This month we venture into the curious world of book jacket design.
Three very different books. One floaty-looking woman. She's a haunting image, so haunting that she's popping up everywhere. Who is this lady, anyway?
We'd like to think that she's just sleepy, or maybe swimming in her backyard hot tub, but the book titles suggest something gloomier: Toward Amnesia, Thief of Souls, Talking to the Dead. She's the woman du jour if you're writing a) a literary novel, b) a thriller or c) another literary novel.
It should be noted that Talking to the Dead won't be published until June, so the pasty lady on this advance reader's copy may vanish by then.
The only other time we saw such a book cover curiosity was when we worked in publishing and got a glimpse of the rejected cover art for Judith Krantz's I'll Take Manhattan. Too literary, it was decided. Lo and behold, the lovely painting ended up on the cover of Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities. Recycling at its best.
Where will this cadaverous lady will end up next? Dennis Rodman's next memoir?
-- Ann Shayne, Editor
©1997, ProMotion, inc.