At my conference in Lille last week, there was a guest author in attendance: Lisa Alther. She's originally from the Tennessee Appalachians (which is apparently supposed to be pronounced with a short "a" in the third syllable and a "tch" like in chip, rather than a long "A" and a "sh" which is how I had always pronounced it). I had heard of her, because one of my good friends is a fan and had interviewed her, but hadn't read anything of hers. Turns out she is a very pleasant and approachable person. She and her partner are going to be travelling to Alaska this summer! And were happy to meet their first Alaskan before actually getting to the state. Anyway, at one point, she gave a reading of some of her work. Her introductory talk was wonderful, explaining a lot of background behind her work, and made me want to go straight home and order all of her stuff off Amazon (which I have yet to do, but still plan to). She read from her new story collection Stormy Weather which I was able to buy and get her to sign for me. The first sentence to the story "Wedding Belles" goes like this: "I first suspected I was making a mistake marrying Winston when I glanced at my bridesmaids during our wedding ceremony and realized that I had slept with them all." And the wedding episode that follows is quite amusing. Following the reading, one of my colleagues remarked that this was the best opening line ever. I must say I do like it, but am wary of superlatives in general. You be the judge.
Friday, June 28, 2013
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4 comments:
Apparently, the bride is a lesbian/bisexual?
This isn't my kind oof reading, in general, so I won't comment on the superlativity of the passage. I don't have a ton to compare it to.
It's making me curious about what comes next!
There is such a thing as a slumber party, but the text does seem to imply more intimate relations...
I meant the superlative statement that it's the best opening line ever.
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