When I looked at the cover, this is what I found:
We don't want to tell you WHAT HAPPENS in this book.
It is a truly SPECIAL STORY and we don't want to spoil it.
NEVERTHELESS, you need to know enough to buy it, so we will just say this:
This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice. Two years later, they meet again - the story starts there ...
Once you have read it, you'll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds.
BARF!!! Nothing turns me off like pretentious armor-plating. The aggressive praise plastered all over the cover made me wonder why I'd never heard of it before.
It didn't particularly look or sound like a book I'd like.
However, I was jumping into the bath and I would not allow myself to take my library book in with me. Some things are still sacred.
I'm only 50 pages in, but there isn't anything so far that would do the book damage to talk about.
In a truly good book, the magic is in how the story unfolds. It's not WHAT HAPPENS. No one cares what happens. It's why and how and who and intentions and consequences and little details and feelings and stuff. It's the depth and complexity behind what happens.
It's the longing young Ramsay feels for the lighthouse. It is Pecola's relationship with her babydoll. It's Quoyle and his knots.
If you haven't heard of The Other Hand (I certainly hadn't) you might have heard of this book:
They are one and the same. I know which one I'd pick, of the two. You?
In other news -- I have tickets to see SARAH WATERS at the Glasgow Book Festival, Aye Write! Yes, I am going to see Sarah Waters for World Book Night, and I cannot wait wait wait.
Guess what I need to read first!
Andrea Levy is also going to be there, and I haven't yet read any of her books. I wonder if I'll be able to fit this in to the next month as well.
March is going to be a very literary month, what with Aye Write and the Sparkling Squirrel read-along. I have some reading to do.
Ugh. I've seen that Other Hand/Little Bee cover copy before, and it is a complete and utter turnoff. I actually like to know something about the story before I pick up a book; it helps me set my expectations and ensure that I'm in the right mood for the book I'm going to read.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am so jealous that you'll be seeing Sarah Waters and Andrea Levy. They're both so wonderful!
Wait, the two books are the same? different marketing angles?
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the Chris Cleave's name I instantly thought of Little Bee (still on the TBR shelf) -- what's up with the different cover and name? Are they trying to make some kind of point? I recognized the publisher's blurb right away. But I am confused.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like a fairly common practice to publish a book under a different name in the UK versus the US. For instance The Golden Compass was published in the UK as Northern Lights, and Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman was published here as The Surgeon of Crowthorne. And then there's Smilla's Sense of Snow/Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow.
ReplyDeleteIn each case, I prefer the US title. I think it's just about what they perceive as effective marketing. Just like different cover designs.
Argh, that copy is so annoying! LifetimeReader has a post up right now about spoilers, and I have to say I have a degree of impatience with extreme sensitivity toward them. My reading pleasure is just NOT THAT DELICATE, you know? Most often my reading pleasure is increased by talking about a work, not decreased.
ReplyDeleteEmily, I'm with you -- and if the whole book is 'spoiled' by mentioning the plot, then it's probably not worth reading anyway, in my opinion.
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