Still on the theme of St Annes and spontaneous purchases from the blog on Agatha Christie and Miss Jane Marple, I also bought this book with this opening:
‘THe cold came late that fall and the songbirds were caught off guard.’
I wonder how much more perfect an opening could aspire to be?
It has a cleverness of course and a device or conceit, but it still works despite its self conscious intelligence. For the tone, wistful, lonely and even elegaic carries me through the sentence and creates curiousity and wonder. The world inside and out is mourning something, somewhere. Our preparations for self defence and preservation are as natural as the birds…yet they fall short of our hopes…
And why ‘songbirds’? Because they inspire greater pathos and lament. They, like us, YEARN! We can almost hear their solitary songs.