Friday, July 23, 2010

Book Beginnings | Friday, July 23

On every Friday, Page Turners posts a message asking for others to send a link to the opening sentence of a the novel that they are currently reading.  I just came across this, so I guess I missed out on last week but here goes for today.

The opening line from "Tender is the Night":

"On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about half-way between Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud, rose-coloured hotel."

First off, due to the spelling of "coloured", it's obvious that this is a Canadian edition.  Secondly, while this opening line is pleasant, it never really stuck with me and now that I'm about 70 pages from the end, I can't say that it does anything for me looking back except to tell me where all of this hullabaloo started [not chronologically, but in the story].  However, I do really enjoy the idea of a proud hotel, ignoring the concept of proud people within a hotel [which does nothing for me].

3 comments:

Booklover Book Reviews said...

Agree, it is a bit of a mediocre start. Might make for a nice classic opening scene of a movie though...

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

That opener is definitely unusual, but it sparks my curiosity.

Here's mine:

http://laurelrainsnowswonderland.wordpress.com/2010/07/23/book-beginnings-on-friday-14/

Rebecca Chapman said...

I mist be odd person out - I really love that opener. I love the imagery it creates, I can picture the hotel in my mind