In the beginning - some thoughts on opening lines

I recently read Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer’s novel Get a Life. Not the easiest book to read and probably worth a reread later. But what struck me was the unusual opening line: “Only the street-sweeper swishing his broom to collect fallen leaves from the gutter.”

Looking back after having finished the book, I realised what an amazing opening it is. It is like a haiku containing the very heart of the story in thirteen words (and three syllables more than a haiku) that do not even make a full sentence.

This prompted me to go on a very short stroll through some books at hand, looking for notable opening lines. I could probably have written an essay or a dissertation on my findings, but for now I will merely list a few, make some short remarks and hopefully inspire you to go on a word tasting trip of your own.

• Introducing distant places:

       “I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.” Karen Blixen, Out of Africa
       “Except for the Marabar Caves – and they are twenty miles off – the city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary.” E.M. Forster, A Passage to India

• Some family stories:

       “Those privileged to be present at a family festival of the Forsytes have seen that charming and instructive sight – an upper middle-class family in full plumage.” John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga
       “’You too will marry a boy I choose,’ said Mrs. Rupa Mehra firmly to her younger daughter.” Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy

• And other relationships:

       “For a man of his age, fifty-two, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well.” J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace
       “He belonged to that class of men – vaguely unprepossessing, often bald, short, fat, clever – who were unaccountably attractive to certain women.” Ian McEwan, Solar

• From three dystopian novels:

      “A squat grey building of only thirty-four storeys. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State’s motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY.” Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
      “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
      “When he woke in the woods in the dark and the cold of the night he’d reach out to touch the child sleeping beside him.” Cormack McCarthy, The Road

• And then a few ocean-faring stories:

      “Call me Ishmael. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.” Herman Melville, Moby Dick
      “Laden like a bowl of cherries, the ship of fools sits on the lawn of the sea.” Gregory Norminton, The Ship of Fools
      “A man went to knock at the king’s door and said, Give me a boat.” José Saramago, The Tale of the Unknown Island
      “He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.” Ernest Hemmingway, The Old Man and the Sea

• Freely translated from an Afrikaans novel:

      “Demosthenes H. de Goede, newly promoted to Captain in the detective service, recently cured of a speech impediment, of bold stature, in appearance a model of self-satisfaction and the embodiment of everyone’s manly ideal, but with the fine, calm face  of humanity’s enduring servant, with etched thereon something of the melancholy born from eternal servitude to his occupation, sits at the breakfast table loudly eating, while he snorts through his nose and his wife, Hope, the nymphomaniac, watches him with displeasure Etienne Leroux, The Third Eye (from The Silberstein Trilogy)

• And for a really ancient beginning:

      “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The Bible, King James Version