Peyton Place sold millions of copies throughout 1956, surprising readers with its erotic frankness and publishers with its success.
Criticism of metro coverage "misses the mark," she said, adding, "What we excel at is surprising readers, online and in print, by breaking big exclusive stories about local crime, politics and city life".
"It's not surprising," a reader responded.
(Here and throughout, Williams's precise observations stab out of the darkness, surprising the reader into laughter. I loved best, for some reason, this Beckettian deadpan: "It had taken Sam almost seven years to become almost seven").
He talks about his seemingly endless walks with his grandmother, surprising the reader again and again about their close relationship and the author's own memory.
It's profound, it's beautifully written, and it keeps surprising the reader, right up to its last line.
Austin does a fantastic job of surprising the reader in the opening scene of the book, detailing a very graphic and violent hunt, and it is only after a few paragraphs the reader realizes it is a woman enacting a stereotypical "male" activity.
If surprising your reader at the onset of your piece isn't your aim, then a simple declarative statement may be a better way to go.
Other objects might be more surprising to readers.
But, perhaps surprising, some readers took a bring it approach to polygamy.
