Book Beginnings is a meme hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the first sentence (or so) of a book you are currently reading, along with your initial thoughts and impressions about the sentence or book. Remember to include the title of the book and the author AND link up at the Rose City Reader
Urania. Her parents had done her no favor; her name suggested a planet, a mineral, anything but the slender, fine-featured woman with burnished skin and large, dark, rather sad eyes who looked back at her from the woman. Urania! What an idea for a name.
I don't like this beginning all that much. I don't think the name Urania is all that great, but I also don't think it's the worst name in the world either. In a book about the end of a dictator's regime, I'm wondering if her name is the greatest of her worries. Probably not.
Originally, I was supposed to read The War of the End of the World by Vargas Llosa for another reading challenge. However, timing and the pure size of the book wasn't realistic, so I opted for another Vargas Llosa to replace it: The Feast of the Goat. A couple years ago, in college, I almost read it for one of my poli-sci. classes but ended up reading One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Anyways, I'm reading it now--about a third of the way through. It's interesting. I can't decide if knowing the factual history of the Trujillo dictatorship in the DR is helping or hindering my reading experience...also, Urania's (the woman speaking in the opener) narrative is whiny. There are two other narratives to make up for hers.
I love, love the book beginning you picked. I have never heard of this novel. I really want to read further than the beginning. Thanks! Love your blog. I follow you now.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you appreciate the opener. I'm liking it so far. I'm wondering how all the narratives will interact and/or overlap, if they do at all.
DeleteI also think that Urania is a bit strange name but there are worse ones. Thanks for visiting my blog.
ReplyDeletethat is a strange name. though i guess it also depends on how you pronounce it! i have Llosa on my TBR but don't know where to start! maybe this would be a good one!
ReplyDeleteI don't suggest starting with La Casa Verde...lame. Well, it's supposed to be satirical, but I was just annoyed with where that one was going...so I put it down. I will read War of the End of the World though. I started it but had to give it back.
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