great openings

I've been paying a load of attention to how openings work and here are some favorites:

"Early in the morning, late in the century, Cricklewood Broadway. At 0627 hours on January 1, 1975, Alfred Archibald Jones was dressed in corduroy and sat in a fume-filled Cavalier Muskateer Estate facedown on the steering wheel, hoping the judgment would not be too heavy on him."

White Teeth, by Zadie Smith

"The final dying sounds of their dress rehearsal left the Laurel Players with nothing to do but stand there, silent and helpless, blinking out over the footlights of an empty auditorium."

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

"In accordance with the law the death sentence was announced to Cincinnatus C. in a whisper."

Invitation to a Beheading, by Vladimir Nabakov

"My friend Levine had only a few months to go on his doctoral dissertation, but when, one Sunday afternoon at Acres of Books, he came upon the little black paperback by Dr. Frank J. Kemp, he decided almost immediately to plagiarize it."

Title Story in "A Model World," a collection of stories by Michael Chabon

"Though I haven't ever been on the screen I was brought up in pictures. Rudolf Valentino came to my fifth birthday party--or so I was told. I put this down only to indicate that even before the age of reason I was in a position to watch the wheels go round."

Opening paragraph of "The Last Tycoon" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

"The talk was that a new face had appeared on the embankment: a lady with a little dog."

First line of the story "The Lady with the Little Dog" by Anton Chekhov