Grand Openings

"It was a dark and stormy night."

"Long ago and far away..."

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again."

You're familiar with those, right? Famous first lines of novels, so overdone they've become cliches. I suppose it's only natural for writers to pay attention to first lines of novels, newspaper or magazine articles, and even blog entries. The ones we know best are usually from the classics. Writers also tend to notice those opening lines that immediately hook our interest, fan our curiosity, and draw us into a story. I got curious about some first lines from other novels, ones that haven't become familiar but did their job well as "hooks."

Here are a few that I thought particularly intriguing:

"Under normal circumstances, Faith and I should not be home when my mother calls and invites us to come see her brand-new coffin." -Jodi Picoult, Keeping Faith

"When the monster finally came through the door, he was wearing a mask." -Jodi Picoult, Perfect Match

"There are only three great puzzles in the world, the puzzle of love, the puzzle of death, and, between each of these and part of both of them, the puzzle of God. God is the greatest puzzle of all." -Niall Williams, As It Is in Heaven

"Until I began to build and launch rockets, I didn't know my hometown was at war with itself over its children and that my parents were locked in a kind of bloodless combat over how my brother and I would live our lives." -Homer Hickam, Jr., October Sky

"At the vulnerable age of thirty, Robert Shannon lost his soul." -Frank Delaney, Shannon

"The world had teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted." -Stephen King, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

"Come into my cell. Make yourself at home." -Walker Percy, Lancelot

"I seem to have trouble dying." -Lawrence Hill, Someone Knows My Name

"This is a thing I've learned: Even with a gun to my head, I am capable of being convulsed with laughter." -Dean Koontz, Relentless

"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." -Donna Tartt, The Secret History

"At precisely zero hours UT, or midnight Universal Time, the image of the tortured man erupted onto the world's most popular Web site." -David Baldacci, The Whole Truth

"Captain Crozier comes up on deck to find his ship under attack by celestial ghosts." -Dan Simmons, The Terror

"I saw Byzantium in a dream, and knew that I would die there." -Stephen R. Lawhead, Byzantium

-----

None of these are from "classics," but they did their job well. They beckoned me into their story. If you have some favorites of your own, feel free to share.

 BJ

Comments

[Susie Wankerl]

"I can abide neither a liar nor a cheat, but you may be wont to think me such while I hear relate my little tale." - All the Tea in China, Jane Orcutt.

[Eric P.]

Great post! Here's two of my favorites of all time. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."-The Hobbit; J.R.R. Tolkien And: "In the beginning, God created..." :-)