JCornelius
Banned
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2014
- Messages
- 437
- Reaction score
- 74
Welcome to the forum!1. Lolita - Nabokov
2. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
3. The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler
4. Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison
5. Bright Orange for the Shroud - John D. MacDonald
Glad to see The Long Goodbye in the list--probably the best novel of the 1950's Excellent opening:
ONE
The first time I laid eyes on Terry Lennox he was drunk in a Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith outside the terrace of The Dancers.
The parking lot attendant had brought the car out and he was still holding the door open because Terry Lennox’s left foot was still dangling outside, as if he had forgotten he had one. He had a young-looking face but his hair was bone white.
You could tell by his eyes that he was plastered to the hairline, but otherwise he looked like any other nice young guy in a dinner jacket who had been spending too much money in a joint that exists for that purpose and for no other.
There was a girl beside him. Her hair was a lovely shade of dark red and she had a distant smile on her lips and over her shoulders she had a blue mink that almost made the Rolls-Royce look like just another automobile. It didn’t quite. Nothing can.
The attendant was the usual half-tough character in a white coat with the name of the restaurant stitched across the front of it in red. He was getting fed up.“Look, mister,” he said with an edge to his voice, “would you mind a whole lot pulling your leg into the car so I can kind of shut the door? Or should I open it all the way so you can fall out?”
The girl gave him a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back.