And the award for Best Opening Sentence goes to…
Bookworm on Sep 05 2006 at 8:51 am | Filed under: Literature, World War II
The award for best opening sentence definitely goes to Myles Kantor, writing about Günther Grass (novelist and Nazi), who opens his article with this:
The line between moralist and schmuck is very thin.
I didn’t find the rest of the article quite as good, but it’s interesting, and worth reading just as a sign of respect for that excellent first sentence.
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4 Responses to “And the award for Best Opening Sentence goes to…”
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The same line could be applied to any number of celebrated writers. Arthur Miller comes to mind.
I listened to part of the the official presentation of Grass’s book yesterday, and I’ve heard his sputtering and spouting for years. He is a man of very great ego and very little brain. I am serious about the last part: Grass is truly unable to take in and assimilate new information. He “found the truth” in socialism and materialism after the war and has been serving up the same key words ever since. Even yesterday, it was clear that he did not have a clue about the reasons he is criticised. One has the feel that he is powered by Duracell.
I suppose you could designate Grass as the embodiment of Germany’s declining birthrate, sort of an anti-viagra made flesh.
I don’t think that’s a good line. “Schmuck” is not exactly a clean word in Yiddish. That would turn me off the rest of the article, no matter what it said.