I know that there are people who wonder about me when I say this. They look at me strangely as if trying to fathom what could have happened back then, though I seldom bother to explain. Because I've lived here for most of my life, I don't feel that I have to unless it's on my terms, and that would take more time than most people are willing to give me. My story can't be summed up in two or three sentences; it can't be packaged into something neat and simple that people would imediately understand. Despite the passage of forty years, the people still living here who knew me that year accept my lack of explanation without question. My story in some ways is their story because it was something that all of us lived through.
It was I, however who was closest to it.
-Nicholas Sparks, "A Walk to Remember"
Something about this passage caught me, I normally would never have read a book like this one (most guys would call it a "chick book" I think) but I read this in the store and bought it, happened to be one of my favorites. It's not SciFi or Fantasy, but it's the writing that counts to me.
What do we think??
[This message has been edited by Gizzmo0411 (edited February 28, 2004).]
Posted by punahougirl84 (Member # 1731) on :
Speaking as a "chick" I have to admit while the first sentence was interesting, I was then bored by the rest of it. I feel like the person is trying to create some mystery to get me interested, but in reality the author is showing me how vague he can be - sort of fake tension. Now if the blurb, or info on the inside jacket cover, or even the teaser page gave signs of an interesting story I would probably read on, read past that part which is, after all, short. If someone recommended the book to me, I'd go past that part. But if that was all I had to go on, I would look for something else to read. So I guess the first sentence works, but the rest, for me, does not.
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
I agree, I'm afraid I don't like openers like this. I've read past many of them and found good stories behind them, and probably would with this book too, but I don't like it. It reads like an author trying to tease me and draw me in and the result is the exact opposite.
Posted by GZ (Member # 1374) on :
As a "Chick," I'm not so sure what is supposed to seem particuarly "chickish" about this, but I was hooked in. Yes, the first sentence is the most obvious, but the next paragraph, even in its teasing of plot, also says a lot about who the character is and the people around him, which I found engaging.
Posted by AeroB1033 (Member # 1956) on :
I have to admit, when I first read A Walk to Remember (and yes, speaking as a guy, I have read it), the hook didn't bother me.
Looking back on it, though, especially in the context of the rest of the book, it seems really cheap. It's a bunch of crappy rhetoric designed to make you think the following story is important. In my opinion, Sparks should have let the story speak for itself instead of opening in media res, because it was an engaging and emotional tale in its own right (if predictable).
It seems to me that this was a very 'commercial' opening, except I don't think the reader would even have needed it, if Sparks would have just had a little faith in his story.