Book Beginnings: The Guards

Book Beginnings on Fridays is a meme with this theme: Share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

Visit the post at Rose City Reader and view the other links and get a glimpse of books you may not be familiar with.



The first few sentences in the book I am currently reading are:

It's almost impossible to be thrown out of the Garda Siochana. You have to really put your mind to it. Unless you become a public disgrace, they'll tolerate most anything.

The book is The Guards by Ken Bruen.

I am a little over half way through the book. For years I did not read it (while it waited patiently in a box) because my impression was that it was too gritty, too violent, too depressing. Well, it is some of those things but it is also poetic and mesmerizing. I don't want to put it down.