First Impressions

This week's First Impressions, the competition in which you have to identify a book from its opening sentence, comes from a former US soldier who grasped - but not at straws:

"If you really want to know about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it."

The winner receives a £20 book token and the closing date is June 9.

Entries should be sent to
First Impressions
The THES
Admiral House, 66-68 East Smithfield
London E1 9XY

faxed to 0171-782 3300
or emailed to theschat@thes.co.uk

The winner of last week's competition, who identified Octavio Paz's The Labyrinth of Solitude , is R. Harindranath of the University of the West of England.