We grew up listening to our mothers tell us how important first impressions are. We pooh-poohed them at the time, but of course there was a lot of truth in what they said. I think this business is highly, highly influenced by first impressions, simply because there's so much to sort through. So bad things (poor grammar, a badly formatted manuscript, typos) help serve as filters as we look for reasons to discard 95 of those 100 manuscripts or proposals sitting on our desks.
Not only in manuscript form, but even more so in published form, what is our first impression of a book formed by? By the title and the cover art, of course. A good title should catch the reader's attention and cause him or her to wonder about it, or to ask a question about it, or to pick it up and read the flap or back cover copy.
Some titles are so bad that they are actually good. Consider, for example, the Dummies and Idiots series. Who ever would have thought that so many millions of people would willingly identify themselves as idiots?
I am thinking about these things because lately I seem to have come across a rash of rather poorly considered titles. Very generic things like Death in Los Angeles (b-o-r-i-n-g), Considering Suicide (why on earth would a lover of mysteries be drawn to such a title?), On My Way to the Supermarket (next, please)...and of course those atrocious puns that I loathe but which I also admit are appealing to the reading public, which does make me publish them occasionally. (I've made up the titles in this paragraph to protect the innocent, but you see my point.)
So today I am going to opine a bit about some of my favorite titles, which are not necessarily my favorite books. I was going to call this the "Top 10 List of Best Mystery Titles," but since I do not know the names of all mysteries ever published, I thought that would be a bit presumptuous. Instead, I am opting for:
AGATHO'S MYSTERY TITLE HALL OF FAME
1. Simisola, by Ruth Rendell. The brilliance of this title comes from the fact that the reader has no idea what it means until literally the last paragraph of the book. So not only does it pique the reader's curiosity to pick up the book to begin with (it's not a common word), it only adds to the mysteriousness of the plot.
2. Motherless Brooklyn, by Jonathan Lethem. The protagonist of this modern mystery/ fable suffers from Tourette's Syndrome, and is one of the Brooklyn orphans taken under the wing of a modern Fagin. A very effective novel with a terrific title.
3. Morality for Beautiful Girls, by Alexander McCall Smith. The joy of Smith's titles lies in the way they so perfectly match the tone and spirit of his books. Morality for Beautiful Girls is one of my favorites in the Precious Ramotswe series, not only for its title but also for its exploration of the character of Mma Makutsi and her all-too-real experience with learning about the world's natural prejudice in favor of attractive people.
4. Who in Hell is Wanda Fuca? by G.M. Ford. I had to include one punning title in my list, and this is the one, a pun on the Washington's Straits of Juan de Fuca. The book itself is a bit over the top (I don't tend to enjoy books populated by alcoholics), but I do love the title.
5. The Caveman's Valentine, by George Dawes Green. This is one of my favorite books. From the title through the last page, the book confounds expectations and grows richer and deeper. The "Caveman" isn't who you think he would be, nor is his valentine what one would expect.
6. The Bride Wore Black, by Cornell Woolrich. The father of modern noir probably used the word "black" in more titles than any other writer in the history of the universe. What I love so much about this title is the way it is so in your face, so flying in the face of convention that you absolutely must know what it's all about. And to do that, you have to read the book.
7. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. I did not love this mystery, narrated by an autistic teenager, as it felt a bit overdone to me. But the title is a very clever of mix of the very traditional (think Holmesian and the Hound of the Baskervilles) and the quirkily grammatical. If this manuscript had crossed my desk, I would have picked it up immediately.
8. How Like an Angel, by Margaret Millar. Millar was at the top of her form with this tale of a missing husband and a religious cult. The title perfectly fits the many themes of the book while making the reader want to know more. Millar has other great titles, too: Beyond this Point Are Monsters, Vanish in an Instant, Do Evil in Return.
9. The Fault Tree, by Louise Ure. I can't quite explain why I find this title so provocative, except for the fact that I see and it and think I should know what it means--and yet somehow, I don't. (Turns out it is techno-speak for an analysis of the many ways things can go wrong.) Ure also manages to give it a double meaning and does a nice job of it.
10. Lemon in the Basket, by Charlotte Armstrong. Not only one of Armstrong's best books, but probably her best title, referring to the odd-man-out in an overachieving family. The title, I think, reflects the great humanity of Armstrong as a writer, her understanding that at some time in all our lives we have felt inadequate, underprepared, and outshone--that we have all been the sour lemon in the basket of much sweeter fruit.
I have more I want to write about titles, but I'm already breaking my 2009 resolution of writing shorter blog entries, so perhaps next time I'll do Titles, Part 2.
I do love titles. I even like the ones that make me laugh like : Snakes on a Plane. Please, why watch the movie. Seems like the title tells it all. Then there are the ones with the provactive title and the book or movie is this huge flop. So dissapointing. Sometimes I don't make it all the way through. I also love making them up, like the title of my books. Perhaps you would enjoy them as well even though they aren't mysteries.
DW Golden
Fly with Fairies in Purple Butterflies, a new young adult novel now available at Amazon.com
Posted by: DW Golden | January 22, 2009 at 10:38 PM
Great titles! I loved Barbara Paul's titles. One of her best has to be "The Renewable Virgin" from her Marian Larch series.
Posted by: Mary B | January 23, 2009 at 12:40 PM