Hasta La Ideas

You may recall that last week, in the throes of our summer-long case of Frank Lloyd Wright fever, we alluded to Gloria Vanderbilt‘s new novel, Obsession (Ecco), the tale of a Wright-like architect and his steamy life away from the drawing board. Aside from the Wright angle (and Frank himself detested nothing more) of the “erotic tale,” we detected a distinct mastery in the book’s cover, and we can now confirm that yup, it’s a Kidd! Graphic designer, writer, and budding rock star Chip Kidd designed the stunning cover and elegant interiors of Obsession, creating a cool foil for the hot plot that Joyce Carol Oates described as “a remarkable tapestry of human passion.” Interestingly, the mannequin heads, photographed by Geoff Spear, are from Vanderbilt’s own collection—and yet they could totally pass for the haughty aunts of the moonfaced Eishi Takaoka sculpture on the Kidd-designed cover of Kafka on the Shore! Read on for the first page of Obsession.

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