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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Uncommon Arrangements

Katie Roiphe's Uncommon Arrangements is getting a good deal of attention, and why wouldn't it? It's an "astute and engrossing examination of seven artsy marriages from 20th-century England" that is "provocative, dishy, substantive and fun." And I think we all know what "artsy marriage" means ;-)


So why, then, is this one of the sleepiest covers I've seen in a very long time? I'm 100% sure I would never pick this up in a bookstore, and 99% sure I wouldn't notice it's there.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. Can we fit another typeface?
Bummer. Could've been a nice one...

Anonymous said...

Gross.

Anonymous said...

it looks like a knock-off of the New Yorker magazine, and it's sad because the people she's writing about lived wild lives, not the staid bore-fests hinted at here.

Anonymous said...

The cover matches the content. This book frames the raw emotional drivers behind the actions taken in the seven relationships. Some of those actions are sexual. The actions are uncommon. The drivers are human and visible in modern marriage.

If the book was about the acts, I would expect a different cover.

Anonymous said...

Can't speak to the typefaces, but I consider the rest of this design dead-on. I could tell which era she'd be discussing before I read the relevant subheading.