The Great Book Club met last night, and five of us discussed Mrs. Dalloway, a 1925 novel by Virginia Woolf. It made me think about first sentences in novels.
I’m sure you remember “Call me Ishmael,” which is the start of Moby Dick. And “It was a dark and story night,” which is the start of Paul Clifford, although this sentence has now degenerated to represent something trite and tedious.
For the record, the opening of Mrs. Dalloway is “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.” The sentence has been dissected and re-dissected ad nauseam. Personally I put it in the Dark and Stormy Night category. So what openers have intrigued me lately?
How about this? “Answer the door after midnight and you might as well set a place at the table for trouble.” This is Jo-Ann Mapson’s Hank and Chloe. Or this: “The thing is, all memory is fiction.” Find it in Robert Goolrick’s Heading Out to Wonderful. And finally, “This much is not in dispute.” It’s the opening line to The Other Side of the River by Alex Kotlowitz.
Perhaps I’m fascinated by first sentences because I’m not good at them. I’m much better with closing lines. In this case, the three books from which I culled opening sentences are on my list as future recommendations to book club members.
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