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Monday, December 29, 2008

The Great Perhaps

Design by Jamie Keenan

Joe Meno's forthcoming The Great Perhaps is the story of "the Caspers, a family of cowards: Jonathan, a paleontologist, searching in vain for a prehistoric giant squid; his wife, Madeline, an animal behaviorist with a failing experiment; (and) their daughter, Amelia, a disappointed teenage revolutionary...Each fears uncertainty and the possibilities that accompany it." (Read a fuller description here.)


I keep looking at this, thinking of how many ways this design could have gone bad. Complex characters reduced to singular objects, thrown on top of each other in a tumble meant to suggest family, all under an big, black, anxious cloud. But damn it if it doesn't work. Buy this book from Amazon.com

10 comments:

Ian Koviak said...

yes, very lovely indeed.

Hilda said...

I'm wondering what the plane's for.

Gypsy at Heart said...

You are right. It took a lot of thought to come up with this arrangement, the silhouettes and colors. I like it very much. It's the kind of cover that would make me buy the book.

Joseph said...

@Hilda: I'm guessing the plane (and the bomb) might be the "disappointed teenage revolutionary."

CC said...

so has anyone actually read this book yet and if yes is it worth the read!!!

Saturated? said...

WOW! I love the negative (white) space around the objects.

JMesjak said...

Just finished reading it, actually. It might be my favorite of Joe Meno's books. The plane is representative of the (unmentioned in the copy) grandfather, whose story is also told in the book. After Meno's great covers at Akashic, I was thinking this was too much of a changeup, but it grew on me as well.

Blondie said...

I have a review copy and the symbols all make sense as the story unfolds. It's great! I see something new in the cover each time I look at it.

Anonymous said...

Who made the cover design?

Love it

Steve said...

The jacket design for THE GREAT PERHAPS is by Jaime Keenan.