Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of her current read. Anyone can join in. Go to Diane's website for the image and share the first paragraph of the current book you are reading.
Anne Enright, who won the Man Booker Prize for The Gathering has a book called The Forgotten Waltz. A lot of times I don't enjoy award-winning books so much, but this one sounded intriguing. Maybe I'll agree with the award committee. Here's the first paragraph:
I met him in my sister's garden in Enniskerry. That is where I saw him first. There was nothing fated about it, though I add in the late summer light and the view. I put him at the bottom of my sister's garden, in the afternoon, at the moment the day begins to turn. Half five maybe. It is half past five on a Wicklow summer Sunday when I see Sean for the first time. There he is, where the end of my sister's garden becomes uncertain. He is about to turn around -- but he doesn't know this yet. He is looking at the view and I am looking at him. The sun is low and lovely. He is standing where the hillside begins its slow run down to the coast, and the light is at his back, and it is just that time of day when all the colours come into their own.
I haven't started this book yet, but I have to say that I'm put off by all the passive sentence constructions, all the wasted words -- the "there was" and "he is" and "he is" -- words I'm working to get out of my writing.
What do you think?
Also this week is Teaser Tuesdays.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
Here's my teaser from page 41:
"I'm not bothered."
"You take it personally, don't you? The house, the car, the holidays in the sun. You take it personally, because you're Irish. If you were American, you'd let them have it. Because, you know, these people are not connected to you. They bought their nice house and your name didn't even come up. They went to the Bahamas and they didn't even forget to invite you."
10 comments:
interesting
my tt
SOunds like an interesting read. I also have it in my TBR pile :)
http://carabosseslibrary.blogspot.com/2012/01/teaser-tuesdays.html
Hmm, interesting.
Here's my TT this week:
http://ttoria.blogspot.com
Happy New Year!
New follower :-)
TToria
xo
Wow, that sounds kind of harsh!
Happy New Year, I'm a new follower via RSS :)
Good luck with your classes your teaching (I read the previous post.)
April @ My Shelf Confessions: Teaser Tuesday
I have a library hold on this book and hope to read it soon. I see what you mean about the writing, but it doesn't bother me in that paragraph. We'll see how I feel after a few chapters.
Your comment on the passive voice made me smile - it's one of my oldest daughter's pet peeves :-)
I want to read this one, but the flow is bugging me already, just from that intro!
It looks good to me. I purchased the last book you did on your blog, can't remember the name, and really enjoyed it.
This opening appeals to me ... and it is obviously Irish and I used to live in Ireland, making that a draw, too.
I understand what you are saying, but I feel that it is necessary in setting this particular scene and adds to the atmosphere. I shall definititely put it on my list.
Thank you!
Ooh, that sounds pretty interesting. I think I'll add it to my TBR list - I hadn't heard of it previously.
Stephanie @ Stepping Out Of The Page
This was such a beautifully written novel...I enjoyed it much more than I expected to.
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