Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Paperback 1102: Her Cheating Heart / Lloyd Kevin (Monarch Books 286)

Paperback 1102: Monarch 286 (PBO, 1962)

Title: Her Cheating Heart
Author: Lloyd Kevin
Cover artist: Tom Miller

Condition: 7/10
Value: $15

[The Book Den, Santa Barbara, CA]


Best things about this cover: 
  • "C'mon, Joy, we've been over this—quit flashing the neighbors and make me some eggs or something, jeez..."
  • Ah yes, her heart. Her cheating heart. This is an incredible painting of her heart. I could look at her heart all day.
  • This is actually a great cover—very hard to draw this specific action (woman pulling nightgown over her head) in a way that looks natural, where everything stays proportionate and relative sexiness is maintained.
  • Love the perpendicular contrast here: her action to his inaction, her ardor to his ennui. Sadly, those curtains are really killing the vibe. I can practically feel their rough, thick fabric and smell their cigarette mustiness. Between the curtains, the walls, the bedding, and his trousers/pajamas, I feel like I'm drowning in shades of drab. She looks great, the trailer park looks great, everything else looks like despair.


Best things about this back cover: 
  • Oh cool, it's a Choose Your Own Adventure book!
  • Trigg Melnor ... I'm dying. I can't breathe. Trigg... Melnor... Trigg Melnor, ladies and gentlemen. Trigg fucking Melnor. A man's man's man's man's name if there ever was one. What would I do? No, what would Trigg Melnor do? That is the question. That is the only question I will entertain in my life from now on. WWTMD, baby!
  • I sorta like this red silhouette, although it takes her from sexy dame to blobby abstraction. Pretty recognizable human silhouette from the waistline down, but above that ... I dunno. Kinda looks like some form of animal life is getting involved. Like there's a koala maybe climbing up the right side, and a small dog (in profile) keeping lookout on the left. 
Page 123~
    Trigg tried a new approach. "Lu's old Chevvy—was it here last night?"
    The woman looked puzzled. "Ol shevi?"
    "Lu's car." He made steering-wheel motions.
Make steering-wheel motions—that's what Trigg Melnor did. And he was darned good at it, too.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and BlueSky]

4 comments:

  1. Trigg and the Melnors - great band!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just want to know what “Trigg” is short for. Trigonometry? That’s it, Trigonometry Melnor.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Another great cover. I actually like the contrast between her and all the drabness. But I know what you mean about those curtains; they're like the curtains of every motel room I've ever been in.

    I'm not sure Trigg there should look so bored. Given the situation described on the back, he ought to either be shocked or lustful. There's a lot of stories where boredom would be perfect, but not "being seduced by a friend's wife."

    My only problem with the back cover copy is that it's a little awkward. It keeps asking "Would you do A or B?" and then declaring "That's what Trigg Melnor did..." So he did both? I know they're saying he did the latter choice in each case, but it's grammatically dubious. It would work if each choice was split into two sentences, but as is it's a bad pronoun reference.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your Cheatin' Heart
    by Hank Williams

    Your cheatin' heart will make you weep
    You'll cry and cry and try to sleep
    But sleep won't come the whole night through
    Your cheatin' heart will tell on you

    When tears come down like fallin' rain
    You'll toss around and call my name
    You'll walk the floor the way I do
    Your cheatin' heart will tell on you

    Your cheatin' heart will pine someday
    And crave the love you threw away
    The time will come when you'll be blue
    Your cheatin' heart will tell on you

    When tears come down like fallin' rain
    You'll toss around and call my name
    You'll walk the floor the way I do
    Your cheatin' heart will tell on you

    ReplyDelete