Two Sides of Freedom: Comparing Franzen Covers

By Tom

Another installment in one of my favorite literary pastimes: comparing US and UK covers of the same book. In this case, two views of perhaps the biggest novel of the fall, Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, in US and UK versions:

What do you think? Could hardly be more different, except for the feather motif, which readers, particularly finishers, of the book, will understand (and which readers of his recent New Yorker piece on the mass slaughter of songbirds in Europe will not be surprised to see). The US cover has a stronger thematic tie to the story, but I find myself drawn to the bold blocks of the UK one.

And, for another view, my own vacation snap of some appropriate lakeside reading a couple of weeks ag

--Tom