First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros ~ September 4th!

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros is a weekly meme hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea every Tuesday. To participate, share the opening paragraph or two (I’ve shared a little more here) of a book you've decided to read based on the paragraph(s). This book was published several years ago and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2007. This is a relatively small book and I found it buried on a shelf a few weeks ago. Reading over the book’s summary ~ the lives of five young mothers over the course of a rainy day in a London suburb ~ reminded me why I wanted to read this book.

Be sure to drop by Bibliophile By the Sea to read Diane's selection this week and the other wonderful contributions to this meme.

Arlington Park by Rachel Cusk

All night the rain fell on Arlington Park.
The clouds came from the west: clouds like dark cathedrals, clouds like machines, clouds like black blossoms flowering in the arid starlit sky. They came over the English countryside, sunk in its muddled sleep. They came over the low, populous hills where scatterings of lights throbbed in the darkness. At midnight they reached the city, valiantly glittering in its shallow provincial basin. Unseen, they grew like a second city overhead, thickening, expanding, throwing up their savage monuments, their towers, their monstrous, unpeopled palaces of cloud.

In Arlington Park, people were sleeping. Here and there the houses showed an orange square of light. Cars crept along the deserted roads. A cat leapt from a wall, pouring itself down into the shadows. Silently the clouds filled the sky. The wind picked up. It faintly stirred the branches of the trees, and in the dark, empty park the swings moved back and forth a little. A handful of dried leaves shuffled on the pavement. Down in the city there were still people on the streets, but in Arlington Park they were in their beds, already surrendered to tomorrow. There was no one to see the rain coming, except a couple hurrying down the silent streets on their way back from an evening out.

"I don't like the look of that," said the man, peering up. "That's rain."
The woman gave an exasperated little laugh. "You're the expert on everything tonight, aren't you?" she said.
They let themselves into their house. The orange light showed for an instant in their doorway and was extinguished again.

What are your thoughts about these paragraphs? Would you read this book based on these paragraphs?