The Loudest Voice

There is a certain place where dumb-waiters boom, doors slam, dishes crash; every window is a mother's mouth bidding the street shut up, go skate somewhere else, come home. My voice is the loudest.

I've seen a meme going around asking for favorite first lines. That's mine. It's from Grace Paley's story The Loudest Voice about a young Jewish girl being cast in the school Christmas play because of her irrepressible voice. It's from Paley's The Little Disturbances of Man - her first collection of stories - energetic, humorous, and true. Paley died on Wednesday at 84. Donald Barthelme had called her early "a wonderful writer and troublemaker..." as Paley was know as much for being an activist as a writer. At least with all her wonderful stories, we'll never be able to quiet Grace Paley. Here is the Times obituary and Bookslut offers many more links to all things Paley.