Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Paperback 1112: The Off-Islanders / Nathaniel Benchley (Popular Library SP178)

 Paperback 1112: Popular Library SP178 (1st ptg, 1962)

Title: The Off-Islanders
Author: Nathaniel Benchley
Cover artist: Uncredited

Condition: 7/10
Value: $20 (the only copies I can find online are priced at $90, which is ridiculous)


Best things about this cover: 
  • This looks zany in a very specifically '60s kind of way. It's a mad, mad, mad, mad submarine on a sandbar
  • Alternate title: Big Day for Binos
  • The shapely redhead with a run in her stockings really makes the cover. Bored with the boys and their boy games.

Best things about this back cover: 
  • OK, that's the same picture from the front cover
  • OK, that's the same blurb from the front. Someone's ... not trying
  • "Capitalistic sandbar" is a bar I would drink at
  • "Extra-marital shenanigans" OK fine you got me, I'll read you, you silly book
Page 123~
The first look at Polsky was always a shock, because he not only had no neck but also appeared to have no head; his features seemed to grow out of a slight lump midway between his shoulders. He seldom wore a cap, since the visor came so close to his collar as to all but cover his face, and on the occasions that required full-dress uniform he became dizzy from lack of fresh air.
~RP

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2 comments:

DemetriosX said...

This was the basis for the 1966 Norman Jewison film "The Russians Are Coming." It had pretty much all big comedy names from the mid-60s: Carl Reiner, Jonathan Winters, Alan Arkin. I remember it as pretty good, but it's been a really long time since I saw it, so it may not have aged well. Got 4 Oscar nominations, though.

The page 123 text is pretty good. If the rest is like that, it might be worth reading.

Rex Parker said...

Yeah, I'm adding it to the book pile