It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where it ends up. This month’s starting point is I Want Everything by Dominic Amerena, which is about an elderly Australian novelist who was once accused of plagiarism.
First Degree
My first link is plagiarism. In Emily Climbs by L. M. Montgomery (1925), a favorite I just finished rereading, Emily loses a writing contest, finding out later that the winner, an unpleasant young woman who has gossiped about her and played a nasty trick on her, plagiarized a poem. Should she expose Evelyn? After what she's put up with, I would!
Second Degree
A much less congenial Emily is in Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp (1969). When orphaned Jane spends the summer in a mysterious old house in Massachusetts, she discovers the house is haunted by her aunt Emily, who died before Jane was born. This book is very scary and every reader remembers the reflecting ball in the garden! I'd like one myself, but not one that is haunted . . .
Third Degree
Another mysterious dwelling in Massachusetts is in The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959). Four strangers agree to move into a house with a bad reputation to determine if it really is haunted.
Fourth Degree
Just as Hill House radiates a malevolent presence all its own, the mental facility and the surrounding area in Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (2003) seem to be possessed. This was a compelling but very uncomfortable book I was considering for my library’s Community Read. I'd definitely be too scared to see the movie!
Fifth Degree
If you ever have ever visited Long Island, you have to wonder if it is an island or a peninsula. Geographically the first, but by law, the second, it turns out. Regardless, my next link is Long Island by Colm Tóibín (2024). This is a sequel to Brooklyn, and begins when a stranger comes to Eilis’ front door and says her husband Tony has impregnated his wife.
I have a friend who tries not to read any book with adultery. I assume this is because her parents’ marriage ended badly and wonder how her book group has survived for 25 years. But Tóibín says:
The flippant answer is that God made adultery so we could have novels. This is one of the things the world knows, and if it’s in the world, it’s part of creation. It’s not as though I have decided to bring this into the world.
Have you ever boycotted a certain theme in literature? Of course, one can't always know what will turn up!
Sixth Degree
My final link is third island, Camino Island by John Grisham (2017). This is quite different from his other books: a gang of thieves has stolen rare books from the Princeton Library. Bruce Cable, a bookstore owner on Camino Island in Florida, is also a rare book dealer. A young woman novelist, who is broke, is hired to infiltrate Cable’s circle and figure out if he is involved in the stolen books.
So I managed to start with a book about a writer and end with one – the protagonist of Camino Island has writer’s block but maybe if she doesn’t have an NDA, she can write about her sleuthing in her next work.
Coincidentally, for next month (November 1, 2025), Kate has chosen another book by Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I just realized Kate used one of my books as her starting point last year but, although I try not to repeat, it is too late to change!
No comments:
Post a Comment