Robert Coover’s writing is by no means mainstream. His work is literary and critically very highly regarded. The publisher wanted this book to be more accessible. After reading the opening paragraph of this novel it became very obvious that this very paragraph should be the cover of the book. It is somewhat melodramatic and titillating and has a soap opera sensibility to it. I felt that exploiting that would heighten interest and disspell the notion that Coover’s work was for only an elite few. Since it is the first paragraph of the novel I thought the design should mimic a classical manuscript that might appear in the interior of a book. The little red lips are there to imply the sex that is throughout the book as well as counter the classicism of the overall cover design.