The Butterfly by James M. Cain

(pb; 1946)

From the back cover

“In this story of incest and mistaken identity set in the coal-mining hills of Appalachia, a man estranged from his family for many years finds himself fatally attracted to his daughter when he meets her for the first time as a grown woman.”

Review

Butterfly is a tautly penned, immediately gripping work, with its characters’ emotions and actions starkly stated, its pace and descriptions masterful and its taboo theme effectively flavored with mystery and story-altering twists. Those who might shy away─like I did─from reading this because of possible incest ickiness should consider letting go of their reservations, because Cain tastefully keeps Butterfly within acceptable thriller/mainstream guidelines, while flirting with familial perversion. This is one of the few books I have read where the word perfect is applicable, given its balance of elements and no-words-wasted delivery.

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The resulting film, Butterfly, was released stateside on February 5, 1982. Director Matt Cimber co-authored its screenplay with John F. Goff (billed as John Goff).

Stacy Keach played Jess Tyler. Pia Zadora played Kady. Lois Nettleton played Belle Morgan. James Franciscus played Moke Blue. Anne Dane played Janey.

Edward Albert played Wash Gillespie. June Lockhart played Mrs. Gillespie. Ed McMahon played Mr. Gillespie. George “Buck” Flowers (billed as Buck Flowers) played Ed Lamey. 

Stuart Whitman played Rev. Rivers. Orson Welles played Judge Rauch. Paul Hampton played Norton.

The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson

(pb; 1952)

From the back cover:

"Lou Ford is the deputy sheriff of a small town in Texas. The worst thing people can say against him is that he's a little slow and a little boring. But, then, most people don't know about the sickness -- the sickness that almost got Lou put away when he was younger. The sickness that is about to surface again."

Review:

Killer is a brisk paced, often chilling first-person account, seen from the point of view of the murder-minded Lou Ford. This account takes place during Ford's latest round of assault, robbery and killing. Harsh, gets-under-your-skin stuff that made this reader want to be a little less trusting than usual when dealing with someone who seems exceptionally kind or easy-going.

Check this out.

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Two film versions resulted from this novel. Both versions kept the book's title.

The first version was released stateside in October 1976. Burt Kennedy directed the film, from a screenplay by Ed Mann and Robert Chamblee.

Stacy Keach played Lou Ford. Susan Tyrell played Joyce Lakeland. Tisha Sterling played Amy Stanton. Keenan Wynn played Chester Conway. Don Stroud played Elmer. Charles McGraw played Howard Hendricks. John Dehner played Bob Maples. John Carradine played Dr. Smith. Royal Dano played Father.

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The second version was released stateside on June 8, 2010. Michael Winterbottom directed, from a script by he co-authored with John Curran.

Casey Affleck played Lou Ford. Kate Hudson played Amy Stanton. Jessica Alba played Joyce Lakeland. Ned Beatty played Chester Conway. Elias Koteas played Joe Rothman. Tom Bower played Sheriff Bob Maples. Simon Baker played Howard Hendricks. Bill Pullman played Billy Boy Walker. Matthew Maher played Deputy Jeff Plummer.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers

(hb; 1940)

Review:

Loneliness, racism and the inability to communicate with one’s neighbors dominate this emotional, melancholic landmark novel, which charts a few years in a small American town (ending in 1939). McCullers’s writing is steady and engrossing, though her prose occasionally gets awkward (when describing certain characters’s drunken, entangled thoughts). To McCuller’s credit, though, not many writers could’ve written this novel the way she did, so occasional awkwardness is forgivable – and skimmable.

The characters are wonderfully rendered. The central character is a deaf mute, John Singer, whose mentally sick friend, Spiro Antonapoulos, goes away to a hospital. Shortly after that, Singer finds himself the silent, tolerant, often bewildered depository of his neighbors’s dreams, namely: Mick Kelly, the tomboyish teenage girl who secretly dreams of making music, like the stuff she hears on radio; Biff Brannon, a kindly diner owner whose marriage disintegrated long before his wife’s death; Benedict Mady Copeland, a black doctor whose angry politics are based in race theories, and disappointment in his socially complacent children; Jake Blount, a Marxist alcoholic whose rants favor the labor movement.

Readers seeking an action-oriented, swift-burn-of-a-novel should avoid this; the same goes for those looking for happy escapism, because while there are moments of kindness, unspoken intentions, frustration, poverty and gloom prevail here. That said, I’m glad I read this, because much of what McCullers writes about politics, racism and the “human condition” applies to today’s world.

The ending, consistently melancholic, rambles and disappoints, though McCullers is clearly striving to strike a balancing tone that wraps things up. She fails, but again, it’s a small failing in a novel that has few inked peers.

Effective, if depressing, work.

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The film, was released stateside on July 31, 1968.

Alan Arkin played John Singer. Sondra Locke played Mick Kelly. Stacy Keach, billed as Stacy Keach Jr., played Jake Blount. Chuck McCann played Spiro Antonapoulos. Percy Rodriguez played Dr. Copeland.

Robert Ellis Miller directed, from a script by Thomas C. Ryan.