MacEvoy has been putting a bug in my ear as of late about The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. I haven't read it, but I did take a look at the first page earlier today. As such, I figured we might as well examine its first line:
"To start with, look at all the books."
Hmmmmm. I don't love it, to be honest. It's too flippant. Too brief. Too colloquial for my taste. MacEvoy may disagree . . .
(Side Note: I am considering discontinuing First Line Friday to pursue other opportunities, such as "Title Tuesdays" or "Metaphor Mondays." What say all of you? Are we tired of First Line Fridays?)
It reminds me of the first line of Blood Meridian, which we covered here. In the comments of that post I typed out the lines that followed the first sentence and still wasn't too impressed.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of The Marriage Plot, though. I think the second and third lines work together to paint an interesting picture of the character by examining her reading habits:
"To start with, look at all the books. There were her Edith Wharton novels, arranged not by title but date of publication; there was the complete Modern Library set of Henry James, a gift from her father on her twenty-first birthday; there were the dog-eared paperback assigned in her college courses, a lot of Dickens, a smidgen of Trollope, along with good helpings of Austen, George Eliot, and the redoubtable Bronte sisters."
And it goes on from there. I think it builds nicely, and as someone who loves books about books, it completely draws me in.