Jackets Required: Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me

By Fwis -- Publishers Weekly, 3/21/2008 10:00:00 AM

This is the latest installment in a weekly column by Fwis, a graphic design group that blogs on book jacket design. The Fwis designers judge a recent book by its cover each week on PublishersWeekly.com. 

Title: Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me

Designer: Paul Sahre

Edited by: Ben Karlin

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

The title alone is enough to make you laugh aloud; a cover treatment that shouts aloud the hilarity would have been all too typical and an ill match for such a cynical and bitter statement. The medical coolness and almost stock photograph of the layout indicates that this isn't the cheesy checkered humor of an SNL skit or loud standup club; this is contemporary humor dripping with irony and wit. The red fingernails are the most important detail: the hands of a jilted lover rips our heart out in a cold dissection, laid bare on the table; without them the cover would fail. Dismissed ex-boyfriends everywhere will cringe at the sight of the cover, but upon discovering the collected essays within, will surely find the comic vengeance they crave.