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 Rodham, Curtis Sittenfeld’s fictional account of what might have happened in Hillary Clinton’s life, had she not married Bill.
In her 2017 book, What Happened, Hillary Clinton gave her account of the 2016 US election campaign.
In What Happened, Clinton quotes Chanel Miller, whose memoir, Know My Name, describes the time following her sexual assault. I could link to similar memoirs, but I’ll steer this chain toward happier waters – Know My Name appeared in my Top 50 from the Best Books of 2019 List of Lists, as did The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.
I enjoyed the fairy tale motifs in The Dutch House. Similar (in terms of the fairy tale bits), and also published in 2019, was Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi.
I finished Gingerbread feeling like I’d been on a rollercoaster. Or dumped by a wave. I had the same feeling when I finished Sara Stridsberg’s The Faculty of Dreams. It’s a fictionalised account of the life of the life of Valerie Solanas – this would circle back very neatly to Rodham, but I’m one link short, so I’ll end with another novel that examines the inner life of a person in the spotlight – Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates.
Where will other chains go? Link up below or post your link in the comments section.
Next month (October 3, 2020), we’ll start with The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
