Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Paperback 107: Love in a Goldfish Bowl / Jack Sher (Cardinal C-409)

Paperback 107: Cardinal C-409 (PBO, 1961)

Title: Love in a Goldfish Bowl
Author: Jack Sher
Cover artist: one very confused photographer

Yours for: $8


Best things about this cover:

  • The dog. By far, the dog. The dog is looking to us for help.
  • This cover would actually be beautiful if you just replaced the photo with ... well, anything. Title font design is gorgeous.
  • I know a Jack Sher. Hey, Jack, you wrote a book ... many years before you were born. Congratulations. [my friend's real name is Jack Shear, so this is funny only to me and possibly him]
  • This photo = rejected Alpo campaign still #178
  • What ... I ... just what the hell is supposed to be happening here? Why is she ... what is that ... what's in the ... why are they ...?
  • "Gee, Blythe, where'd ya get the giant snail, and why are you keepin' him in a goldfish bowl on your belly out here on the beach?"
  • This cover is the reason words like "camp," "queer," and "ambiguously gay duo" were invented.

Best things about this back cover:
  • "SNAFuglugluglug..."
  • SNAFU = Situation Normal: All Fucked Up. A most apt description of the front cover.
  • How come nobody's named "Gordon" any more?
  • The last two paragraphs are so ambiguous that they allow me to imagine that the people pictured end up addicted to heroin and turning tricks ... in Balboa.
  • "It was the bending end" - that's what she said!

Page 123~

"Gordon, where are you going?" my foolish, fuzzy mother asked.

"I think I'll sleep on my boat," I said.

"You'll do nothing of the kind!" she said.

So there I was, stuck with Holloway for the night.


~RP

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I didn't even get to the write up before I started laughing. Whoever conceived that shot has some serious issues to work out.

"A snafu to end all snafus"? Is a snafu enough of a legitimate thing that they can be ranked like that?

libwitch said...

Its hard to tell if its going to end up being a crazy threesome type deal or a precursor to Weekend at Bernies (which was my first thought when I saw the cover, but their smiles seemed out of place)

Nancy Beck said...

Is that where they got the idea for doing up sushi on a hot model?

Erm...well, maybe not.

Steve T. said...

I submit, for your pleasure, the end of the one-paragraph NYT review of the 1961 film that inspired this little knockoff:

"...this Paramount pancake has a theme song called "You're Only Young Once." After seeing this film, one should be glad of it."