An un-memoir.
Maurice Yacowar challenges genre and form in Roy & Me, a cross between memoir and fiction, truth and distortion. It explores Yacowar’s relationship with Roy Farran (British-Canadian soldier, cabinet minister for Lougheed, alleged anti-Semite and murderer) while they worked together at the Calgary North Hill News in the summer of 1958.
Considering Farran’s politics, there is a certain poetic justice in the page layout: Maurice’s remembrance of his early foray into journalism lies on the left, while Roy’s story (or a “shameless fantasy” as Maurice calls it, formed from memory and Farran’s published works) leans to the right of the page, separated by strong black bars. We dug up a very handsome/nerdy photo of Maurice from a 1963 edition of the Peretz School Mirror newspaper to accompany his bio.
For the cover, I reflected and inverted a newspaper article to represent the opposing sides of the narrative, with the poppy identifying the antithesis between the two journalists.
Roy travelled around North America with 84 other books and printouts with “do not touch” signs near them and also occupies space in an index — highly coveted space in the 2011 AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show catalogue index.
Client: AU Press
Author: Maurice Yacowar
Publication Date: October 2010
Awards: Association of American University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show 2010 Award in the Trade Typographic and Jacket Design categories
