It’s time for #6degrees. Start at the same place as other wonderful readers, add six books, and see where you end up!
This month we begin with Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. I haven’t read the book but I watched the movie after I finished The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell. The ending of Rindell’s book left me completely confused and a friend, who’d also read Typist, simply said “Fight Club.”
A catastrophic fall is crucial to the plot of The Other Typist, as it is in Floria Tosca by Paola Capriolo, a modern interpretation of Puccini’s opera, Tosca.
The last production I saw of Tosca was set during WWII, with Scarpia depicted as a high-ranking Nazi. On my recent trip to Germany, I visited Sachsenhausen, the concentration camp near Berlin, and also the place where SS officers were trained. It leads me to Hannah’s Dress by Pascale Hugues, which looks at Berlin’s history through both Wars to the present by following life on a single residential street.
The idea of focusing on a single element to tell a greater story brings to mind Turning by Jessica Lee. Also set in Berlin, Lee recalls the ups and downs she faced in a single year, all told in terms of her ‘swimming project’.
Turning is told in four parts, for the four seasons, as is Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler.
I recently watched the tv series of Sweetbitter. I enjoyed it but not as much as the tv series of Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe.
Where will other chains go? Link up below or post your link in the comments section.
Next month (March 2, 2019), we’ll begin with a book that I think will be a frontrunner for the Stella Prize – The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper (I realise overseas readers may not be familiar with this book but the fact that it is true crime might provide a starting point).
