Saturday, November 2, 2013

Paperback 718: The Assistant / Bernard Malamud (Signet 1514)

Paperback 718: Signet S1514 (1st, 1958)

Title: The Assistant
Author: Bernard Malamud
Cover artist: "Hofmann"

Yours for: $14

Sig1514

Best things about this cover:
  • "Baby, you put the 'ass' is 'assistant.'"
  • Are they giants? If that is a street sign he's gripping/pulling out of the ground, the answer must be 'yes.'
  • I love her outfit, particularly her shoes, though they seem to have been painted in as an afterthought.
  • Art here is really unusual—far more impressionistic/smeary than you usually see on '50s covers. Another thing you rarely see—that color of sky. Inland Empire Brown.

Sig1514bc

Best things about this back cover:
  • Gah! Buncha text. Don't care.

Page 123~

Morris, with clouded eyes, died slowly.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

1 comment:

capewood said...

His first novel, published in 1952, was, of course, "The Natural". It was a long time between novels for Mr. Malamud.