Interestingly, though the book is published by Cape, part of Vintage UK, it actually calls back to the once-characteristic plain white spines of old Picador paperbacks.
First Novel is not the first book by that title. In 1999 Harvill published a book by the same name written by Mazarine Pingeot, the "secret daughter" of arch-shit and former French president François Mitterand. The book was no good, and was seemingly only published because she was the "secret daughter" of arch-shit and former French president François Mitterand, and piles of this book could be found in remainder bookshops for years afterwards.
It uses a well-known photo, 'Sense' by Tono Stano, that was later bought and fucked with by MGM to become the poster for the famously crap film 'Showgirls'.
And just so that, if I get hit by a bus later today, that's not the last image I ever post, here's a cover design from Picador a couple of years ago that I somehow missed when it came out: the clever cigarette-pack packaging of Stuart Evers's Ten Stories About Smoking.
I've been sent a review copy of First Novel, having got my Nicholas Royles confused on Twitter (disparaging the other one, incidentally) so I'm looking forward to reading this. I agree that the cover is great.
ReplyDeleteTen Stories about Smoking is pretty wonderful, reminding me of the old cereal box edition of T.C. Boyle's The Road to Wellville.
ReplyDeleteReturning to smoking, Necessary Betrayals, the 2002 English-language translation of Guillaume Vigneault's Chercher le vent, has a more modest cigarette pack-inspired cover.
Here I feel the need to point out that its publisher, Douglas & McIntyre, is now under bankruptcy protection.
May 2013 be a better year!
StuckInABook, I'm going to have to start being more rude about the authors I do like, in order to get their books!
ReplyDeleteBrian, I didn't know about the cereal Wellville--that's a great idea. Another book, John Sladek's 'Wholly Smokes', also uses that idea: http://www.amazon.com/Wholly-Smokes-John-Sladek/dp/1592241093