Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Paperback 359: The Drowner / John D. MacDonald (Gold Medal k1302)

Paperback 359: Gold Medal k1302 (PBO, 1963)

Title: The Drowner
Author: John D. MacDonald
Cover artist: Stanley Zuckerberg

Yours for: $25

GM1302.Drowner

Best things about this cover:
  • Lesson: brackish, green water—not for swimming.
  • Fantastically creepy cover. That dude pulling her down must have one powerful set of lungs. or SCUBA equipment.
  • Love the bubbles—nice touch to make sure they're coming from him (I assume it's a "him") as well as her. Also love the way the words cascade down the side of her struggling body. Accentuates the scary verticality of the whole cover.

GM1302bc.Drowner

Best things about this back cover:

  • This I like less.
  • Without the struggling lady to complement them, the vertically arranged words here just look stupid and purposeless.

Page 123~

If the fork hesitated on its way to the healthy mouth, it was a faltering so minor he was unable to detect it. But she looked considerably less friendly.
~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

8 comments:

Rachel Helps said...

it's like
bad beat
poetry

Miss Maggie said...

That's a stunning cover. And a stunningly stupid back cover.

Tulse said...

"Healthy mouth"? Is she visiting her dentist?

Anonymous said...

I used to have this one - if I remember correctly the story was pretty good.

Frank said...

Check out the author photo! That there is a man of ACTION!

Rick said...

I don't know if I've ever seen a photo of John D. MacDonald with any where near that much hair on his head. A little disorienting actually...

Anonymous said...

Spoiler Alert!
!tcerrocni si noitpmussa ruoY

Will Errickson said...

I just love this one, the sickly green colors, the woman's figure, the weird drama and horror of it--wonderful.