I have been invited to participate in the 6 Degrees of Separation Meme, an original blog tour created by Emma Chapman and Annabel Smith. The rules are posted at the end
of this Blog. Before I get started I
just have to say...Kevin Bacon.
We start this month with The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. Here is a picture of the lovely cover, which
is as far as I have ventured:
Emma has specified that one does not have to have read the
first book in the chain in order to participate and can I just say - thank fuck. With a ‘must read’ pile that has left the town
of Daunting and is now approaching the borders of Unachievable, I reserve the
right to bypass a tome the size of a house brick which someone dear to me
recently described as ‘like chewing cardboard’.
I have no doubt that Eleanor Catton is brilliant, and well-deserving of
the Booker. But I’m middle aged and no
longer read things simply because I've been told I ‘should’.
Having said that, I bloody love the idea of The
Luminaries. The synopsis, the
description of the intricacies of character and plot, the style – it should
read like a chic, Victorian-esque cat’s-cradle of intrigue and people you
forget aren't real. And I do love a
wordy book. Which brings me to the
first book in my chain...
Ah, Wilkie Collins. How many nights have we curled up together
like cats. The Woman in White (1859) is
a wordy book, a Victorian epic, a chilling and picaresque melodrama, and a bit
of a feminist shout-out. Wilkie had an
understanding of the Victorian Sisterhood.
It also deals with layers of reality and identity – and I love
that. He’s better than Charlie. You heard it here first. Which leads me to...
John Fowles. Talk about your layers of reality and I’m
talking The Magus (1965). Big, fat wordy
book about a narcissist having tea with a nihilist, psychological warfare
dressed as salvation and manipulation just another mask to wear to the party. Simply put.
The fact that a large part of the story involved Conchis’ story of his
experiences during Nazi occupation leads me to...
Isaac Bashevis Singer. Specifically, Shadows on the Hudson (English
translation 1998). Funny and
bitter. It’s dark, but again there are
layers of reality – that search for balance between the parameters of orthodoxy,
new prosperity and deep grief. What I
remember most about this book was being transported. Lifting my head from the page and thinking
‘Where am I?’ Of really forgetting these people were not real. Which brings me to...
Diary of a Young Girl (1947). I read an abridged version of Anne Frank’s diary as a child, then
read the unabridged later in life.
Singer never used the word ‘Holocaust’, but by the time I came to both
of these books I was emotionally raw to the word. This is also a book that deals with layers of
reality – Anne’s loneliness and isolation pressed hard against the struggle for
a sense of normality in extreme circumstances, where no one actually uses the
words ‘I’m terrified’. Which leads me
to...
We Need To Talk About Kevin (2003) by Lionel Shriver. And can I
just say ‘I’m terrified’. Again, loneliness and isolation
struggling to be understood. Fiction
dressed as non-fiction (i.e. a collection of letters) - again the layering of
reality. We have the story of multiple
people told through the reminiscences of one biased narrator/letter
writer. And that slow, torturous lifting
of the veil, the realization of what’s really going on, the deliberately
measured pace which is still too fast because as you’re reading you’re begging
not to be taken where you’re obviously being taken. Which brings me to the final book in my
chain...
The Lucifer Effect (2007) by Philip Zimbardo. I can’t believe
I've ended up with non-fiction. Is that allowed? Zimbardo
is best known for his controversial Stanford Prison Experiment, and the
subtitle of this book Understanding How
Good People Turn Evil sort of says it all.
We’re all born with a clean slate.
Sure, genetics may load the gun, but that begs the question – Who or
what pulls the trigger?
So there’s my chain.
Please check out the chains of Emma Chapman and Annabel Smith, and
everyone else who has taken part. And
have a go! – Here are the rules...
