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.
We’re starting this month with Jane Harper’s The Dry which I haven’t read but I remember it popping up frequently in my Twitter feed when it was published. I do know that it’s a thriller set in small town Australia.
As is Lesley Glaister’s nail-biting As Far as You Can Go which sees a British couple running a remote Australian farm after answering an advertisement. I remember being gripped by this as their letters to the outside world go unanswered and the farm’s owners’ behaviour becomes increasingly odd.
Cassie and Graham are running away from problems in Glaister’s spooky thriller as is Dylan who is escaping the bailiffs in Jenni Fagan’s The Sunlight Pilgrims. The only place left to go is the caravan his mother left him in Scotland where the temperature is plummeting.
There’s a distinctly dystopian flavour to Fagan’s novel as there is to Megan’s Hunter’s strikingly poetic The End We Start From, the story of a London submerged by flood from which our unnamed narrator, her husband and her newborn son flee for their lives.
I’m using Hunter’s name to link with Carson McCuller’s classic The Heart is a Lonely Hunter which tells the story of a deaf-mute whose kindly nature draws in his fellow townspeople, many lonely and unhappy.
McCuller’s celebrated debut is set in small mill town in America, down on its uppers, as is Richard Russo’s Empire Falls which is set against the backdrop of the eponymous town in the state of Maine where the manager of the local diner has a lot on his plate.
Maine is right next door to New Hampshire which leads me to John Irving’s The Hotel New Hampshire and the Berrys, the family that runs it. I’ve gone off the boil somewhat with Irving’s recent novels but this is one of his best: a showcase for his consummate storytelling skills and entertaining characters.
This month’s Six Degrees of Separation has taken me from a drought-stricken small Australian town to a hotel on the US Eastern seaboard run by an eccentric family. 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.
I still haven’t read that particular RIchard Russo! Lovely links Susan.
Thank you, Annabel! I can recommend it.
Another great list as always, Susan! Like Annabel, my eye was caught by the Russo. 🙂
Thanks, Liz. I’m off to take a dekko at yours.
I loved Empire Falls! Thanks for the reminder 🙂 I should read more Russo.
One of those chunky ones worth reading!
Well done! As Far As We Can Go sounds interesting–thanks.
Thank you! I’m a fan of Lesley Glaister’s books. She’s much overlooked.
I love Empire Falls, although I think The Bridge of Sighs is my favourite Russo. Having been brought up in a corner shop I could identify with so much in that.
I’ve yet to read that one. I have a soft spot for Straight Man.
Great links, Susan. I haven’t read any of those books, but I think As Far as You Can Go sounds interesting.
Thanks, Helen. It’s quite some time since I read the Glaister but it popped into my head almost immediately as a link which gives you an idea of the impression it made.
I’ve read a few of these Susan but I’ve not heard of As Far as You Can Go and it’s now going on my wishlist!
Excellent! I hope you enjoy it, Kim.
Ah yes, The New Hampshire Hotel, that is a great one. I haven’t read any of John Irving’s more recent novels, but judging from your comment, I am not really missing out.
Isnt’ it, just. I’d make an exception for Last Night at Twisted River but other than that it’s been a string of disappointments for me.
Thank you for the list! I need to get my hands on The Hotel New Hampshire as I like John Irving and more importantly, I live in New Hampshire.
Oh, you must, and it’s one of his best. You’re welcome. These are such enjoyable posts to put together.
I do recommend The Dry – her best book to date, in my opinion. The only other one I’ve read on your chain is Empire Falls, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but I do have The Heart is a Lonely Hunter on my TBR, so I’ll get to it one of these days!
Empire Falls seems to get everyone’s vote! I’ll look out for The Dry, then – thanks.
Some very interesting books here that I wish to check out, I like the sound of several. Thanks.
You’re welcome, Rosie. Hope you find something you like.
Well you win for finishing with one of my favourite authors 🙂
Despite the fact that I’m a sucker for books about New England, I am yet to read Empire Falls – it’s a HUGE gap in my reading (as Rory at Fourth Street Review occasionally reminds me).
It’s very much in Irving territory. I think you’d like it.
I love the fact that your chains contain so many books I have never heard of 🙂
I blame decades spent in the book trade!