Title: The Ordeal of Private Heath
Author: Jeb Stuart
Cover artist: [Julian Paul]
Yours for: $11
Best things about this cover:
- "Your knees ... I can't hear anything ... I CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING!!!"
- Knee fetishism—truly "the gravest sin"!
- He likes it when you rub his head and tickle his underarm.
- I love her expression. "O, look at the spotlights. Why can't I be out at a movie premiere instead of stuck in this dank apartment grooming my shell-shocked boyfriend? I should've married that Bill Rivers when I had the chance."
- I also love the way she is lit. Gives the painting the feeling of a religious tableau — from one of the sillier Bible stories, perhaps.
Best things about this back cover:
- The front cover suggested it, the back cover suggests it more strongly, and a very quick perusal of contents of the book confirms it—"less than a man" = "queer."
- How many years had gone by since the publication of "A Farewell to Arms" and how bad were the war novels in that period?
- Interior blurb from James Michener. Also, the Binghamton Press. So, you know ... heavy hitters.
- "If you dislike stark realism, this book is not for you"—actual warning printed opposite title page. Heart of Starkness!
- The Louisville Courier-Journal says "Will be compared with The Naked and the Dead"; I'm guessing the publishers left off the "... and found wanting" part.
Page 123~
"You looked like a lion," she said.
"A lion," he said dryly, humorlessly. "A sad-looking lion indeed."
"An unhappy lion," she answered, getting up from the floor and seating herself beside him, touching his cheek, saying, "I will not ask questions."
A woman who knows her lions and stays out of your business. Sexy!
~RP
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