The Monsters of Templeton is a hoax!

I have undertaken to judge books only by their covers. In the hyper-marketed hyper-branded age we currently reside in, the design of everything is specifically calibrated to appeal to a target demographic. Or at least, should be.

So I went to my local library and browsed the fiction section. I wanted to find a book based solely on my aesthetic reaction to its packaging. No reading the back cover, no asking the librarian for suggestions, no authors that I had read before. The first to catch my eye was The Monsters of Templeton, a hardback by Lauren Groff. The cover is black white and red and features an intricate tree with a monster fetus in the center and suspended silouettes of mundane scenes framed in branch-like ovals dangling from the branches. I suppose I was expecting a story more ghoulish than what it actually turned out to be. The book was merely average, about a woman who thinks she's pregnant and moves back to her hometown to reconnect with her family roots (hence the family tree imagery). Founding fathers, promiscuous mothers, yada yada yada. A monster does make an appearance but only periferally, and not menacingly but rather depressingly. I dunno, the book was kinda' lame. It just didn't have anything special about it, no poetry, no unique story, no OMG moments. It wasn't horrible, I just wouldn't recommend it to anyone, despite the attractive facade it presents on the shelf. The cover brought to mind intricate verbal latticework, and the actual book harkened more to a Lifetime Made-for-TV movie.

My first endeavor at cover judging was a quiet failure, but not a raging catastrophe. I hope to do better next time. I've already picked the book, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Wish me luck, and check back for the review. Better yet, read it now and we can compare notes.

filed under: prose

tags: book reviews monsters of templeton

3 comments

Comments

SimoneFebruary 18, 2009

damn, a bigbox store actually sold something that said FUCK on the cover? Looks like you have yourself a double winner with that book- title and cover.
SimoneFebruary 18, 2009

damn, a bigbox store actually sold something that said FUCK on the cover? Looks like you have yourself a double winner with that book- title and cover.
yiggigFebruary 18, 2009

I tried this once. 2 or 3 Christmases ago I got a gift card to Borders from the rentals. Now I generally try not to patronize the big boxes - even big boxes for books, but a gift card is already money down the drain, no? All the same I figured I might alleviate my conscious by trivializing the purchase in some way. So I decided I would go in, select purely on appearance and get out. Clean 'n easy. Quick 'n dirty. Whatev. At any rate it worked out pretty well for me. I walked out of there with "For Fuck's Sake" by Robert Lasner. A story that kept my attention and that I enjoyed reading. It probably would qualify for another experiment as well, choosing books by title alone...

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