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 Susan Choi’s Booker shortlisted Flashlight which I’ve not read, put off by mixed reviews from readers I trust.
Choi is the author of My Education, which I have read, leading me by title to Lynn Barber’s autobiography, An Education, which was adapted into a film starring Carey Mulligan
Mulligan also starred in the screen version of Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian Never Let Me Go, set in a boarding school.
As is Scarlett Thomas’s very dark, funny Oligarchy in which all the pupils are obsessed with their weight.
An obsession shared by Empress Elisabeth in Linda Stift’s The Empress and the Cake which is also very dark but not at all funny.
Stift’s novella is set in Vienna, whose patisseries the empress haunts, which is the setting for Robert Seethaler’s The Tobacconist, where Sigmund Freud is a regular customer.
Freud turns up as a bemused observer in Kevin Baker’s sprawling, entertaining Dreamland set in nineteenth-century Coney Island.
This month’s Six Degrees has taken me from a family saga about grief and trauma to a story of New York’s underworld. 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.
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Well. I’ve read not one of these. Apart from The Tobacconist, which didn’t disappoint. An intriguing and cleverly linked chain, as ever.
Thank you. Seethaler’s one of my favourites.
Agreed!
I’m pretty sure Empress Elisabeth was not touching any cakes, she was obsessed with her weight, but it’s a great idea for a book. Thank you for the Vienna links, always enjoyable to me!
Hence the gazing into patisserie windows, ogling what she can’t permit herself. It’s a very dark book, unsparing on detail. Always happy to visit Vienna even if only virtually!
I’ve read and enjoyed your top three, and would you believe it, have the bottom three on my shelves!
Bingo!
I found my copy of Dreamland and am hoping to read it soon!
Oh, that’s great, Cathy. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
The Empress and the Cake is one for my list, a really interesting chain!
Thanks, Jane. I should warn you it’s a tough read!
Lovely!
I have only read Ishiguro’s, such a great book.
My chain: https://wordsandpeace.com/2026/02/07/six-degrees-of-separation-from-a-flashlight-to-claws/
Thanks!
I am trying to remember if I ever read Never Let Me Go. If not, I think I should!
I prefer his earlier An Artist of the Floating World but I think I’m in the minority!
Lynn Barber’s book is fabulous. Haven’t read any of the others though I do have The Tobacconist on my shelves
I used to enjoy her interviews in The Observer. You’re in for a treat with The Tobacconist.
I’ll mark Tobacconist for novellas in november in that case
I love the creative linking here. As you know I struggled with some elements of Choi’s book. I have Only seen the film version of My Education, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The Tobacconist sounds very interesting.
Thanks, Lucy! Highly recommend The Tobacconist. Seethaler’s a fine writer.
Oh, dear! Oligarchy and The Empress and the Cake remind me of somewhere I worked years ago where we were all obsessed with our weight to the point of jumping on the scales every week. We also had cake very often!
The Empress only allowed herself to look so you had the advantage over her!
Some interesting books, I might look up Dreamland
Thank you. Hope you enjoy it if you decide to try it.
Some very interesting links here – very nicely done!
Thank you
I’ve only read Never let me go, which I liked, because I was an Ishiguro fan, but I haven’t read more Ishiguro for a while. I like the sound of those last two “Freud” linked novels.
Two very different portrayals! Seethaler’s a favourite author of mine. I’d recommend anything by him.
Love your links here. I’ve only read one of Choi’s novels, but I always like the sound of them.
Thanks, Marcie. I’m in two minds about Flashlight but may well get around to it eventually.