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 others to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the titles on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.
This month we’re starting with Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair which I read many years ago but it’s the film that comes to mind. I remember weeping at Michael Nyman’s soundtrack which I still can’t hear without snivelling.
Same goes for the 1967 adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s tragic love story, Far from the Madding Crowd. Just the opening credits are enough to set me off.
Quite apart from the music, the sad end met by many sheep added to my tearfulness leading me to Haruki Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase which features a very different sort of sheep.
In Auđur Ava Ólafsdóttir’s somewhat surreal Butterflies in November, our unnamed narrator wrestles a dead sheep into the front seat of her car. The novel includes several recipes for roadkill which you really wouldn’t want to try.
Unlike the recipes in Nora Ephron’s classic Heartburn, about a cookery writer breaking up with her husband, which are quite tempting.
Ephron’s humorous collection of essays on ageing is entitled I Feel Bad About my Neck leading me to Alan Brown’s Audrey Hepburn’s Neck about an America teacher living in Tokyo which, sadly, now seems to be out of print.
Unsurprisingly, mention of Audrey Hepburn leads me to Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s which I loved both as a film and a book
This month’s Six Degrees has taken me from a novel about a devastating affair to a classic featuring one of American literature’s favourite heroines, taking in a few sheep on the way. 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.
What an interesting twist to your chain, although none of them are terribly cheerful sounding!
Ha! Not a very cheering start, for sure.
Wow, that’s really an interesting chain with books I have never even heard of. Audrey Hepburn’s Neck, what a strange title. Lovely list!
Have a good weekend!
Elza Reads
Thank you! It’s a great novel, not easy to find, now, at least not here in the UK
What a great idea to allow film to guide many of your links. Terrific!
Thank you. Funnily enough, films often seem to pop into my head when writing these posts. Where would cinema be without books!
Absolutely!
Probably highly inappropriate but the dead sheep wrangling link made me laugh out loud.
It’s a very funny scene and I did want to diffuse the melancholy somehow so I’m glad it worked for you!
I’m tempted by Audrey Hepburn’s Neck! Thanks for introducing me to it. Poor sheep 🙁
I know! I’m sure you could track down a second hand copy. It’s a old favourite of mine.
I remember those recipes in Heartburn, there was a lot of butter!
Those were the days!
Really well done Susan – definitely a darker vibe to this chain!
Thanks, Cathy! State of the world combined with a sad starting point.
I’ll agree with you on the book and film versions of Madding Crowd and End of the Affair. I loved the book Breakfast at Tiffany’s but tried to watch the film this week and had to give up after 40 minutes. Hepburn is wonderful but the lesser characters were so so irritating
Have to admit it’s many years since I watched it. Perhaps it’s not dated well.
That might be part of it. I thought it was down to the direction
I remember Mickey Rooney’s Chinese character is a terrible stereotype!
Sadly reflective of the times in which it was made, I imagine.
Yep that performance was cringe making to watch
I do love Capote! He ended up in my list too 🙂
Yes, I spotted that!
We have great taste in soundtracks! It was fun going through your chain. So many twists!
We do! Thank you. I enjoyed yours, too.
I think yours may get this month’s prize for the most unique books! Love it–and I now want to hear Michael Nyman’s soundtrack! Music does that to me, too. Great chain.
Thank you! Just make sure you have some tissues handy if you listen to the Nyman.
Love your “sheep” link Susan, and also that you did a movie-related link albeit on music, not scriptwriters, like I did. I’ve read or heard of most of the books, but not the essays on ageing which intrigue me.
Thank you – I wasn’t expecting quite so many sheep links after the first one!
This is what I especially loved too!
I loved the bit about the roadkill recipes, although I’m not tempted to seek them out. Here the roadkill is mainly kangaroos and wallabies. Enjoyed your chain!
Thank you! Ours used to be hedgehogs but we’ve flattened so many of the poor things that they’re a bit of a rarity now.
I love novels with recipes in them, but I think I’ll skip the roadkill one.
Very wise!
Oh, I like this chain! I’ve read. I’m not one for reading classics but I make an exception for Thomas Hardy, who I love, and Far From the Madding Crowd has been languishing on my TBR for quite some time. It’s one of the small handful of books I packed in my suitcase when I repatriated in 2019. I must try to read it this year! I have read the Ephron and the Capote — and loved both.
Pleased to hear that! Hardy’s very good at summoning up the West Country although not the most cheery of authors.
That’s probably why I like him.
I might need to take a look at the roadkill recipes. We were on holidays last week and decided that our destination should have been called the roadkill island as there was so much.
I enjoyed your chain.
Oh, no! We’re coming up to badger casualty season in my part of the world. Always a sad sight, and thank you.
I’m reading Far From at the moment. Such a great book. And I’m thinking of going on to The Go-Between and Dr Zhivago so that I can then wallow in the three brilliant Christie film adaptions. I don’t think I’ve seen the film of The End of the Affair so will look out for that. I did, however, weep while listening to the audiobook narrated with absolute perfection by Colin Firth.
I’d recommend the film, Liz, although it sounds as if you have some great viewing ahead!