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Read Love's Lovely Counterfeit (2015)

Love's Lovely Counterfeit (2015)

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English
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the world publishing company

Love's Lovely Counterfeit (2015) - Plot & Excerpts

Love, at first real, is made subservient to power. And the people that love are consumed by the greed, and then destroyed.But this is not a drama of epic style, in the prose of James M. Cain it all grows from a trivial setup in a second-rated city somewhere in the middle of America.Ben is a driver of the local minor league mob boss. Forced into the job by his prematurely ended career in football, he harbors grudges for the station in life that the mafioso appointed for him.The book begins at a time when a naive idealist is running a hopeless campaign for a mayor of the city, believing that he will win a mandate to flush the town from corruption and the mafia. His chances gain an unexpected boost by having an inexperienced but enthusiastic June, a commonplace girl, join the campaign.Ben volunteers to June some information about certain recent heist operations, which is used to compromise the mayor. The revelation elevates June's rank in the campaign.In the course of their work together to discover more mud material needed for the election Ben and June fall in love. June more than Ben, and she is ready to sacrifices just so that the relationship can go on.They win the election. The mafia boss flees. Now June can work closely with the new mayor, and the crime landscape in town is free for grabbing.At this point transformation starts. It happens without tension -- the realization that power would smother the love is gradual and sad. That is the great part of this work. The crime landscape of the town is only a decor onto which dismal mutation of character is to take place.The pace of the prose balances supremely well the more intense elements of crime fiction and manages to stay away from the dynamics of a mere page-turner.

I was aware of the author as a primary source for some of my favorite noir movies, so I knid of knew what to expect. Indeed, this is very much a book of its time: 1942. Lake City - an imaginary mid Western town after the prohibition, the gangsters have the police and politicians under their thumb and can act with impunity from a downtown hotel.Enter two young idealists - one man thinking he can escape the consequences of his bad decision of hooking up with a crime lord and one woman thinking that she can change things for the better.James M Cain has the athmosphere and the dialogue down to a T. For him this was contemporary reportage, his daily bread. There's an extraordinary monologue about professional footbal seen from the inside. there's some witty repartees between lovers, the smoky corners of dusty hotels and the vintage car drives through the "mean" streets - everything we've come to associate with the genre.The book is quite short, but that's OK - it tells its story with an economy of style and with restrained emotion that is quite convincing.

What do You think about Love's Lovely Counterfeit (2015)?

"Ligeramente Escarlata" de James M. Cain. Aprovechando la publicación de "Mildred Pierce", recupero este libro que tenía un poco olvidado por ahí del gran escritor de novela negra norteamericano y así le dedico un pequeño monográfico. En este caso nos encontramos con una novela al uso, clásica, con esos ingredientes que definieron al género. Un chófer sirve al gran criminal que maneja todos los hilos del hampa en la ciudad y está emparentado con el alcalde vigente, eso sí, se acercan elecciones y Ben buscará un contacto en el otro candidato para filtrarle lo más sucio del alcalde actual para que gané el otro candidato. Este contacto será una mujer, June Lyons, como de costumbre en las novelas de Cain, las mujeres ayudando a mascar una traición. Esto servirá naturalmente para que, con el nuevo alcalde, Ben pueda convertirse en el nuevo "boss" de la mafia local. Este argumento nos sirve para encontrar esos elementos ineludibles, bajos fondos, asesinatos, traiciones, trapos sucios, ambición, corrupción policial y política, la vida misma. Muy bien narrado y llevado hasta el sorprendentemente almibarado final, aún así, una buena novela y claro exponente de este género que nos apasiona.
—Mariano Hortal

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