Fat City by Leonard Gardner

Movie tie-in paperback edition of Fat City from 1972

Leonard Gardner's first and only novel remains a relatively obscure classic of boxing fiction. Set in the small town of Stockton, California where Gardner grew up, it follows the emerging career of Ernie Munger and the washed-up career of Billy Tully, two semi-professional lower-class boxers. Originally published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 1969, this paperback edition was published by Dell in conjunction with John Huston's film adaptation written by Gardner himself. Fat City is a fairly bleak book but an incredibly gripping one to read, and highlights a particular time and sub-genre of people in rural California as they try to make it to the big time, or "fat city" as it were.

Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin

Movie tie-in edition published by Frederick Ungar Publishing Co.

This edition of Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin was released sometime after Rainer Werner Fassbinder's adaptation aired in 1980, although the exact year is unspecified. Döblin's novel was originally published in German in 1929 with cover art by George Salter early on in his career. Lauded as a masterpiece of European literature, Berlin Alexanderplatz is the story of criminal Franz Biberkopf upon his release from prison and follows his attempt to lead a crime-free existence—trouble and crime obviously ensue. I read somewhere that Döblin finished his first draft of Berlin Alexanderplatz and then read Ulysses by James Joyce and completely rewrote the entire book, which was subsequently published. The stylistic parallels between the two are thinly-veiled at best. That said, it also isn't an easy book to read, nor is it easy watching Fassbinder's fifteen-plus hour film version, but they both have a fair amount of merit and a solid story. The cover features a still from Fassbinder's film designed by Ted Bernstein.