Greetings, reader!
Today's Literature Month post is a niche one. I'm a huge Stephen King fan, and one of his strongest suits as an author is a specific one: he is arguably the all-time greatest writer of opening lines to a book.
If you've read a lot of King, I'm guessing you know what I'm talking about: with pretty much any of his books, you are hooked and locked in from the very first sentences, because they grab the reader's attention in a rare and magical way. I've spent a lot of time analyzing this, and I think it has a lot to do with a combination of information and mystery - most often, the first line of a King book gives you a lot of necessary information, but without feeling like over-exposition or infodumping, because it also leaves something important unsaid and immediately raises questions in the reader's mind. There's an angle, a point of view, and an atmosphere right off the bat, but also a pressing sense of "I NEED TO KNOW MORE RIGHT NOW". To pay tribute to this skill wielded by one of my favorite authors, this is my ranking of the top 10 best opening lines from Stephen King books!
Here are my honorable mentions:
Carrie (1974): News item from the Westover (Me.) weekly Enterprise, August 19, 1966: RAIN OF STONES REPORTED.
Lisey's Story (2006): To the public eye, the spouses of well-known writers are all but invisible, and no one knew it better than Lisey Landon.
The Long Walk (1979): An old blue Ford pulled into the guarded parking lot that morning, looking like a small, tired dog after a hard run.
The Stand (1978): "Sally". A mutter. "Wake up now, Sally".
Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower #4, 1997): "ASK ME A RIDDLE", Blaine invited.
10. Pet Sematary (1983)
Louis Creed, who had lost his father at three and who had never known a grandfather, never expected to find a father as he entered his middle age, but that was exactly what happened...although he called this man a friend, as a grown man must do when he finds the man who should have been his father relatively late in life.
Not only do we find out the most profound aspect of one of Pet Sematary's key character dynamics in the very first sentence - we find it out in a thoroughly thought-provoking manner. King deliberately chooses to provide us with this exact bit of information before we know anything else about protagonist Louis Creed, before we even read about his meeting with the man being discussed in the sentence. Before any of that, the reader is given this exact bit of context, that will shape their understanding of Louis, of Jud Crandall, and of their relationship. It piques one's interest when reading the book for the first time, and is quite emotional when coming back to the sentence after knowing the full story.
9. Insomnia (1994)
No one - least of all Dr. Litchfield - came right out and told Ralph Roberts that his wife was going to die, but there came a time when Ralph understood without needing to be told.
Just like with the previous entry, we get a key bit of information about the main character, while King also shines a light on a philosophical train of thought that tells the reader something about the author's way of looking at the world, touching on universal truths larger than this one book. It's quite a heartbreaking sentiment, especially for the first line of a book - and seeing as Ralph Roberts' loss of (and mourning for) his wife plays such a big part in Insomnia, it is very fitting that gearing up for said tragedy is the very first thing we learn about.
8. The Shining (1977)
Jack Torrance thought: officious little prick.
Hell yeah. With just six words, we are thrown into the middle of an interaction between characters, immediately having a strong dynamic and point of view. Now, I had seen the movie several times before reading the book, but I can only imagine how this opening line would be even more fascinating for a reader with no prior knowledge: on one hand, it tells you a lot right off the bat, but on the other, it tells delightfully little. Who is Jack Torrance, and why is he having this thought? Why is that the first thing the storyteller wants us to learn? Are we supposed to relate to Jack, and the person he's thinking about is indeed an officious prick? Or is the takeaway supposed to be about Jack himself, teaching the reader that he thinks about people in a crude manner? Can't know from this alone, but dying to find out - and that's how King gets his readers hooked.
7. The Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower #5, 2003)
Tian was blessed (though few farmers would have used such a word) with three patches: River Field, where his family had grown rice since time out of mind; Roadside Field, where ka-Jaffords had grown sharproot, pumpkin and corn for those same long years and generations; and Son of a Bitch, a thankless tract which mostly grew rocks, blisters and busted hopes.
Ah, chills. First of all, for readers who are deep enough in the Dark Tower mythos to pick up the fifth book, it's pretty much guaranteed that lore and worldbuilding are engaging things, and getting a lot of that in just the first sentence really puts you in the mood to enjoy this instalment of King's larger-than-life fantasy series. Additionally, the language reminds the reader that they're not diving into any fantasy epic - you can't really imagine Tolkien or Lewis introducing you to a patch of land called Son of a Bitch. The combination of fantasy tropes and King's own (often crude and street-smart) approach to language is what makes the Dark Tower books unique, and that balance is tangible right from the first line in The Wolves of the Calla.
6. Doctor Sleep (2013)
On the second day of December in a year when a Georgia peanut farmer was doing business in the White House, one of Colorado's great resort hotels burned to the ground.
The pseudo-sequel to The Shining begins, well, in the exact way that a pseudo-sequel to The Shining should begin. With his gift for words, King finds a delightfully creative and romantic way of taking the reader back to the setting of his most infamous book, describing when it took place with a zany Jimmy Carter reference and reminding of the book's climax like it's an old, semi-forgotten news item. This is just the right tone to kick Doctor Sleep off - time has passed, but it's important to remember the milieu in which the now-adult Danny Torrance was brought up.
