Six Degrees of Separation - from Seascraper to The Horse and His Boy

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 Seascraper by Benjamin Wood, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize. It’s a historical novel set in Ireland about a young man trawling for shrimp who dreams of artistic fulfillment.

First Degree

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (2021) was also longlisted for the Booker and made for a great discussion with my Judicial Clerk book group a few years ago. Set in a small Irish town in the weeks leading up to Christmas in the 1980s, the protagonist is an ordinary man who learns about the Magdalene Laundries and has to decide whether to take a stand, even if it will jeopardize his family’s wellbeing.

Second Degree

Another book longlisted for the Booker in 2022 is Trust by Hernan Diaz (2022), which later won the Pulitzer Prize. It’s set in 1920s New York and looks at a wealthy Wall Street couple from four different perspectives so that the reader does not know which, if any, is true. I found this readable but not enthralling, and it was a hard book to discuss. My review.

Third Degree

Trust reminded me of the turn of the century New York elite, specifically the Roosevelt family. While driving to Quebec several years ago, I listened to Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough (1981), which is a fascinating biography of Theodore Roosevelt and how he transformed himself from a frail child to a man who championed outdoor life, and became a war hero, then president. It was one of my favorite reads of 2019.

Fourth Degree

An enslaved groom and the greatest racehorse in American history are the subject of this Pulitzer Prize winner, Horse by Geraldine Brooks (2022). Their bond carries the horse to record-setting victories across the South just prior to the Civil War. My review.

Fifth Degree

Another life-changing bond between a horse and a teen is depicted in
The Black Stallion by Walter Farley (1941), which my fourth grade teacher read to a rapt class. It’s a dramatic story about a shipwreck in which the boy saves himself from drowning by grasping the horse’s mane, their refuge on an isolated island, their return to civilization, and the race to establish the Black’s speed.

Sixth Degree

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis (1954) describes the relationship between Bree, a stallion, and Shasta, a poor fisherman’s son. Shasta does not expect Bree to talk, still less to suggest they escape to Narnia in the middle of the night. Bree is an arrogant horse so their relationship is unequal but he gets his comeuppance. This is the fifth in the series.

I tried to make a connection between Seascraper and The Horse and His Boy but the best I could do is that the former is set on the Irish sea and C.S. Lewis was Irish. Have you read any of these?

Next month (Jan. 3, 2026) is a wildcard to begin the year. Kate says to start with the book you finished this month’s chain with (or if you did not play in December, begin with the last book you read).