Written in 1948, "I Married a Dead Man" by Cornell Woolrich (1903 -- 1968) is a noir novel of suspense and murder. The book is much more than formulaic genre writing as Woolrich explores themes of guilt, loneliness, and personal identity. The pacing of the story changes masterfully with the various twists in the story. The book shows the variety of settings that can be used for noir. Rather than isolated small towns and back roads or the underside of large cities, Woolrich places his story in an upper-middle class California town called Caufield.The primary character is a young woman named Helen, 19. Woolrich does not reveal her birth surname. Born in San Francisco to a poor, broken family, the naive young woman travels to New York City where she meets and becomes pregnant by a caddish gambler, Steve Georgesson. who crudely leaves her a one-way train ticket back to her home together with $5.00 cash.On the train, Helen befriends a young couple, Hugh and his pregnant wife Patrice. When the train derails, killing Hugh and Patrice and resulting in Helen's premature delivery, Helen becomes mistaken for Patrice and reluctantly assumes her identity, as she is welcomed into the family by Hugh's parents and Hugh's younger brother Bill in their comfortable near-idyllic Caufield home.The book describes Helen's discomfiture at living a lie. Bill falls in love with her. Georgesson has kept track of Helen's whereabouts. He attempts to blackmail Helen with the threat of revealing her identity, which leads to the murder and to the tangled denouement of the story.The plotting may have its questionable elements, but Woolrich is much more interested in exploring the nature of guilt, deceit, and their consequences. Besides creating an atmosphere of tension and disorientation, Woolrich's third person narrative voice (in most of the book) offers many sidelong observations about his characters and the consequences of their action. The "dead man" of the title assumes a metaphorical character as the lovers Helen (Patrice) and Bill become dead to each other through guilt and shame. In many respects, "I Married a Dead Man" is an almost religious novel (without a clear God) about sin and its consequences. I found it riveting, thoughtful, and heartbreaking.Woolrich was a prolific noir writer whose other works include the story "Rear Window." His novel was the basis for a 1950 film "No Man of her Own" starring Barbara Stanwyk. In 1996, another much looser film adaptation of Woolrich's novel appeared, titled, "Mrs. Winterbourne." "I Married a Dead Man" is available in a stand-alone edition and in the Library of America's volume of classic noir, "Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s". In its portrayal of guilt and rootlessness, it is a small American classic.Robin Friedman
Cornell Woolrich è uno dei più grandi giallisti americani. Ne ho lette tante delle sue storie crime, ma è questo il romanzo che me lo ha fatto adorare. HO SPOSATO UN'OMBRA ha saputo appassionarmi e coinvolgermi gradualmente. Il personaggio di Helen mi ha portata a guardare nell'incubo. È un giallo mozzafiato che si trasforma progressivamente in un thriller serrato dove niente è lasciato al caso. È la storia di come può essere complicato e pericoloso trasformarsi in qualcun altro.Helen è una donna qualunque con tanti problemi, che di giorno in giorno arrivano a schiacciarla. Da sola, senza un soldo e con un figlio in arrivo, tutto quel che le rimane è un biglietto ferroviario per San Francisco, che qualcuno le ha dato per togliersi di torno. Ma è su quel treno che incontra il suo destino, sotto le sembianze di una coppia di sposini. Con la solare Patrice nasce una simpatia istintiva e le due diventano subito amiche. Poi il mondo va sottosopra. Accade uno spaventoso incidente. Tutto diventa buio e Helen si risveglia in un letto d'ospedale. La attendono tre notizie sconvolgenti: ha partorito negli istanti del disastro, i suoi compagni di viaggio sono morti e il nome della paziente sul suo cartellino è quello della sua nuova amica defunta. Decide di non denunciare lo scambio di persona e assume l'identità della defunta nella casa dei suoceri, che non hanno mai visto né incontrato la nuora. Presa questa decisione, il peggio per la sfortunata Helen-Patrice non è ancora passato. Si rende presto conto che non è il suo di passato a doverla preoccupare, ma quello della donna di cui ha rubato l'identità.
Do You like book I Married A Dead Man (1994)?
Talk about a dark tale. A woman is abandoned by her pimp, who has also left her pregnant. On the train back to California, she mixes with a young married couple on their way home to introduce the woman to the family. A train crash occurs. A switched identity and now the woman is living in desperate hope that she'll be able to get away with assuming a new identity so as to keep her child comfortable and well. Only...the pimp comes back! And then things get really interesting. Found out that this was where they got the story for that dumb movie "Mrs. Winterbourne." Only they left the murder and mayhem out of it.
—Gregg
Couldn't give it five stars because of the ending. Cornell should have stopped at the penultimate chapter. I just couldn't buy that after all they had been through, they couldn't put this behind them as well. It seemed tacked on.Was there ever anybody better than Cornell Woolrich at creating a living breathing human being in so few words? I just a few pages we feel like we know everything about the Hazzards and Helen, even their unwritten pasts, even by the time their lives are turned literally
—Randolph Carter
I enjoyed this book very much as a mystery novel. I was fascinated with the story when I saw the movie "No Man of Her Own" with Barbara Standwyck years ago (not to be confused with a movie of the same name with Clark Gable. I had also viewed a remake called Mrs. Winterbourne with a terribly miscast of Ricky Lake, but other characters were strong. The book reads as a Perry Mason episode, and does not bog itself down with too much verbage. The story is of an abondoned pregnant girl who is given a ticket on a train, and five dollars. She is befriended by another couple who are also expecting and a train wreck and mistaken identity occurs. The ending is different than the movie so I will not spoil it, but for an afternoon of fun light reading, and a "Who did it?" mystery I give it four stars for a "pleasure read."
—Nina
