Week 3 – The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Welcome to 2024!  Last year on Mondays we had fun with books. This year, we'll look at most of the same books but also some new ones, and see if the first line [or first paragraph] met the goal of a first line which is ==> to hook the reader's attention.

Here are some tips on writing a first line

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/tips-for-writing-the-opening-line-of-your-novel 

Week 3 – The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

This short story was published by The New Yorker magazine on June 26, 1948.  You can read it here

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1948/06/26/the-lottery

First published: June 26, 1948

Here's what the story is about: A small American community observes a long-standing annual tradition known as "the lottery", conducted to ensure a good harvest and purge the town of bad omens. No spoilers! Members of the community pull papers out of a hat, but the winner doesn't exactly “win”....

First line/paragraph: “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o’clock; in some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two days and had to be started on June 26th, but in this village, where there were only about three hundred people, the whole lottery took only about two hours, so it could begin at ten o’clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner.”

This story starts with the season and weather, which is one of the cliché openings we are advised not to use. But line 2 begins the plot, giving us setting and an introduction to the villagers and what is happening. We haven't met any of the characters yet, but we know they live in a small village with a communal “square”, and they are currently gathering there for what appears to be an annual summer tradition called the lottery. We also have an idea of the POV [third person or omniscient], and a bit of the narrative voice and flavor of the story.

Despite this first line being a bit cliché, I think it works well here especially because the second line gets right into the story.

Does this first line/paragraph hook your attention? If you had never heard of this story, would you buy this book in 2024? Knowing the story, would you change the first line? Tell us in the comments!