Friday, October 29, 2010

Opening Sentence of the Day: The Sea, the Sea



"The sea which lies before me as I write glows rather than sparkles in the bland May sunshine."

-- The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch, a novel about an aging playwright/director/actor who retires to the North Sea coast of England.

This won the Booker prize in 1978. I am reading it for my  Battle of the Prizes, British Version challenge. It will also count as one of my Chunkster Challenge reads.




Book Beginnings on Friday is a weekly Opening Sentence event now hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages

9 comments:

  1. Just poppin' on by to say "Hi!" this Friday.

    Have a fantastic weekend!

    http://readingbetweenthewinesbookclub.blogspot.com/

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  2. Thanks for visiting Crystal. I'll stop by.

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  3. Stopping by on Book Beginnings. Happy Friday!

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  4. I loved this book; it's so interesting and weird in a way. Murdoch is amazing but I'll bet you already know that :-)

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  5. Bev -- Thanks for stopping by!

    Marie -- "Interesting and weird" describes so many of Murdoch's books. I love them, even though I don't, as a rule, like magic in books. And she will often slip something in that is downright magical, or at least metaphysical -- like the bad guy in A Fairly Honourable Defeat being the devil, or the good guy in Jackson's Dilemma being an angel.

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  6. I purchased this book only the other day and now I can't wait to read it

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  7. Becky -- Even though it is long and dense, the story unfolds so naturally that I am swept along in it. I love it.

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  8. I enjoyed this book very much myself, it was only my second by Murdoch. I look forward to your thoughts on it.

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  9. This sounds really interesting. I'll have to see if I can track down a copy at the library.

    Thanks for participating in Book Beginnings on Friday! :)

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