Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader. We share the first sentence (or so) of the book we are reading, along with our initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
Amory Blaine inherited from his mother every trait, except the stray inexpressible few, that made him worth while. His father, an ineffectual, inarticulate man with a taste for Byron and a habit of drowsing over the Encyclopedia Britannica, grew wealthy at thirty through the death of two elder brothers, successful Chicago brokers, and in the first flush of feeling that the world was his, went to Bar Harbor and met Beatrice O’Hara. In consequence, Stephen Blaine handed down to posterity his height of just under six feet and his tendency to waver at crucial moments, these two abstractions appearing in his son Amory.
This book was the debut novel for F. Scott Fitzgerald and was first published in 1920. All I know about it is that it "examines the lives and morality of post–World War I youth", according to Wikipedia. This was the beginning of the Jazz Age, The Roaring Twenties, so it should be an interesting contemporary account of the early stages.
I'm going to read this on June, and judging from the first paragraph, I think I might love it. I loved The Great Gatsby, but was not much impressed with Tender is the Night, so I have a mixed excitement towards This Side of Paradise. :)
ReplyDeletePersonally I did not like "The Great Gatsby" and I've read it twice. So I am hoping I do like this book!
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