Sunday, May 04, 2008

First lines

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera begins

It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.

That is my favorite first line of a novel. It's not my favorite novel, but that opening sentence is just perfection. I didn't realize it until after I'd finished the book, but it so succinctly summarizes the whole work that even now it astounds me.

Noodle4

3 comments:

smalltownme said...

That's also in my "to read" pile.

Vanessa said...

I think that is the hardest part about writing your own book, the opening line. I have complete other chapters written, but the opening sentence alludes me.

Anonymous said...

That is a great opening line....so, have you seen the movie??