JUDGING A BOOK BY ITS COVER

What a time we live in.  Who would have thought being a Nazi, neo or whatever, would be something people would be proud of? Being rebellious and angry is one thing, but appropriating a symbol without knowing what it really stands for is just stupid.

Of course, symbols are complex things, aren’t they?  

The swastika itself was an ancient design from Asia that the National Socialists appropriated because of their belief in the Aryan origins of the Teutonic race. I imagine they would be in furious denial to know how DNA research has traced all of us back to Africa!

But now even when you see a swastika on a Tibetan pot or a Navaho blanket, it gives you a jolt.  Even oriented in a different direction than the Nazis liked, it is a nasty little spider – and here I’m giving spiders a bad name. 

 

So putting swastikas on the cover of my book was not a light decision – and now I’m not sure I like it. I found the photograph of a National Socialist rally and thought the light and color were effective and suggest the dire events of the novel.

I loved the first cover, the blue one, designed by St. Martin’s.  For one thing there was no swastika, the Third Reich being suggested by the background eagle and of course by the uniform of the man embracing the woman. But the cover definitely told you this was a love story and the new one just tells you the book is about Nazis.

At the East Bay Book Fest, I watched people respond to the cover. I saw a couple of young women shy away and a young man come straight to it. He bought a copy, thank you very much, and I wonder if he was disappointed to find a love story front and center.