I disagree with Dr. Foster, I don't believe that the opening paragraph to The Bean Tree is particularly striking.
The best beginning to any book I've ever read is Andrew Solomon's The Noonday Demon:
"Depression is the flaw in love. To be creatures who love, we must be creatures
who can despair at what we lose, and depression is the mechanism of that
despair. When it comes, it degrades one's self and ultimately eclipses the
capacity to give or receive affection. It is the aloneness within us made
manifest, and it destroys not only connection to others but also the ability to
be peacefully alone with oneself. Love, though it is no prophylactic against
depression, is what cushions the mind and protects it from itself. Medications
and psychotherapy can renew that protection, making it easier to love and be
loved, and that is why they work. In good spirits, some love themselves and some
love others and some love work and some love God: any of these passions can
furnish that vital sense of purpose that is the opposite of depression. Love
forsakes us from time to time, and we forsake love. In depression, the
meaninglessness of every enterprise and every emotion, the meaninglessness of
life itself, becomes self-evident. The only feeling left in this loveless state
is insignificance."
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