Sunday, September 4, 2011

Paperback 453: So Strange Our Love / Joseph Heron (Newsstand Library U159)

Paperback 453: Newsstand Library U159 (PBO, 1961)

Title: So Strange Our Love
Author: Joseph Heron
Cover artist: Uncredited [Robert Bonfils]

Yours for: $14

NL159.SoStrange

Best things about this cover:
  • First impression: yeah, that's pretty strange.
  • Honey, you're gonna have to move that thing a little closer to his face. From the squinting, I'd say dude is clearly too nearsighted to appreciate it from that distance. At this rate, he's never going to put his Eiffel Tower anywhere near your frenzied river, let alone your secret and turbulent rapids.
  • Wow, "forked" is a word that really kills the mood.

NL159bc.SoStrange

Best things about this back cover:
  • OK, I get it, only Mireille. Stop shouting at me.
  • "forked" : front cover :: "nostrils" : back cover
  • "Pointed" — man, talk about your adventures in bad word choice.
  • "... under the touch of his fingers her nipple swelled" — I wonder if that looked anything like this picture we've seen before.
  • I'm trying to find the part in that last paragraph where they actually start fucking. Not entirely clear. If I read it literally, it's like she gets him in some kind of wrestling hold with her legs, and he's cool with that, but then she starts writhing and ululating and speaking in tongues. No wonder he's keeping his distance on the front cover.

Page 123~

She picked up a pack of cigarettes from the table and lit one. "And yet if Johny had been a man, you wouldn't mind it," she said. "When you thought she was a man, you didn't."

If Johny had been a man, he'd have figured out how to spell his name properly. By the way, dude's name is Ken and he's just discovered that MIREILLE! sleeps with girls. Or girl, at any rate.

~RP

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8 comments:

Jackie said...

With all the water imagery, the hoisted-up dress, and the oddly splayed thighs, I was fearing that this was going to be about golden showers.

Is it unusual for a back cover to be so explicit? Why even read the book when you've got your money shot right there? (Young and pointed... heeeee!)

borky said...

Jackie, given that, like me, you thought this was going to an Eiffel SHOWERS special, shouldn't you've concluded your comment not so much heeeee...as weeeee!

borky said...

p.s.

I think cover girl's go'n'o realise she's struck out the moment it dawns on her cover boy's Jethro Bodine from the Beverly Hillbillies!

John Flanagan said...

I like the subtle omen of destruction in the painting (mirror?) above the dresser. Exquisite taste has MIRIEIRIRLE.

Random White Guy said...

MIREILLE!, meet Frank!
Frank!, meet MIREILLE!

DemetriosX said...

I'm guessing "forked" is supposed to make you think of another verb that sounds slightly similar... And yeah, that back copy is pretty explicit. They must have only kept this one under the counter.

Larry said...

With the cover price so much more than other paperbacks of the era ( not to mention the back cover ) this has to be porn. But the question is how hot does it get? I suppose I can find out for $12?

loribl said...

She looks like Joan Collins!