Saturday, April 26, 2014

The eleven best sentences in literature

The editors of The American Scholar tagged their ten (plus one bonus) best sentences, including:
In many ways he was like America itself, big and strong, full of good intentions, a roll of fat jiggling at his belly, slow of foot but always plodding along, always there when you needed him, a believer in the virtues of simplicity and directness and hard labor.

—Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried
Read about the other entries on the list.

The Things They Carried is among Simon Mawer's five top war novels and Olen Steinhauer's six favorite books, and is one of Roger “R.J.” Ellory's five favorite human dramas. Melinda L. Pash, author of In the Shadow of the Greatest Generation: The Americans Who Fought the Korean War, says The Things They Carried changed her life.

--Marshal Zeringue