Sunday, September 26, 2010

100 Best First Lines from Novels

American Book Review :: Home

I may have blogged this before, but it's always worth repeating.
Link via Neatorama.

4 comments:

Max Allan Collins said...

My favorite is missing:

"They threw me off the hay truck about noon."

James M. Cain, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE.

Some of my favorites are present, like LOLITA. But a good 25% of these choices represent truly lousy opening sentences. The pair of Pynchons are overwrought and precious, and I've gone on record before with the controversial notion that Crumley's famous first sentence is a gimmicky embarrassment.

Anonymous said...

Yes you have done this before. As I said then I'll say now: Crumley's The Last Good Kiss would be my choice.

Jeff

Cap'n Bob said...

I'd skip 90% of those books based on those first sentences.

Gerard said...

Glad to know I am not the only one who did not those sentences.

My vote is for Stephen Hunter's Three men at McAlester State Penitentiary had larger penises than Lamar Pye, but all were black and therefore, by Lamar's own figuring, hardly human at all.