Paperback 1168: Pocket Books 385 (2nd ptg, 1946)
Title: The Red Right Hand
Author: Joel Townsley
Cover artist: Uncredited
Condition: 6/10
Value: $4-5
- The "thumb" ... it ... it just ... look, that's not a thumb, is what I'm saying. Look at it in total isolation. It is astonishingly, in every way, not a thumb. The more you look, the more obscene it gets.
- That hand does not look particularly red. Perhaps it is Communist.
- This looks like someone got buried alive in a granary, like in Frank Norris's The Octopus. How did he get buried? Like the cover says, it's "A Mystery."
Best things about this back cover:
- "There was a little man—who got away"—well that's the worst nursery rhyme of all time. Did the little man go to market at least? Come on, give me something.
- St. Erme!? Really? St. [hesitation noise]!? Do you pronounce it "ERMIE?" Forget what the little man did with St. Erme's right hand, what did he do with the rest of the letters in Erme's name?!
- The writing here is terrible. Choppy, awkward. Who are these people? Why do I care? Why is the book talking to me!!? "You'll keep going on excitedly..." Well now I definitely won't. Just to show you that you're not the boss of me.
Page 123~
"You live around here, Dr. Ridder?" he asked me, making coffee.
"Riddle," I said. "No, I live in New York. I'm on my way down from Vermont. I wonder when that car passed me."
"You saw it passing you?"
"No," I said. "I didn't see it."
"And you say you're the Riddler, is that right?" "Just Riddle." "Justin Griddle?" It goes on like this.
~RP
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2 comments:
Okay, I'm just going to say it without attempting to be coy or clever: The thumb looks like a penis. Okay, a slightly deformed penis. Okay, a slightly deformed penis after its owner sat in the bathtub for too long. But a penis nonetheless.
You're right, that's definitely not a thumb.
The rest of the hand is off, too. Try to position your fingers like that. It's impossible. Even if that isn't a thumb.
I know it's come up before, but I just can't figure out what Pocket thought they were doing with those numbers. Were they sequentially numbering every single book that came off the press? It's like a hyper-detailed version of the old McDonald's signs that said "X million sold."
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