August 25, 2005

American books are UGLY

Here we have the cover of the American edition of “We Need to Talk About Kevin”. It looks like a substandard diary of someone like Adrian Mole, and would fail to overly appeal to its target audience.

The UK edition is better, darker and more interesting.

The American edition of Brick Lane does have a beautiful cover, but it’s clutching too hard to the ethnic card (and trying to appeal to women in book groups such as the one illustrated in the below mentioned article who feel better about themselves when they read books about Asia)

…whilst in the UK, where Asia is not as foreign a theme, this simpler cover was put forth. Though I haven’t finished reading this book, so far I think it’s more reflective of the subject matter than the other.