Are you influenced by blurbs? (Lynn is. . . on very rare occasions.)
At first glance, Gordon Grice’s Deadly Kingdom: The Book of Dangerous Animals didn’t sound like my cup of tea. But then I read David Sedaris’s cover blurb—mostly because I thought it was strange for David Sedaris to be blurbing a book about dangerous animals:
“Did he say repugnatorial gland? What a wealth of information Gordon Grice is, and what a fine, beguiling writer. This book is a must for anyone even remotely thinking of getting a monkey, a sea lion, or, heaven forbid, a dog.”
New York Times book critic Dwight Garner thinks the best blurb of all time came from Roy Blount about Paris Trout, Pete Dexter’s 1988 novel: “I put it down once to wipe off the sweat.” What do you think? When was the last time you read a book because of a blurb? (You know, Sedaris’s blurb isn’t even that great—although it made me laugh a little bit, and I trust his opinion.)
By the way, I will definitely be picking up Deadly Kingdom after reading Grice’s behind-the-book essay for BookPage. I love the part where he explains his unusual research: “I stuck my arm into the flensed skull of an alligator to see how it felt. I searched for the black bear my neighbor spotted on her morning jog. I read things in medical reports I’d rather forget, and I learned all over again how gorgeous even the humblest animals can be.”
Deadly Kingdom is out this week—will you pick it up?
