Although we've all been taught not to 'judge a book by its cover', this expression is an unavoidable truth. Our first impression of almost anything is what it looks like. If the cover doesn't evoke a want to open the book, why even bother putting it out on shelves? My first impression of the book Boleto, was a great one. While searching through the Greywolf press website, this book instantly caught my eye. The cover features the upper body of a horse in the foreground, with a faint outline of clouds and mountains behind it, all of which are shades of brown, black, and white. A farther away horse is shown running away from the foreground. A large bright blue rectangle above the horses with "BOLETO" centered in it. This contrast between the background and the title creates a wonderful focal point that draws your eye in. This cover, though not technically part of the rhetorical analysis, deserves recognition for its proficiency in grabbing attention.
Moving onto the writeup of the book, including the description and brief testimonies, is where the rhetorical analysis comes into play. The first sentence showers the author with compliments regarding the novel and how the story is "masterfully told," and "exquisitely observed". After reading through the short summary, it is clear that this book is geared towards a younger or middle aged adult population.
Breaking the write up down into the three angles of appeal, ethos, pathos, and logos, can give a very in-depth analysis. The first of the three is ethos. The Texas A&M University Writing Center defines ethos as using "the writer's own credibility" (Texas A&M). This use of credibility is used by Alyson Hagy for not so much her own credibility, but for the credibility of others who had read the book. The only credibility given to her is that she "delivers a masterfully told" novel, as noted above. The real credibility comes from the reviews from extremely credible sources, such as NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and The Chicago Tribune. NPR claims "Alyson Hagy's writing is spare and eloquent" (NPR), while Chicago Tribune states "Boleto will move your spirit" (Chicago Tribune). Reviews such as point out to readers considering the book that others loved it, so you should too. The second appeal is pathos. Pathos "invokes the the audience's attention" using "a reader's sympathy and compassion, anger and disappointment, desire for love, or sadness" (Texas A&M). Within the write up, the main character called Will is described as "honest, forthright, polite, capable, [and] modest," things "you'd want in a cowboy" (Boleto). Words such as these give the audience an immediate connection to the main character. They feel that if he's called honest, polite, and capable, other characters in the book whom he does not trust, treat him rudely, or don't take him seriously are instantly disliked by readers. This specific appeal is used to make those reading the write want to learn more about the main character, which is exactly why the author described him in this manner. The last appeal is logos. Logos is the use of "reason to make a case" (Texas A&M). Within a book write up, not much logos is used considering the novel is a work of fiction, and a case to read the book made by hard facts is not very effective. The only logos used on the book is the write up as a whole. The description combined with the reviews show readers that the book they are about to read (as told by the writeup) was also read and obviously liked by critics (as shown by the reviews). Another is the fact that this book is a Greywolf Bestseller, which is proof that it is well liked by others. Though both of these examples are technically a mix between logos and ethos, they are as close to logos as we can get in a book write up.
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