“Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.”
- Gene Fowler
It's no guarantee that an intriguing opening sentence of a book will mean the rest of it's going to be a jewel. It's a good start, though. If a writer can hook a reader with a sentence that makes them go, “Okay, I've gotta know where this is going” then at least they have their attention…if they can keep it.
We all likely know some of the most famous openers: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” - “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (A Tale of Two Cities) - “Call me Inchmeal" (Moby Dick) - Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" (Anna Karenina) - “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen” (1984).
I have many favorites of my own. Here's a handful. Maybe one will hook you.
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall: If I could tell you only one thing about my life it would be this: I was seven years old when the mailman ran over my head.
Canada by Richard Ford: First, I'll tell you about the robbery our parents committed.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt: The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.
Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis by Howell Raines: Like many Southerners, I was ruined for church by early exposure to preachers.
A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving: I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice — not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers: In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together.
The Toughest Indian in the World by Sherman Alexie: Regarding love, marriage and sex, both Shakespeare and Sitting Bull knew the only truth: treaties get broken.
You Can't Be Any Poorer Than Dead by Flannery O'Connor: Francis Marion Tarwater's uncle had been dead for only half a day when the boy got too drunk to finish digging his grave and a Negro named Buford Munson, who had come to get a jug filled, had to finish it and drag the body from the breakfast table where it was still sitting and bury it in a decent and Christian way, with the sign of its Savior at the head of the grave and enough dirt on top to keep the dogs from digging it up.
Any I need to know about?
Since I don't have songs that really relate to the topic, it gives me an excuse to play three pretty ones.