Starting Well

So many things in life turn out so much better when you get a good start.  Want to really enjoy a new job?  Do everything you can to have a great first day.  Hope to start a new business endeavor?  Work hard to secure your first client.  Want your novel to hold the reader's attention until the very last word? Grab them with a great opening.

When I think back over some of my favorite reads of all time, I recall how I enjoyed the opening lines.  Consider these opening lines from great novels:  "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."  (A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens)  Who can forget reading "When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow...." in Harper Lee's perfectly structured To Kill a Mockingbird?  When an opening line grabs me, I know that I am in for a real treat.

I love to read.  I don't always have as much time for reading as I would like, but it definitely brings me a lot of pleasure.  So I was especially excited earlier this week when I read this opening line:  "One sunny, crisp Saturday in September when I was seven years old, I watched my father drop dead."  That was the beginning of a wonderful journey into the world of Jodi Picoult's latest novel, Sing You Home.  I won't give away too much of the plot in case some of you decide to read it, but I will say that Sing You Home reminded me again of why Picoult is my favorite contemporary author.  Consistently, Picoult grapples with moral issues of modern society and forces the reader to realize that these are not simply as clear as the black-and-white images we imagine.  Once real people with real emotions enter the story, issues become tinted with shades of gray.

Sing You Home was a difficult novel for this conservative Christian man to read.  The story centers around a couple who have experienced difficulty conceiving and have sought medical aid through in vitro procedures.  Due to the strain of several failed pregnancies, the couple splits in divorce.  In a shocking turn of events, one of the would-be parents begins to explore a homosexual relationship while the other experiences a salvation experience.  The differing moral stances come to total conflict when the couple realizes that frozen embryos remain and that these "pre-born children's" fates were not determined in the original divorce agreement.  Picoult's novel sets forth both sides of the argument with careful attention and respect while creating characters that the reader comes to empathize with regardless of moral differences.

At times difficult to read and at times hard to put down, I wouldn't trade the experience of reading Sing You Home for anything.  I have been challenged by what I read and hope that I am a better person because of it.