Mark Rubinstein's Blog - Posts Tagged "themes"
A Book and its Cover
When I wrote Mad Dog House, I hoped I’d written an action-packed crime thriller about a man and his best friend who become silent partners in a New York restaurant. When they learn their lives and those of their loved ones are in danger, Roddy Dolan, must come up with a plan to get out of this predicament.
A graphic artist read the novel and devised a cover that captured the flavor and suspense of the book. It showed the title in blood red against an ominous backdrop of bare woods, with a sliver of moon at the top. In the middle of the “O” in “Dog” is the silhouette of a .45. The cover certainly depicts a crime thriller with frightening overtones.
I must admit, when the novel was about to be published, I worried that some women readers would find it too testosterone-driven because of the gritty dialogue, scenes of graphic violence, and the ominous-looking cover.
But reviewers (including women) commented that the story’s violence was in the service of not only telling a tale, but plumbed deeper issues, too. They included the moral dilemma of how far a man would go to protect himself and his loved ones; the roles of love, loyalty and betrayal; the effects our early lives have on us as adults; and whether we can leave our pasts behind, or be haunted and enslaved by our earlier years.
While I was aware of these issues as I wrote the novel, they weren’t uppermost in my mind. My goal was to tell a suspenseful story.
So I guess the bottom line is: there may be much more in a novel than what the book's cover depicts.
In other words, you can’t judge a book by its cover.
Mark Rubinstein
Author, Mad Dog House
A graphic artist read the novel and devised a cover that captured the flavor and suspense of the book. It showed the title in blood red against an ominous backdrop of bare woods, with a sliver of moon at the top. In the middle of the “O” in “Dog” is the silhouette of a .45. The cover certainly depicts a crime thriller with frightening overtones.
I must admit, when the novel was about to be published, I worried that some women readers would find it too testosterone-driven because of the gritty dialogue, scenes of graphic violence, and the ominous-looking cover.
But reviewers (including women) commented that the story’s violence was in the service of not only telling a tale, but plumbed deeper issues, too. They included the moral dilemma of how far a man would go to protect himself and his loved ones; the roles of love, loyalty and betrayal; the effects our early lives have on us as adults; and whether we can leave our pasts behind, or be haunted and enslaved by our earlier years.
While I was aware of these issues as I wrote the novel, they weren’t uppermost in my mind. My goal was to tell a suspenseful story.
So I guess the bottom line is: there may be much more in a novel than what the book's cover depicts.
In other words, you can’t judge a book by its cover.
Mark Rubinstein
Author, Mad Dog House
