Tuesday, June 07, 2011

First Paragraph Tuesday


Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea started this Tuesday post where bloggers share the opening paragraph of their current read.
I picked up The First Husband by Laura Dave after seeing it on a book review blog but I chose it hoping to make my husband nervous since he is my first husband.
Here's the opening paragraph:
It feels important to start with the truth about how I got here. When everything gets messy and brutal and complicated, the truth is the first thing to go, isn't it? People try to shade it or spin it or fix it. As though fixing the facts will make the situation less messy and brutal and complicated. Not more. But there's no fixing this. The truth is that I brought it on myself. All of it. Everything that was coming next -- everything I couldn't have begun to imagine would constitute the next year of my life. After all, I was the one who did it that morning, knowing full well what could happen, what history had taught me would happen if I were reckless enough to go through with it. I went down to the living room, still wearing Nick's oversized pajama top, and snuggled myself under the blanket, turning on the DVD player. Like it was that easy. Like Roman Holiday was just any movie. Like it wasn't a bomb I was about to detonate right into the middle of my life.

I love Roman Holiday and Audrey Hepburn. I'm also a sucker for novels with a hook like old movies or old movie stars, like The Thing About Jane Spring which followed the premise that a woman would make all of her decisions based on what Doris Day's movie characters would have done.
I'm only on page 17 of The First Husband so the character is still wading into trouble. What do you think? Would you keep reading?

2 comments:

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

I love old movies as well, but I am not positive this book would hook me. It sounds like may might be too chick lit for me?

Hope you love it though.

Paulita said...

I think a lot of books that are written by women and deal with women's issues, especially if they are unmarried, are considered "chick lit" but doesn't that make Roman Holiday a chick flick?

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