Friday, May 25, 2012

First Line Friday

This week's first line is from . . . a short story.  What? That's right, not a novel, but a short story.  It's an impressive short story, in my view, and the first line is well done too.

"Robert Frost made his visit in November of 1960, just a week after the general election."

In fact, I'd go as far as to say that the first TWO WORDS are powerful in this context.  You open up the story, and you immediately read "Robert Frost," which is intriguing.  A story about Robert Frost?  Or poetry?  Seeing as Robert Frost is a real poet, is the story fictional?  Etc.  The first two words illicit many questions.

The story is "Class Picture" by Tobias Wolff, which was first published in The New Yorker in 2003.  I'd recommend it.


1 comment:

  1. Great beginning, but reader beware, this story has a disappointing fizzle of an ending- as we've discussed here

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