My book group recently read The Reader on the 6.27 (2014) by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent, translated from the French by Ros Schwartz. The novella (which the publishing house has made look more like a normal-length novel, with a huge font and not many words on each page – though that is not why they’re sneaky) is about Guylain Vignolles who pulps paper for a living. Every day on the 6.27 train, he reads one of the pages he has saved aloud to the passengers – who, somewhat surprisingly, largely seem to respond positively.
The novella went by so fast that it was hard to know whether or not I liked it, and it turned into rather an add romance – all while having the surreal tone of a dystopia, despite not really being one. I can’t quite see why it was such a bestseller, but it’s nice that more translated fiction is getting bestseller status. To be honest, I don’t have a lot to say about it – the writing was pretty good; it was all very engaging but not life-changing – but what I wanted to write about was the cover. Half the book group had this one:
While I (along with the other half of the group) had this one:
Spot the difference?
Yes – for some reason, half of us had snow and reindeer, and a gold font. And when I say ‘some reason’ I mean, of course, Christmas. Is there snow in the novella? No. Are there reindeer? If so, they keep very quiet about it. It’s a completely shameless attempt to make the book seem like an ideal Christmas present, despite the fact that the story isn’t even set in winter (with apologies to any readers in the southern hemisphere).
I don’t know how they landed on this one. Perhaps it was bubbling under as a very good seller, but could go the extra mile with a bit of marketing. Now, I’m certainly not against marketing – I work in it, after all. I don’t think PR is a bad thing (I have witnessed somebody call the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year campaign “a moronic piece of PR gimmickery”, unaware that I had worked on the campaign – which was, of course, PR and light fun. What did they expect? That a word had actually won some sort of real life battle?) But I think there should be a bit more grounding than “we’d like to flog a few copies of this”.
So, yes. I love it when British Library Crime Classics get the Christmassy titles out, or even when there’s yet another edition of A Christmas Carol published. But why on earth did this novella get the treatment? And how many people were disappointed when they settled down on Boxing Day for some festive fun?
Oh, and here’s a translation quandary. The fact that Guylain Vignolles is a spoonerism for vilain guignol isn’t an immediate win in English.
Oooh, sneaky indeed!
Sneaky indeed! I experienced something similar with a book I read at Christmas time, which I thought was set at Christmas. I thought that because it bore the title Another little Christmas murder. The story takes place during a snow storm about two weeks before Christmas. That’s it. The book was originally published under the title Another Little Murder. The publishers added the word Christmas to the title.
That’s a shocking use of cover change. As an ex-bookseller I always hated film/TV adaptation covers.
Changing topic, have you read the other reader – The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. I loved it when we did it in our book group years ago.
I also detest movie/TV tie-in covers. I wanted to give my daughter Murder on the Orient Express for Christmas and that’s all I could find in paperback. Harrumph.
I also hate TV/movie tie-in covers. I was particularly irritated when I wanted to give my daughter Murder on the Orient Express for Christmas, and all I could find in paperback was the edition with Kenneth Branagh and his ridiculous mustache. Harrumph.
That’s very naughty and I would have felt aggrieved too. I *hate* inaccurate marketing and in fact excessive praise or blurb actually tends to put me off…..
I do not understand the reason for “blurbs” at all and I never read them.
This misleading cover art would have got my hackles up too. It shows a lack of respect for the intelligence of their readers who would see pretty quickly into the book that it has zero to do with the cover. If this was another kind of product you could take action under trade description legislation …
Even worse than that “Christmas” Angela Thirkell where the skating scene on the front is from a story set on Valentine’s Day! Grrrr!
It will be interesting to see if anyone speaks up in defence of such marketing trickery. I won’t be holding my breath for that.
As for this particular book, I liked it a lot at first but seem to recall my enthusiasm dropped off the further I read. References to toilets in novels are a pet hate of mine, which will not have helped.
I read the hardback which had no viaduct not reindeer and a more conventional cover with snaking train tracks. I really enjoyed the book – very sweet.
That’s hilarious, Simon. The reindeer are almost subliminal, though, aren’t they? I don’t know if I would have noticed them.
I am so ‘over it’ when it comes to publishers marketing their book blurbs (which are often inaccurate or sensational) or covers. They just ‘do’ it and get away with it. The covers are lovely, both of them but it is ridiculous they have nothing to do with the novella. The novella though does sound interesting. Always something to think about with books and publishers!!!
That is truly sneaky and annoying — do they think readers won’t figure it out? Or are they just counting on last-minute shoppers desperate for a stocking stuffer who will grab anything?
And now I am wondering about the Christmas at High Rising by Angela Thirkell I received (which of course I haven’t read yet.)
I’m sorry if I’ve made you wonder about that with my comment above. It’s still a really good read, I promise!
Ever see the packaging for the computer game “Black and White” by EA?
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