First Chapter First Paragrah Tuesday

Every Tuesday Diane at Bibliophile by the sea posts the opening paragraph (maybe two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening paragraph (s). This is the First Chapter First Paragraph meme.


My entry this week comes from Paul Auster's Oracle Night: A Novel:

I had been sick for a long time. When the day came for me to leave the hospital, I barely knew how to walk anymore, could barely remember who I was supposed to be. Make an effort, the doctor said, and in three or four months you'll be back in the swing of things. I didn't believe him, but I followed his advice anyway. They had given me up for dead, and now that I had confounded their predictions and mysteriously failed to die, what choice did I have but to live as though a future life were waiting for me?

I've wanted to read this for awhile, and now that is the January read for The Rory Gilmore Book Club there is no excuse for not pulling it off the shelf. I'm intrigued as why the protagonist was given up for dead and, of course, why that route "didn't take."