Snacks From a Gas Station

Here are today’s Wonderful Words:

This story about good food begins in a quick-stop convenience market.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver, page 1

Background

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle tells the story of a family that moves to a farm in Virginia and spends the year eating only local food, most of which they grew or raised. This was the very first sentence of the book.

What makes it wonderful?

I bought this book on a recommendation from my great Uncle. He’s been gardening for decades, and he’s famous for arriving to a party with a trunk full of vegetables. I’ve been wanting to start a garden of my own, so when he recommended this book, I was excited to dig in.

Then I read the first sentence.

A quick-stop convenience market? Did I buy the right book?

I was hoping for a story about brussels and broccoli, not Krispy Kremes and Tasty Cakes. So I was shocked when the book began with a family foraging for food in a gas station.

But I kept reading for two reasons. First, I trusted my uncle’s recommendation. But more importantly, I was intrigued. I knew I hadn’t ordered the wrong book. I read the cover before I started. I knew this family spent a year planting, weeding, harvesting, canning, and cooking. So when I saw they started their journey at the furthest point from a farm, I was even more interested.

I knew the ending. I knew the beginning. I knew I needed the middle.

If I wasn’t determined to read the book before starting, the first sentence sucked me in and sealed the deal. I was hooked after the first 12 words. That’s a pretty impressive accomplishment for an author.

Let's get technical

Kingsolver caught my attention with irony.

Irony is when someone says or does something that differs from what we expect them to do. You probably understand irony, but if you want more information, this is a good explanation.

I expected this story to start in a pasture. Or a garden. Or maybe even the kitchen.

But a gas station? Never would’ve guessed that.

It was surprising. Intriguing. Ironic.

It made me want to keep reading.

Because one of the best ways to make someone keep reading is to surprise them. Tell them something they aren’t expecting, then wait until later to explain it.

Walter Kirn does this in the first line of his memoir. Lee Childs, the author of the Jack Reacher series, also talks about this technique.

Kingsolver eventually explains what her family was doing in the gas station but not until five pages later. You bet I kept reading.

Every writer craves his reader’s attention. This is a simple way to capture it. Write something surprising. Write something ironic. Put it in the beginning, then wait to resolve the tension.

Happy writing,

Joe