Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Paperback 1072: The Sex Cheat / Roger James (Bee-Line 284S)

Paperback 1072: Bee-Line 284S (PBO, 1967)

Title: The Sex Cheat
Author: Roger James
Cover artist: photo!

Condition: oof
Value: sentimental?

[Another book from the recently acquired Larry D Collection]


Best things about this cover:
  • Somebody read the hell out of this book. Or at least handled it ... frequently. I love a beater copy—no worries about condition, just an open invitation to "Read Me!"
  • Oh, the wig. Oh. Ow. By the time it leaves her heck and heads toward her torso, it appears to turn semi-sentient, evolving claws, contemplating hellish doings...
  • Legit LOL'ing at the how the cover text has to kind of scooch over and make room for her considerable chest. Her boobs just shove those words right out of the way. That's power.
  • It's an oddly cheery, wholesome-looking photo for a smut paperback. Fright Wig notwithstanding.
  • Ah, the original "... in bed" joke!

Best things about this back cover:
  • Sex Game! All caps! You've heard of the TV show "Squid Game"? Well ... this isn't that!
  • Cover photo seems so much darker with the poor girls' eyes ripped off
  • "Wanton"—there's a word that peaked on paperback covers circa 1967 for sure. Definitely a cover copy writer's second-best friend (after "Sin," of course)
Page 123~ (bracing myself for something awful/wonderful)
Bruce turned completely away from the uncovered, brandishing breast and walked dismally towards his wife.
Yeah, I know, you're thinking "Does this writer even know what 'brandishing' means?" and given what I've read, just on Page 123 ... probably not. Consider: "Her own breasts rose and fell in great, trembling lifts" or "Eva Simmonds quickly recouped the dislodged bra cup over her naked contour and hastily came around from behind the sofa." I mean, that's "brandishing" "lifts" "recouped" and "contour" that he's bungled, all in just one page. Imagine Reading This Whole Book. You guys, there is so much lurid, ornate, comically baroque, borderline monstrous breast writing here. "She pushed the shuddering, irregularly bobbing area of luridly exposed flesh back out of sight and held the sagging cup of the damaged pink bra while she glared at Bruce Grant" yes "shuddering" and "irregularly bobbing" is what my soul is experiencing right now for sure. 

~RP

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1 comment:

DemetriosX said...

I thought a cover copy writer's best friend was "frank."

Men writing badly about women's breasts is a whole thing all over the Internet. I think there is/was a Twitter account devoted exclusively to the topic. This is pretty bad, but there's worse. Much worse. Few things can compare to Lin Carter's use of "warm, white fruit" in my opinion.