I don't know which specific novels you're referring to, but the first sentence/paragraph/chapter of a novel often need to have a different tone from the rest. T

I don't know which specific novels you're referring to, but the first sentence/paragraph/chapter of a novel often need to have a different tone from the rest. The opening of a novel sets the scene and sets the tone and raises expectations for the rest of the story in a way that a strictly narrative opening wouldn't. In other words, these "literary"-style openings are no more and no less clichéd than any other.