Serenade Book

[7/10]
Not my favorite novel by Cain. His writing is good, and some scenes really stand out : the introduction of the main characters in a Mexican Cantina, taking shelter in a small church during a storm, an opera concert on a big stadium in Los Angeles, a party in a New York apartment. But I thought the story was too slow, spending too much time building up steam towards a future crash that you feel is coming, but you're not sure from what direction it will hit. I believe it was a deliberate setup, and well executed, and probably I would have appreciated it more if I really cared about the fate of John Howard Sharp.

He's the narrator of the novel, an opera singer who lost his voice and finds himself cast adrift in Mexico without money to pay rent or to eat. Initially, he appears as a smooth operator, street wise and assertive, dominating his woman and skilfully negotiating his Hollywood debut later on. I also greatly enjoyed his classical music disertations: Cain himself has a musical background and puts it to good use in this novel. I'm not really an opera fan, but I listened to most the great recordings, and could follow his points, more or less. What turned me off was what I consider some rather strong racist comments about Mexicans being 'primitive' and about 8000 years behind in the civilization race. He goes on and on about how repulsive he finds their poverty, and how stupid they are, and how lazy. He is also abusive and condescendent towards Juana, despite professing his love for her. Throughout the novel she is only once or twice referred to with her given name, it's always "her" or "she" - something impersonal, alien, an outsider in Sharp self obsessed universe. Again, it is probably a deliberate device on the part of the author, used to accentuate the rift between the lovers later on and the shift in Sharp personality once he gets to New York ( Itry to be a bit vague, in order to avoid spoilers).

I am still unsure if I should characterize Sharp as delusional, split personality or unreliable narrator. I didn't buy into his abrupt translations from assertive, dominant, quick witted man to panic prone, self-destructive schmuck. These two faces have too little common traits to reconcile into the same person.

I'm going to keep trying with James M Cain, because I love his style and his fatalistic approach, even with all the complaints I had about this particular story.