Breast Case Scenario (and other terrible titles)
New York magazine has a feature on the titles authors almost gave their books. Or rather, in most cases, the titles they wanted to give their books until their publishers told them how awful they sounded.
There’s nothing quite on the level of Trimalchio in West Egg (Fitzgerald’s preferred title for The Great Gatsby), though there is Breast Case Scenario, Marisa Acocella Marchetto’s original title for Cancer Vixen, and Quillblog’s favourite, Jolly Murder Mystery, Kate Atkinson’s prefered title for One Good Turn before it was mercifully nixed by her U.S. editors.
Spoiling the fun is Richard Ford, who says about his new novel, “The Lay of the Land was always this book’s title — and I don’t remember how I figured that out, or dreamed it up, or found it. It seems to me so riven into the gist of the book itself that I’ve departed from any memory of when it wasn’t the title.”
I don’t know, but “departed from any memory of when it wasn’t the title” sounds suspiciously like “I thought up some real stinkers, but there’s no way I’m telling you.” And what does “riven into the gist” mean?” Now that would make for a terrible book title.
Related links:
Read the piece in New York magazine
