Poster Girl

Some call them guerrilla posters. Others call them “snipes.” A few consider them eyesores. Grove Press only hopes they work.

The mid-sized publisher has plastered 6,750 posters for Banana Yoshimoto’s novel “Kitchen” on construction sites and inviting walls around Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. Where you might spot one-sheets for rapper Ice Cube or the latest action movie, you now see the 28-year-old Japanese novelist sharing plywood with the likes of Eazy-E and some rock group called Balistyx.

Yoshimoto’s story about a young orphan and a drag queen has sold two million copies in Japan. To help slip what they’re calling “Bananamania” into the States, Grove has targeted young, hip readers--thus the guerrilla posters drawn by Spy magazine cartoonist Drew Friedman. The same image appears on “Kitchen’s” newspaper ads.

Grove doesn’t know of any publisher who’s tried a post-some-bills campaign. “I wouldn’t do this kind of thing for a book by Arthur Schlesinger Jr.,” says Ken Siman, the house’s 30-year-old publicity-and-advertising director, “but nobody my age is reading books any more. So what I tried was a totally different idea to market books. It’s exactly the thing Grove should do as other publishers become more corporate. If Grove doesn’t do something bold, who will?” he asks, alluding to the press’ history of courageous publishing.

Guerrilla placards aren’t always loved by the authorities. So far, Grove says, nobody’s made a “Kitchen” stink. On the other hand, the house believes it’s too early to know if the strategy is boosting sales.

The black-and-white poster bears little resemblance to the novel’s colorful cover, which features a photo of model Yuka Matsunaga in front of an inverted coffee cup. So how is the young, hip reader supposed to make the bookstore connection? Says Siman: “That’s a good question.”