Six Degrees of Separation is a meme hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It works like this: each month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the others on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.
This month we’re starting with Chuck Palahniuk’s The Fight Club which I confess I haven’t read but I gather it’s about an underground club where young men fight each other although I’m sure there’s more to it than that.
Taking my cue from the title Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club is altogether gentler. It’s about four recent Chinese immigrants to the US who meet once a week to play mahjong , exchange stories about home and hopes about their daughters’ futures.
Given my liking for stories about immigrants I though one of those would pop into my head but instead it was Alex Comfort’s The Joy of Sex which became a bestseller in the 1970s.
Which leads me to Meg Wolitzer’s The Position about the offspring of parents who wrote a bestselling book about their own sex life but whose marriage might not be as idyllic as everyone assumed.
Meg Wolitzer is also the author of The Wife, about a woman whose husband, a celebrated author, owes his partner a great deal more than he lets on which brings to mind Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Brown revealed that his own wife provided the expert research for his megaseller when a couple of authors accused him of plagiarism. And, no, I haven’t read it.
The Da Vinci Code was the most donated novel to UK charity shops in its heyday as was E. L. James’ Fifty Shade of Grey which I also haven’t read but I do know that Anastasia Steele tells Christian Grey that she’s a virgin
Which brings me to Pamela Erens’ The Virgins set in a New England prep school about two students whose passionate relationship might not be quite what it seems.
This month’s Six Degrees of Separation has taken me from an underground fighting club to a New England prep school by way of some surprising books. Part of the fun of this meme is comparing the very different routes other bloggers take from each month’s starting point. If you’re interested, you can follow it on Twitter with the hashtag #6Degrees, check out the links over at Kate’s blog or perhaps even join in.
A highly entertaining list, Susan!! Do you know if Wolizter’s The Wife was the inspiration for the recent film with Glen Close and Jonathan Price (which is excellent, by the way, if you have not yet seen it)?
Thanks, Liz. It took a couple of surprising turns! Yes, it was based on The Wife – an excellent adaptation. Glenn Close was brilliant, wasn’t she. Perfect casting.
I saw it with my Mum, so the opening of the film was a tad uncomfortable lol. But excellent otherwise – it would be great if she won the Oscar for it.
She certainly deserves it.
What an interesting and racy chain you have this month! I can confess that I did read The Da Vinci Code and loved it at the time – on holiday where I needed a throwaway read back when it first came out. It is preposterous, and certainly isn’t good literature, but it was compelling!
I do love the word ‘racy’! Thank you. I imagine vast numbers or readers felt the same way about Mr Brown’s offering.
I hadn’t heard that about the research for the Da Vinci code. It’s the only one of your selections that I have read. And what a load of tosh it was……
Ha! Over and done with quickly, though, I imagine.
Oh yes, it was a quick read….
Fight Club straight to Joy Luck Club – that is quite a contrast! This meme is always so interesting for the links people make – I think yours will be the sauciest of the month 😀
Yes, I galloped out of there into my comfort zone as quick as I could. Thank you – I was hoping for ‘saucy’ after Annabel’s ‘racy’!
Yay! I’ve actually read a couple of the books on your list! I loved THE JOY LUCK CLUB – read it many years ago. I ought to reread it. And THE DA VINCI CODE – again, read it many years ago. I might possibly have read THE JOY OF SEX, but I didn’t tell my mother about it. Ha!
Ha! Not saying whether I have or not…
Your chain certainly went in a different direction to mine this month – a very entertaining list, which I enjoyed reading.
Thank you. Not a direction I was expecting to take but part of the fun of this meme is what pops into your head!
Such a fun chain, Susan! I really need to read The Joy Luck Club ASAP. The film is phenomenal and I can only imagine that the book is even better.
Thanks, Jessie. It’s ages since I read it but I remember it as a warm, comforting read which seems appealing right now.
I love where you took this–The Joy Luck Club is such a good book. And I like how you connected The Da Vinci Code with Fifty Shades of Gray. Have a good week!
Thank you, and you! These are always fun posts to write – you never quite know what’s going to pop into your head, do you – but this one was particularly so.