to climb. When her coworkers unionize, they choose her as president, and from there, the sky is the limit. But just as the union gets underway, she meets a mysterious intellectual named Grant-who will either help her rise to the top, or drag her straight down to hell.
"James M.Cain is one novelist who has something to teach just about any writer, and delight just about any reader." -Anne Rice, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Interview with a Vampire
Carrie Selden is not at all like the woman you've read about in the papers. Though she spent time in an orphanage, she isn't an orphan. She didn't finish high school until she was nineteen, not because she struggled to make the grade but because she was waitressing tomake the money she needed. . And though Carrie is very cunning, well, she's no femme fatale. But her beauty... oh yes, her beauty is everything you've heard.
At twenty-one, Carrie takes her savings and moves to New York City, landing a job at a diner called Karb's, at the bottom rung of the restaurant chain's tall corporate ladder. Though she makes minimum wage, Carrie is smart, and it isn't long before she starts to climb. When her coworkers unionize, they choose her as president, and from there, the sky is the limit. But just as the union gets underway, she meets a mysterious intellectual named Grant-who will either help her rise to the top, or drag her straight down to hell.
"James M.Cain is one novelist who has something to teach just about any writer, and delight just about any reader." -Anne Rice, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Interview with a Vampire
More details
Person
James M. Cain (1892-1977) was one of the most important authors in the history of crime fiction. Born in Maryland, he became a journalist after giving up on a childhood dream of singing opera. After two decades writing for newspapers in Baltimore, New York, and the army-and a brief stint as the managing editor of the
New Yorker-Cain moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s. While writing for the movies, he turned to fiction, penning the novella
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934). This tightly wound tale of passion, murder, and greed became one of the most controversial bestsellers of its day, and remains one of the foremost examples of American noir writing. It set the tone for Cain's next few novels, including
Serenade (1937),
Mildred Pierce (1941),
Double Indemnity (1943), and
The Butterfly (1947). Several of his books became equally successful noir films, particularly the classic 1940s adaptations of
Mildred Pierce and
Double Indemnity. Cain moved back to Maryland in 1948. Though he wrote prolifically until his death, Cain remains most famous for his early work.
