 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | James M. Cain |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Hardboiled novel |
| Publisher | Mysterious Press |
Publication date | 1985 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-0892961436 |
The Enchanted Isle is a novel by James M. Cain published by The Mysterious Press in 1985. [1]
The 16-year-old Amanda "Mandy" Vernick recounts the events of The Enchanted Isle in this first-person narrative. Her self-image is centered on her physique, described by Mandy as "five foot two, 36-24-35, 105 pounds, blond hair, blue eyes" and figure she calls "extra good". She has endured her stepfather Steve Baker's physical and quasi-sexual abuse since puberty, with the tacit consent of her biological mother. She runs away when she discovers that her 30-year-old mother is having a secret affair with a wealthy man named Wilmer. She runs away to Baltimore in search of her biological father, with whom she hopes to bond and abscond to a remote tropical island, the "Enchanted Isle" of the book's title. En route to Baltimore, Mandy pairs up with Rick, like Mandy, a disaffected youth. When her "biological" father denies his paternity, she and Rick perpetrate a bank robbery. They escape, but Rick flees with the money and Mandy is compelled to return home. There, she discovers that Wilmer is in fact her biological father. In an act of vengeance, the young Rick guns down Steve and Mandy's mother, fulfilling Mandy's secret Electra complex.
The manuscript for The Enchanted Isle did not reach the desk of Knopf's editor William Koshland, as Cain's own literary agents, Dorothy Olding and Ivan van Auw, did not consider the work publishable. Cain began to wonder if he was "through as a novelist". [2]
Cain's Hollywood contact, Harold Norling Swanson, attempted to interest the movie studios in the novel. He changed the manuscript title to "The Mink Coat", emphasizing the topicality of a story dealing with "kids who run away from home these days". Hollywood showed no interest and the novel was never adapted to film. [3]
The Enchanted Isle was published by The Mysterious Press in 1985, the last of his works to appear in print during his lifetime. His final novel, The Cocktail Waitress (2012) was published posthumously. [1] [4] [5]
Cain long-time friend and admirer Ruth Goetz at Knopf publishers, after reading a draft of The Enchanted Isle, exhorted Cain to "get back to those wonderfully seedy, lousy no-goods that you have always understood so wonderfully and written so superbly". [3] [6] [7] Literary critic Paul Skenazy comments on the misanthropy evident in Cain's The Enchanted Isle:
Cloud Nine (1984) and The Enchanted Isle are more humanly demeaning than the earlier works because they seem unredeemed by any emotional investment...[these novels] are objectionable because they titillate just for the fun of it. Cain seems less to be pandering to the public than writing for himself. The world he sees and understands and can represent in fiction has devolved into a perverse little community of nasty creatures displaying themselves in an outdated set of literary conventions. [6]
Mildred Pierce is a psychological drama by James M. Cain published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1941.
James Mallahan Cain was an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter. He is widely regarded as a progenitor of the hardboiled school of American crime fiction.
The Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1934 crime novel by American writer James M. Cain. The novel was successful and notorious upon publication. It is considered one of the most outstanding crime novels of the 20th century. The novel's mix of sexuality and violence was startling in its time and caused it to be banned in Boston.
Double Indemnity is a 1943 crime novel by American journalist-turned-novelist James M. Cain. It was first published in serial form in Liberty magazine in 1936 and later republished as one of "three long short tales" in the collection Three of a Kind. The novel later served as the basis for the film of the same name in 1944, adapted for the screen by the novelist Raymond Chandler and directed by Billy Wilder.
Three of a Kind is a collection of three novellas by James M. Cain, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1943. Each originally appeared as serials in magazines during the 1930s. The collection includes Double Indemnity, first published in 1935 as a serial for Liberty magazine; Career in C Major, originally entitled "Two Can Sing" when it appeared in The American Magazine in 1938; and The Embezzler, appearing in Liberty as "Money and the Woman", also in 1938.
Serenade is a novel by James M. Cain published in 1938 by Alfred A. Knopf. and one of four Cain novels to feature opera as a plot device. Loosely based on Bizet's Carmen, the story explores the sources of artistic development, in particular the role played by sexual orientation in the development of artistic talent.
Love's Lovely Counterfeit is a hard-boiled short novel by James M. Cain published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1942. The story is set in a Midwestern town where rival gangsters struggle to maintain control of their criminal enterprises. The work is one of only three of Cain's novels told from the third-person point-of-view.
Past All Dishonor is a historical novel by James M. Cain published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1946. The story is set during the American Civil War concerning a tragic love affair between a Confederate spy and a mining-camp prostitute in California and Nevada. The novel, praised by many critics, was one of Cain's most profitable literary successes.
The Butterfly is a hard-boiled novel by author James M. Cain published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1947. The story is set in rural West Virginia in the late 1930s and concerns a mystery surrounding an apparent case of father and daughter incest.
Sinful Woman is a detective novel by James M. Cain that appeared originally as a paperback in 1947 by Avon publishers. Sinful Woman was the most commercially successful of three paperbacks Cain wrote for Avon in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Galatea is a romance novel by James M. Cain published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1953. The story alludes to the mythological Galatea in which the sculptor Pygmalion falls in love with the ivory figure of a woman he has crafted. In Cain’s modernized version of the Greek legend, an overweight woman is transfigured through a program of weight reduction into a goddess-like beauty.
The Root of His Evil is a novel by James M. Cain published in paperback by Avon in 1951.
The Moth is a novel by James M. Cain published in 1948 by Alfred A. Knopf. The work is the last of Cain’s four novels to feature opera as a central element of the story; the others are Serenade (1937), Mildred Pierce (1941) and Career in C Major (1943) At over three-hundred pages, The Moth is Cain’s “most personal, most ambitious and longest book” in his oeuvre, attempting to convey a “broad, social landscape” of America in the 1930s.
Mignon is a historical novel by James M. Cain published by the Dial Press in 1962. Along with Cain's Past All Dishonor (1946), Mignon is one of his two historical novels set during the American Civil War.
Cain X 3 is a collection of three previously published novels by James M. Cain, reissued in 1969 by Alfred A. Knopf, with an introduction by Tom Wolfe.
Rainbow’s End is a crime novel by James M. Cain published in 1975 by Mason-Charter publishers, with an introduction by Tom Wolfe
The Institute is a novel by James M. Cain published in 1976 by Mason-Charter. The Institute is a story of academia and high finance set in the community of College Park, Maryland concerning members of the Washington, D. C. political establishment.
Cloud Nine is a hard-boiled detective novel by James M. Cain published in 1984 by Mysterious Press.
Jealous Woman is a mystery novel by James M. Cain published in 1950 by Avon publishers.
The Cocktail Waitress is a novel by James M. Cain published posthumously in 2012 by Hard Case Crime press.