Jackets Required: The Women

By Fwis -- Publishers Weekly, 9/24/2008 11:00:00 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: The Women
Designer: Paul Buckley
Author: T.C. Boyle
Publisher: Viking

T.C. Boyle’s covers seem to have always been rather understated and well-designed, so we’re sorry to see the Wright aesthetic once again abused on this newest fictional account of the architect's life told through four women who loved him. The period-authentic design is again used as a framework to lay down a completely trite concept, and photos of the characters are simply inserted into the blank spaces of a windowpane.

It is always the job of the art director and designer to come up with something new or fresh to keep readers engaged; while the target market may very well be Wright lovers, we can’t imagine that segment being big enough to warrant rote and repetitive use of that style. Period-perfect authenticity has its place amongst architectural historians and restorers. Why not create contemporary variations on that theme, and present something that shows Boyle’s larger appeal as a storyteller?