Why read Mildred Pierce?

Book cover of Mildred Pierce

Book description

In Mildred Pierce, noir master James M. Cain creates a novel of acute social observation and devasting emotional violence, with a heroine whose ambitions and sufferings are never less than recognizable.

Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone-deep core of toughness. She used those…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Mildred Pierce as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Glenn Kaplan

Author

Mildred starts out trying to fulfill all the traditional roles society expects of women as a wife and mother. But she discovers, through travails, that she is too smart, too talented, and too natively ambitious to settle for those limitations. As Mildred gains success in the “man’s world,” she becomes the provider for everyone around her. She learns the bitterest lessons imaginable as her men and her daughter, first use her, then betray her. Against her will, Mildred Pierce becomes a fearless female in a cold cruel world. She triumphs in the end as a woman of courage, relying not…

From Glenn's list on The best fearless females in fiction.