Watching the Door
First-hand observations of life in Belfast in the 70's. Brilliantly simple way to represent Myers' experience of "watching the door (of the pub), waiting for death." Myers briefly discusses the book in this video.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
Wonderful image! Very clever.
PERFECT!
Brilliant! So very clever...
It's very heavy-handed. Also, the imagery is confused - as if the publisher wants to detract from the Northern Loyalist element, and make it more palatable for an American audience. Unpleasant - from either side.
This was discussed in a publishing lecture I attended in Ireland. The Irish in the group found it cliche and agreed with Maeve who posted that it was designed for the Americans. The North Americans didn't seem to care one way or the other.
Interesting...this is the image displayed on the Guardian site (review and store) and the Amazon UK site. There's no image on the Amazon US site, and other searches (Google image search, alibris.com) haven't produced anything...
yeah this book has had a few incarnations now. It was originally published by the Lilliput Press, and while the cover wasn't exactly revolutionary, there was certainly no doubt about the theme.
I love it. I get it. Vet European. The type treatment is bold and unappoligetic.
Maeve, I'm curious as to what aspects of it make it read heavy-handed to you. Do you mind explaining your POV a little?
As Maeve said the book was originally published by The Lilliput Press.
I designed the original cover which is linked below if anyone is interested in comparing them.
http://www.hitone.ie/MyersWTD.jpg
There is also a version with the text placed on a wall to look like a Belfast mural – it's a bit better than the pint of Guinness.
I have a feeling the pint of porter cover was designed by someone in the English publishers with little understanding of Northern Irish culture/history/politics.
It would be a very clever cover for a book on Irish wakes but in this context I find it offensive.
Post a Comment