I was introduced to the writer Alice Munro by our friend Matt Rader whom we got friends with here, in the family housing of the UofO, where we shared the experience of meeting people from different countries. Matt, Malanie and their adorable daughter - Neela came from Vancouver Island, Canada. By knowing them, we learned that the thing Canadian dislike the most is when you don't see the difference between them and the Americans (In spite of the fact that both countries share the gourmet chain restaurant of Denny's...) and I guess they learned from us that not all the Israelis are army oriented - few of them are not so fierce.....
One day in the summer of 2007, while the kids were playing in the neighborhood playground we exchanged national writers that we like (a recurring subject, since Matt is a writer).
He gave me the Canadian writer Alice Munro and her book Open Secrets and I gave him A. B. Yehoshua and his book A Woman in Jerusalem by (pretty different products..... I must say....)
Victoria BC
Vancouver Island, Canada
I'm so thankful to Matt for this afternoon. Alice Munro is one of my favorite writers now. completely amazing writer and fortunately well translated to Hebrew. What ways she has to express the full meaningless of our lives... with all the healthy irony and common sense.
Another aspect of commercial translation that is interesting for me, being a visual person, is the covers of the books. I can't avoid judging the book covers.
OH MY GOD! what a piece of work the Israeli publisher provided with the design of Open Secrets It's unbelievable! They put such an effort with the translation and then - Oops!!! what is this bead cover supposed to mean?
Open Secrets :Alice Munro, in Hebrew - the cover design - what a flop!
Is it a craft book? is it supposed to sell as a teenager book, or maybe it is a script for a soap opera? or maybe just a very bad flight book?
Open Secrets in English (the American cover)
- not a brilliant design but at least it's not embarrassing....
Runaway - in Hebrew
The American stuck to the concept that sex sells and came with this soft porn design:
Runaway - in English (the American cover)
Typical soft porn image
The book I recommended to Matt by A. B. Yehoshua titled "The Mission of the Human Resources Manager" in Hebrew.
This is a great book - so unique and brilliant (by the way - it's not something I feel about all the books I read of A. B. Yehoshua but this one... Yes! It's a masterpiece)
A woman in Jerusalem : A. B. Yehoshua. in Hebrew
(the American cover)
Anyway the sophisticated writing of this book is absolutely connected to the original name (In Hebrew).
And what about the cover? Here we see an ocean beach resort brochure which is soooooooo wrong and unrelated to this realistic novel. And where did the sand come from - Jerusalem???
Do these designers/publishers ever read the book before they decide on a cover?
This book is not about a woman slipping to the ocean in Cape Cod, it's about a woman that was killed in a suicide bombing in crowded Jerusalem.......
And what about the cover? Here we see an ocean beach resort brochure which is soooooooo wrong and unrelated to this realistic novel. And where did the sand come from - Jerusalem???
Do these designers/publishers ever read the book before they decide on a cover?
This book is not about a woman slipping to the ocean in Cape Cod, it's about a woman that was killed in a suicide bombing in crowded Jerusalem.......
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