[lit-ideas] Re: Opening lines
- From: "carol kirschenbaum" <carolkir@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 16:47:56 -0700
I'd continue, if only to hear more about being in bed with a catamite,
whatever that is. Gutsy opening for a contemporary novel. But like Judy and
Julie, I'd check the book's midsection before committing myself to an
unknown author and an 81 year-old narrator. Depends on my mood, frankly.
I just finished a novel by someone called Harlan Coben that I had to pinch
my way through. Read a piece on him in some magazine: he's one of those
millionaire best-selling authors who's under the media's radar
screen. (There are at least two of them, I guess.) Anyway, by page 10 I
figured there'd be the hint of one of his "page-turning, twisting plots,"
but no. Cutesy generic characters. Only slightly daunted, I plunged on to
page 50. Yes, a little plottish stuff, some broad sense of place, but mainly
the thing read like an outline with characters' backstories. I stayed
with all 400 pages of the damned thing, telling myself that it's all right
to put down a bad book. Still, Bill Clinton bothered to write the author a
"bravo" note for this novel, called "Promise Me," and Coben was featured in
Harper's or the Atlantic, I think, that I was assured my first taste of
Coben would be sweet...This wasn't even guilt candy. Not close to Jonathan
Kellerman at his worst, for instance. Yet he sells bundles. I don't get the
allure. No cliffhangers a la Da Vinci Code, no juicy characters, no stealthy
or glitzy underworld, no thematic oomphiness or literary hauteur--nada. It's
too bland to believe. Why not just flip on the TV, it's more stimulating.
Yet lots of people still read, and they're reading HIM! Galling. Harumph.
Okay, I'm done with this rant now.
Carol
(It's 105 degrees for what feels like te 105th day in a row)
On 7/29/07, Judith Evans <judithevans1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> The page with the reviews and extended blurb? Yes, I do that, to decide
> whether to borrow it from the library.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Julie Krueger <juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx>
> *To:* lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> *Sent:* Monday, July 30, 2007 1:52 AM
> *Subject:* [lit-ideas] Re: Opening lines
>
>
> I'd jump to something approximating the middle of the book, read a line or
> two, flip to the back page and read it (which I nearly always do
> anyway....). That should decide it for me <g>.
>
> Julie Krueger
>
> On 7/29/07, Judith Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > I haven't read _Earthly Powers_ (perhaps the length
> > put me off, perhaps there were some bad reviews) but
> > if I'd decided to, the first line wouldn't have made
> > me stop reading. (I'm not quite sure why it would,
> > why it would be thought off-putting. I suppose if it
> > were the first line of a novel by a new writer or an
> > established writer I didn't like, it might, though
> > I've never, I think, stopped reading just because of a
> > first line, as opposed to a very boring long first
> > paragraph.)
> >
> > Judy Evans
> >
> >
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