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A review by librarianinthewoods
The Clothing of Books by Jhumpa Lahiri
4.0
This short work is from a speech Lahiri gave about book covers/jackets. I have loved her writing so much and I also love thinking about and looking at book covers. I've talked with students about not "judging books by their covers," but also what we can also glean from a book jacket to know if it is a book we'd be interested in reading or not. I've thought about book covers I've loved and ones I have not liked. An example, I was disappointed in the newly published Beverly Cleary book covers. These books were my favorite growing up. I realized the publishers were trying to update stories that were half a century old and make them more appealing to kids today, but for me these new covers are not the books I remember reading and loving. It's no surprise to myself, that I've went online to buy some of the older copies I grew up with.
I've always thought it would be an interesting job designing book covers. However it was not until I read this book that I realized the gravity of the job. I never considered the opinion or process of the author on the book covers for books they'd written. Lahiri writes about how it has at times been a disappointing, difficult process. This never occurred to me. She writes:
"My reactions are various, visceral. Covers can make me laugh or want to cry. They depress me, they confuse me, they infuriate me. Some I can't quite figure out, they leave me perplexed. How is it possible, I ask myself, that my book has been framed in such an ugly or banal way?
The right cover is like a beautiful coat, elegant and warm, wrapping my words as they travel through the world, on their way to keep an appointment with my readers.
The wrong cover is cumbersome, suffocating. Or it is like a too-light sweater: inadequate."
Some books we own and live with like people. "Their covers are tattered, yellowed, bleached by the sun. It is as if they were faces, furrowed, worn. They are, through and through, alive."
I like how she compares her feelings about book covers to her feelings about her clothing when she was a child - a daughter of Indian immigrants in the US. She writes "When I was a child, expressing myself through clothing was a source of anguish. I already felt different, conspicuous because of my name, my family, my appearance. In all respects, I wanted to be just like everybody else. I dreamt of sameness, even invisibility. Instead, forced to find my own style, I felt badly dressed, the exception rather than the rule." She later writes, "When my books were first published....I discovered that another part of me had to be dressed and presented to the world. But what is wrapped around my words--my book covers--is not of my choosing." --How the way we dress and present ourselves is similar to the way a book jacket does this for a book.
I've always thought it would be an interesting job designing book covers. However it was not until I read this book that I realized the gravity of the job. I never considered the opinion or process of the author on the book covers for books they'd written. Lahiri writes about how it has at times been a disappointing, difficult process. This never occurred to me. She writes:
"My reactions are various, visceral. Covers can make me laugh or want to cry. They depress me, they confuse me, they infuriate me. Some I can't quite figure out, they leave me perplexed. How is it possible, I ask myself, that my book has been framed in such an ugly or banal way?
The right cover is like a beautiful coat, elegant and warm, wrapping my words as they travel through the world, on their way to keep an appointment with my readers.
The wrong cover is cumbersome, suffocating. Or it is like a too-light sweater: inadequate."
Some books we own and live with like people. "Their covers are tattered, yellowed, bleached by the sun. It is as if they were faces, furrowed, worn. They are, through and through, alive."
I like how she compares her feelings about book covers to her feelings about her clothing when she was a child - a daughter of Indian immigrants in the US. She writes "When I was a child, expressing myself through clothing was a source of anguish. I already felt different, conspicuous because of my name, my family, my appearance. In all respects, I wanted to be just like everybody else. I dreamt of sameness, even invisibility. Instead, forced to find my own style, I felt badly dressed, the exception rather than the rule." She later writes, "When my books were first published....I discovered that another part of me had to be dressed and presented to the world. But what is wrapped around my words--my book covers--is not of my choosing." --How the way we dress and present ourselves is similar to the way a book jacket does this for a book.