First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros #4

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea.  The idea is to share the first paragraph or two of a book I am currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

This week I'm featuring the first paragraphs of The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin (e-book version), which is currently #17 on Barnes & Noble's top 100 book list and presently in my electronic TBR pile.

The novel is Pacific Northwest author Amanda Coplin's debut.

 

 From HarperCollins Publishers, 2012

I

"His face was as pitted as the moon. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and thick without being stocky, though one could see how he would pass into stockiness; he had already taken on the barrel-chested sturdiness of an old man. His ears were elephantine, a feature most commented on when he was younger, when the ears stuck out from his head; but now they had darkened like the rest of his sun-exposed flesh and lay against his skull more than at any other time in his life, and were tough, the flesh granular like the rind of some fruit. He was clean-shaven, large-pored; his skin was oily. In some lights his flesh was gray; others, tallow; others, red. His lips were the same color as his face, had given way to the overall visage, had begun to disappear. His nose was large, bulbous. His eyes were cornflower blue. His eyelashes nothing to speak of now, but when he was young they were thick-black, and his cheeks bloomed, and his lips were as pure and sculpted as a cherub's. These things together made the women compulsively kiss him, lean down on their way to do other chores, collapse him to their breasts. All his mother's sisters he could no longer remember, from Arkansas, who were but shadows of shadows now in his consciousness. Oh my lovely, they would say. Oh my sweet lamb.

His arms were sun-darkened and flecked with old scars. He combed his hair over his head, a dark, sparse wing kept in place with pine-scented pomade."

What do you think?  Would you keep reading?  I will--because I want to know who this man is. The author describes his appearance in great detail without revealing his name or other identifying facts, except for a mention of his fading memory about his mother's family.

Enjoy life with books . . .

Catherine

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First Chapter ~ First Paragraph Tuesday Intros #4 was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished without express written consent.