5. 'Salem's Lot (1975)
Almost everyone thought the man and the boy were father and son.
A big reason for King's opening lines being so good is the balance between information and mystery that I mentioned in today's intro text - and here we have one of the best examples. On one hand, the sentence gives you the sense that King isn't wasting any time with atmospheric descriptions or once-upon-a-times but rather goes straight to the point with this fact, ensuring that the reader is locked in with an almost hurried sense of wanting to know what's going on as they're thrust into the midst of an existing situation. But on the other hand, the fact that we're given raises a lot of fascinating questions - the man and the boy are clearly important as the whole thing starts with them, but who are they? It's implied that they're not father and son, so why does almost everyone think so? And what is their relationship then?
Also, the way the story is built, the entire prologue and especially the first line will remain in the reader's consciousness throughout the reading experience, because King takes his sweet time before revealing how exactly the man and the boy fit into the narrative. Genius.
4. Misery (1987)
umber whunnnn
yerrrnnn umber whunnnn
fayunnnn
These sounds: even in the haze.
Now here are some opening words that will truly grab your attention. The random sounds are such an unusual way to start a book, that the curiosity of a reader like me (a fan of anything odd and unusual) is immediately piqued, and there's something deeply haunting about the specific wording "These sounds: even in the haze". While the mystery of what exactly is going is resolved rather quickly, the way Misery kicked off will stay with the reader throughout it all.
3. The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower #7, 2004)
Pere Don Callahan had once been the Catholic priest of a town, 'Salem's Lot had been its name, that no longer existed on any map.
This is the only time I can recollect being moved to tears from the first sentence of a book. If you're wondering why, I don't blame you - it takes thousands and thousands of pages of context to get to the point where I was when finally opening the final Dark Tower book. It's not a typical King opening line because the context of the book is so special - after six long books of the main series, as well as nearly his whole bibliography being part of the interconnected multiverse that is all tied together in the Dark Tower series, not to mention the effect that dramatic real-life events like King's struggles with substance abuse, eventual sobering up and his infamous near-death incident of 1999 had on the books, this book is where it all came together, culminating in the ultimate payoff and probably the most climactic book I've ever read.
And for that book, he decided to abandon the typical "information, but mystery" structure of his opening lines, instead going with deeply emotional nostalgia that just felt so right in the context. 'Salem's Lot is the second book King ever wrote, and the first to take place in the larger-life canon that encompasses everything from The Shining and It to The Stand and the seven Dark Tower books. I had patiently read pretty much everything having to do with King's multiverse before entering the final Dark Tower book, knowing that the payoff would hit harder when having the utmost build-up and context, and knowing that 'Salem's Lot is where the journey started, it felt indescribably touching that the author chose to open the final Dark Tower book with a callback to where it all began.
For me, the journey of reading these books had encompassed several years and thousands of pages, but for King himself, it's a lot more than that - he wrote 'Salem's Lot in 1975, and the grandiose story kicked off by it came to an end nearly 30 years later with this book. So, yeah, unless you've read it all as well, you won't understand the rush of raw emotion when you finally begin to read the final Dark Tower and that opening line tugs at your heartstrings - but if you know, you know.
2. It (1986)
The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years - if it ever did end - began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.
Shivers, shivers, absolute shivers. Although I read the book after I saw the 2017 movie, I like to imagine how these words would work on a reader who has picked up the 1200-page epic with no pre-existing knowledge of what the book will contain. The entire book, with its gargantuan length and complex narratives - it's really all right there in that first sentence.
Without giving too much away, it tells you everything essential, while wording the tail end of the sentence with absolute specific-atmosphere-creating beauty. It also works on multiple levels, because the horror element of what could be argued to be the scariest book of all time is intensely present right from the start - even after you've read the book and know how it all shakes out, returning to this sentence and remembering the words "if it ever did end" will send major shivers down your spine. I'm literally feeling a bit uneasy thinking about it as I write this.
1. The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1, 1982)
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
And here we have it - the greatest opening line of all time, not just among King's works, but - I dare say - across all literature. Dickens' "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times" from A Tale of Two Cities and Vonnegut's "All this happened, more or less" from Slaughterhouse-Five come somewhat close, but really, it's no contest. I remember the feeling so vividly: after tons of background research on the King multiverse books you're supposed to read before kicking off the Dark Tower series according to various nerds on the internet, I finally picked up the first book of the series that I had waited so long to read, with no idea on what it would really be about but only that it is considered King's magnum opus - and from that very first sentence, I was hooked to the utmost degree.
In twelve words, King introduces an antagonist, a protagonist, a setting, an action, tension, a power dynamic, and a point of view in the middle of an implied ongoing situation. This opening sentence provokes questions that the rest of the book proceeds to answer, while touching themes that will go on the be explored throughout the seven-book series. This line had such an impact on me that I ended up subtly referencing it in my master's thesis (I was stumped on how to open my introduction chapter, until one night my endless pondering about Stephen King inspired me to an answer - the opening sentence I went with would roughly translate to "The music teacher played their favorite song, and the student listened"). But, yeah, this is the GOAT right here.
Thank you for reading! Literature Month III is now done - tune in next week for a special post having to do with the upcoming municipal elections in Finland.
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