How effective are the opening pages in introducing us to the novel and involving the reader
The opening of a novel should engage the reader and make them want to read on beyond the first few pages. It can do this by raising questions that the reader would like answered, shocking or surprising the reader or using elements from a particular genre that would appeal to the reader. The opening of a novel should also introduce the setting and at least one main character. In this essay I will look at the opening of Anita Shreves Eden Close and how she has use the above techniques to capture the readers attention. The narrative techniques used in the opening of Eden Close are interesting because Shreve has written it in the third person narrative "Andy slept" but also uses techniques typical of a first person narrative as all the events are Andys own interpretations. ... This avoids any confusion for the reader and also means that we empathise with Andy more because we get a sense of how he thinks and what his feelings are as he can associate present day events with past events and then relive them easily. The first thing Shreve does in the novel is introduce us to three important characters, Andy and his parents, the setting, their farmhouse and the time, just after midnight.