One of the craziest books I've ever read. So crazy it deserves a spoilery synopsis. Spoilers to follow:Johnny is a down and out American singer in Mexico. Once he was a success in Europe, but he lost his voice and now he's broke. Also he's really bigoted. It's good to be prepared for that instead of hit in the face with his racist description of his love interest, Juana, on the very first page. Juana's a prostitute he steals from a bullfighter, but when he gets to her place and sings to her a bit, she suddenly says he should go.A few weeks later, though, she asks if he wants a job working in the whorehouse she's planning to start in Acapulco and they set off together. After ditching her parents rudely, they get caught in a rainstorm and take refuge in a church. She describes his singing voice as being like a priest's, which he doesn't appreciate. Then he rapes her (but "only technically, brother," because she totally wants it), and after that they're in love. Even better, his voice comes back!They go back to America where he starts his career again. He goes into the movies--Swain includes truly hilarious synopsis of fake Hollywood B-movies built around stock footage. His two hits "Woolies" (sheep in the snow) and "Paul Bunyan" (Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade) make him a big star. He even pressures the studio into a pricey contract for 3 pictures. Then the Met calls and wants him to perform opera and he'd rather do that, but the head of the studio tells him opera's finished, see, and he doesn't want him performing. So he takes Juana to New York and performs anyway. He hated Hollywood, especially after he takes Juana to a party and everyone is rude to her (i.e., even more racist than he is!).This gets him into hot water with his contract, not to mention the radio show that planned a whole ad campaign with him based on the Paul Bunyan "My Pal Babe" number. Enter an old aquaintance, a wealthy producer our hero worked with in Europe before he lost his voice. "Worked with?" Hmmmm...maybe more than that. Winston, it turns out, kind of owns the studio and is behind a lot of Johnny's troubles. He fixes the contract problem but insists Johnny sing in a big gala he's throwing. Johnny's nervous about performing--what if Juana figures out what's really going on? You might think he was safe since every other one of Juana's lines is "I no understand," but she tumbles to the whole thing right away. Juana might not be able to figure out how to wear a hat or how contracts work how remember it's cold in New York in the winter, but she knows when two men are former lovers.Remember when Johnny first went to Juana's place and sang for her and she sent him home? It was because she could hear the gay in his voice. Gay men can't sing. Their voices aren't manly. They sing like priests. Or cows. That's why she sent him away. But she did think he'd make a good bouncer at her whorehouse and that's why she contacted him again. Then he raped her and that was very manly and she liked it a lot! (Yes, she actually says this.) So she thought she was wrong. But now Winston is here and he's already losing his voice again. Gay men can't sing! (This must be why Broadway is struggling.)Not that Johnny is gay, he explains. Every man has 5% of gay in him, and Johnny was just unlucky enough to meet the one guy in the whole world that would bring it out in him. Juana devotes herself to keeping Johnny straight. Winston moves into their building and has gay parties and tries to make Johnny jealous. He invites them to a party while secretly arranging to have Juana deported so he can have Johnny for himself! But they find out about the plan. Juana entertains all the lesbians who act like men and gay men who act like sissies at the party with bullfighting stories and does a mock bullfight with Winston where he's the bull. Then she spears him through the head adn sticks him to the couch. Ole! That's what Johnny wants to cry. She's killed the gay in him! Despite being Mexican and Native American, Juana is awesome!Now they have to flee. Johnny insists on going with Juana. He struggles with not being able to sing anymore for fear of someone recognizing him. (He even has a brief moment of gay panic when he wonders if he's too admiring of a baseball player--don't worry, Winston took Johnny's shameful gay to the grave with him.) Eventually Juana goes back to Mexico and hooks back up with the bullfighter. He chases her. The bullfighter mocks him for being a fairy, he gets mad and sings in his manly voice (proving he is totally not gay!), he gets recognized and Juana gets killed. Did I lie? Craziest book ever.
A former roommate left behind an antique, water-damaged collection of three of Cain's novels. I recently stumbled on it, and having seen movie versions of two of the three novels, I opted to read "Serenade," the movie version of which (starring Mario Lanza) I haven't seen. (The movie apparently bears little relation to the novel.) I've now perused a few, in my view, PC takes on "Serenade," but I can't agree with them. This is pulp, and the attitudes in the book, however offensive, not only strike me as rooted in character but as reflective of 1937, when "Serenade" was published. As pulp goes, it's not bad, particularly once the action shifts from Mexico to Hollywood and New York. I much prefer this book to the Jim Thompson novels I've read. ("I'm Lou Ford. There's a killer inside me, but I've also got a ridiculously high IQ. Here, I'll prove it by beating my girlfriend to death while doing fancy arithmetic in my head. Let's see here: 5(-3x - 2) - (x - 3) = -4(4x + 5) + 13. Boy, this is fun. I love violence almost as much as I love having a high IQ.") The next time I have a hankering for pulp (and I don't have it often), I'll have to reach for Cain and give Thompson a pass. Indeed, there's a copy of "Savage Night" on my table that's been sitting there for over a year, but I just can't bring myself to pick it up.
What do You think about Serenade (1978)?
i picked up this book at a thrift store, one of the original pressings of it and thought that it was a find. i absolutely loved the grit of double indemnity and the postman always rings twice. i thought that this would be the same, but instead i found a book rife with racial epithets and racial slants and a ridiculous amount of loathing, both of the world and himself. it seemed like a reflection of the author and not of the character in the book. i was sorely disappointed in this book becaus ei expected it to be more than a lower-rent john fante.
—William Thomas
I had given a poor rating to a James Cain book, and I thought I would never hear the end of it. So, I went out and bought 3 of his earliest. I liked this book. He does have a style of writing that pulls you in to the scene and that makes you feel the characters. The story was a little too long for me considering the short plot. An opera singer, down in his career, sees a Mexican indigenous woman and cannot get her out of his mind. She offered him hope, and he takes it after shuffles with local men She is a prostitute. They move around. He becomes famous again. But, a conductor, he had been with in earlier years, shows up to thicken the plot - three people woven together in a plot of love/hate/lust... Not a thriller for me, but a decent read.
—SUSAN OWEN GLASER
The following review contains spoilers . . . if you do not want to know the general contours of Serenade's plot, read no further . . . Opera singer John Howard Sharp is a self-loathing homosexual who wants to believe he is like any other man. At one point he protests that all men are 5% gay but that most men are fortunate enough not to meet that special someone who triggers that 5%. Unfortunately for John, he has met that special someone, and it turns out that homosexual activity has the little-known side effect of ruining a man's ability to sing. Therefore, John takes drastic measures, raping his way back into the world of heterosexuality and thereby reclaiming his singing voice. When his rape victim falls in love with him, all seems right with his world, until his gay ex-lover turns out to be an effete but vengeful predator. A regrettable novel in many ways . . . worth reading only as a period piece.
—David
