100 Best First Lines from Novels

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Fair enough Laura.

I'll confess that my eeeeesthetique leans more towards Bob Clampett 
& Chuck Jones, Tex Avery—one of those things that I just 
loooooooove in Pynchon, Vineland in particular, are the cartoons. 
They may be cardboard-cutout cartoons of characters, but they're 
every bit as good as anything on the Simpsons. The first image of 
Ignatius J. Reilly is a malevolent comic masterstroke, much like 
Bob Clampett's and Chuck Jones' early rendition of Elmer Fudd, 
with rolls of fat joining neck and skull, clearly a tragicomic clown, 
with an infants soft skull, an obvious case of craniotabes. 

Genius, really.
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: kelber at mindspring.com
> To be honest, I found this first sentence so unpleasant that it put me off 
> (rightly or wrongly) from reading the book.  Maybe a book shouldn't be judged by 
> its cover, but the first sentence seems fair game -- the author's got complete 
> control.
> 
> Laura
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: robinlandseadel at comcast.net
> 
> >
> >104: A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy 
> >balloon of a head.
> >John Kennedy Toole: "A Confedracy of Dunces"
> >
> >
> >
> >http://americanbookreview.org/100BestLines.asp
> >
>