Tucci's performance of "Postman" is exquisite!

I have long been a huge fan of James M. Cain, having read several times his best novels: The Postman Always Rings Twice; Double Indemnity; and Mildred Pierce. Stanley Tucci's reading of The Postman Always Rings Twice was absolutely terrific! His intonations, accents, emphases, pauses--every aspect of his performance is spot on, as he catches subtle nuances that a less sensitive reader might easily miss. I cannot overemphasize how satisfying this audio version of Cain's classic novel is. First-rate, in every way.

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9 people found this helpful

Underwhelming

This book did not age well. It may have been regarded as important and novel in its time, but the blatant racism and lack of character complexity leaves much to be desired. The characters are flat, two-dimensional parodies of who they were supposed to represent. This book had lots of reviews in the noir circle that made me want to give it a go, but I found it underwhelming at best. Admittedly, the narration is a great example of the noir genre, but I expected more depth.

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5 people found this helpful

Cain always good

It's hard to go wrong with this one. good narration. great noir/existential story. a classic and another that i can return to and enjoy many times. Cain is great and look forward to newly discovered Waitress.

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3 people found this helpful

good but frustrating

struggled to understand which character was speaking some of the time because of the speaker.

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2 people found this helpful

performance was great!

the narration of this audio book was great! I was a little skeptical if such a short book would grab me but this one kinda did, I wish it just had more meat to it. over all though it was a great quick listen.

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1 person found this helpful

Hard to Follow Performace

Never read the book and haven’t seen the movie version yet. I enjoyed the story, but Stanley Tucci doesn’t give a great performance of the material. Another reviewer already commented it was hard to tell a lot of the time who was talking. He gives accents to two of the characters, but the two main ones, male and female, talk back and forth a lot and there is no different of inflection between the two.

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1 person found this helpful

Wow!

I was amazed at how brief, but packed this book was...I had heard about it for years, but never read it..Sparse, evocative, brutal and heart-wrenching...Stanley Gucci gave a no-nonsense, expert reading..no frills, straight to the bone...Noir at it's best...I'll be reading the rest of McCain...

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1 person found this helpful

Wickedly fun and well narrated

I liked everything about this dark story with lots of twists and turns in the plot. I am new to this author and highly recommend him to someone who would like discovering a new author. All four of Cain's audiobooks that I have heard have the uncanny trait of outstanding narration. I wish other book narraters were as expertly chosen.

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1 person found this helpful

Keep your credit and your time

This was the dumbest stupidest clumsiest weirdest cheesiest most unhinged ridiculous story. Like. No other words would suffice. If I gave it an actual articulation of the book then I would be giving it some logical energy use from me and that would make me more stupid than the stupidness and terribleness of this terrible story. Like horrible. How is this on the list of the greatest mystery psychological thrillers??? IT JS SO BAD. No character development or anything linking one thought or plot to the best web

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Great Noir for Starters

I had never read a noir novel. This book is a great introduction to those exploring the genre. I did some research along the way, since the vocabulary is becoming a little antiquated. It was a basic story with standard characters but American literature, especially around this time, focuses on the internal struggles and character psychology. (That’s why some readers found this to be a boring story.) If you want action, don’t look for it here. Noir and this book shows the dim side of American life and the bleak struggles the characters go through. Great quick read!

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