I’ll be out of the country / away from the internet for a week or so starting next Thursday, but before then I’m gonna do my best to post up a selection of the groovier paperbacks from my recent Hay On Wye haul for you, one or two a day, starting now.
All I have to say about this cover is: sweet.
Judging by the cover illustration, I’m guessing our hero’s self-control didn’t last long.
And yes, you really did just read "..a hungry pair of breasts and a cool contempt for underwear" on the back cover copy.
I tried reading a bit of “Ladyfingers”, but didn’t get far with it I'm afraid. Mr. Rifkin’s prose style is rather bulbous, with a tendency toward over-long sentences that rather undermines the hard-boiled tone he’s going for (I know, I know, people in glass houses..), and his protagonist seems like a bit of self-pitying bozo, spending most of the opening chapter telling us all about his underprivileged childhood, and how his easy-going, golf-playing superiors can never understand his pain. Ho-hum.
Apparently more impressed than I was, Hard Case Crime have recently republished Rifkin’s civil rights movement crime caper The Murder Vine with a cool nouveau-pulp cover by Ken Laager.
And yes, you really did just read "..a hungry pair of breasts and a cool contempt for underwear" on the back cover copy.
I tried reading a bit of “Ladyfingers”, but didn’t get far with it I'm afraid. Mr. Rifkin’s prose style is rather bulbous, with a tendency toward over-long sentences that rather undermines the hard-boiled tone he’s going for (I know, I know, people in glass houses..), and his protagonist seems like a bit of self-pitying bozo, spending most of the opening chapter telling us all about his underprivileged childhood, and how his easy-going, golf-playing superiors can never understand his pain. Ho-hum.
Apparently more impressed than I was, Hard Case Crime have recently republished Rifkin’s civil rights movement crime caper The Murder Vine with a cool nouveau-pulp cover by Ken Laager.
2 comments:
The cover of Ladyfingers was created by the late, great Renato Fratini! I've got a growing collection of his book covers here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pulpcrush/sets/72157631472877216/
Thanks for the link Tim! I'm familiar with a few of the covers you've posted there, and really like them, so it's great to have a name to put to this 'style'.
I have duly tagged this post, and will definitely be looking out for Fratini's work in future...
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