Books: The First Sentence

[Vera Charles]

The Bell Jar?

[Chris L]

The Bell Jar?

Nope.

[valmont]

one of the greatest writers of the 20th century

Lol that narrows it down

[AmyG]

I actually knew this one immediately but I recuse myself because I just know Chris too well. 

[Chris L]

one of the greatest writers of the 20th century

Lol that narrows it down

I'll narrow it down further by saying "one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century." My use of pronouns in the clue tells you the writer is male and the fact that he was still writing in the 21st century knocks a lot of other writers off the list. And he's still alive.

[Chris L]

More about this author: He is Jewish, though that doesn't narrow down the field of great 20th century American authors as much as you'd think it would. His major subject matter has been sex, to the point where you could say he's obsessed with it, both in his writing and apparently in his personal life. Sex is the main subject matter of the book in question, which made it highly controversial when it was published in the late 1960s. His writing career can be divided into two phases, the first (which lasted from the late 1950s, when he was quite young, to the mid 1980s) was heavily suffused with humor, occasionally to the point of satire. The second, which lasted until very recently, was more deeply serious, as though he felt he needed to live up to the image of "great author." Personally I prefer the earlier period for his extreme readability; more recent novels have been more difficult reads and I've only managed to finish one of them (which was made into a film about a decade ago).

The quote again:

"She was so deeply imbedded in my consciousness that for the first year of school I seem to have believed that each of my teachers was my mother in disguise."

[valmont]

Portnoy's Complaint?

[Chris L]

Portnoy's Complaint?

Yes!

[valmont]

No one who had ever seen [C. M.] in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.

[MartinG]

Ooh, I've a reasonably strong hunch that might be Northanger Abbey. 

[valmont]

Ooh, I've a reasonably strong hunch that might be Northanger Abbey.

You are correct!

[MartinG]

Not sure I'd have been so confident if you'd omitted the initials 

This should go pretty quickly. First to post it gets a doily from Betty's Tea Rooms...




In 1902 Father built a house at the crest of the Broadview Avenue hill in New Rochelle, New York.

[AmyG]

This sounds so familiar. Is it Little Women?

[valmont]

Little Women takes place during the Civil War.  Is it Ragtime?

[AmyG]

That's right. Also I don't think it's in the first person.