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)
- 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
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.
ReplyDeleteThe page 123 text is pretty good. If the rest is like that, it might be worth reading.
Yeah, I'm adding it to the book pile
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