First Saturday of the month and time for the super monthly tag Six Degrees of Separation, which is hosted by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, Six Degrees of Separation #6degrees picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six more steps. Links to my reviews are in the titles of the books chosen. The starter book this month is:
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
Lynch’s Booker winner turned out to be a bit of a marmite book with readers. Set in a version of Ireland under a dystopian and totalitarian government, it focused on one woman’s experience when her activist husband is taken. Eilish is thrown into a state of limbo and her anguish at her inability to do anything is palpable. Once I got used to Lynch’s long paragraphs and lack of speech marks, I loved it. Many others were thrown by the style and lack of decisive action by Eilish – I felt I understood her perfectly!
For my first link – the word I instantly associate with Prophet is ‘Nathan’ (cf Zadok the Priest). So a book by a Nathan is:
The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer
This prize-winning debut is a first person narrative told as memoir from the perspective of a troubled young man suffering from schizophrenia. The key event that triggers everything after is the death of Matt’s older brother Simon, who has Downs Syndrome, whilst on holiday when Matt was 9 yrs old. Matt is hospitalised when he writes his story. The author is a mental health nurse, and when he describes life there, you really believe this is how it is – from the mundane routine, to art group which Matt loves, and his therapy and treatment of course. Matt tells his story in a plethora of slightly different styles – from diary entries to typed manuscripts to little interludes when words dart over the page – each a different facet of Matt’s schizophrenia, one assumes. It also moves around the timeline with a similarly short attention span.
Another novel about a person with schizophrenia is:
The Octopus Man by Jasper Gibson
A superb novel and a real page-turner, but not for the usual reasons. Tom has a meeting with Megan, his case worker, to discuss taking part in a drug trial for schizophrenia. Tom, however, is in denial about his diagnosis. He hears one voice, that of Malamock, the Octopus God – who ‘electrocutes’ or sends currents buzzing down his body to heat it up when he is displeased. With the threat of being silenced, Malamock doesn’t want him to join the trial, naturally. The meeting doesn’t go well, and neither does Tom’s meeting with an old friend with whom he discovers he has nothing in common any more, leading to him taking the wrong train – and triggering him and leading to being sectioned… A harrowing and moving novel told with compassion and loads of humour.
My link is the Octopus, leading to:
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Tova should be retiring soon as night cleaner at the aquarium, her job ever since her son Erik vanished on a boat. Marcellus, an ageing and clever octopus watches her, and one night he interacts, grasping her arm as she cleans the glass of his tank. The two become friends, and Tova will help him back into his tank when he escapes frequently, and Marcellus becomes determined to help solve the mystery of her son, especially once she has a fall and can’t work, and the temporary replacement, Cameron, also has a mystery of his own. It gets complicated, but all is resolved, and the ageing octopus can live out his days happily. Told with humour and pathos, this was a heartwarming comfort read.
It was set in Seattle, as is:
Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
That’s what Eleanor Flood thinks – and it will be different, just not in the way she planned. Eleanor is fiftyish, neurotic and peri-menopausal, she became a mum (to Timby) late, has an illustrrious hand-surgeon husband Joe and her own successful illustration and animation career. But Eleanor has never entirely grown-up – she’s let her kooky speak/act first, think later side dominate for too long and she is also getting a bit of a martyr complex on top of that. She will have an awful day and along the way we will find out more about her life. As a whole, this novel was rather disjointed and definitely bonkers, but I did enjoy reading it – it’s smart and wise-cracking and there were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments.
Another Day in the Life / Life in a Day novel is:
The Knowing by Madeleine Ryan
The Knowing is set over the course of one Valentine’s Day, and it follows a Day in the Life and a Life in a Day of Camille, who works in an upmarket florist in a posh suburb of Melbourne.As the novel begins, the first train of Camille’s two train commute is leaving in a few minutes, when she realises she has forgotten her phone. She can’t be late for work, and her semi-celebrity boss, Holly, the boss from hell would be fuming on their busiest day of the year. We largely alternate between Camille’s work or the things she is thinking of, her hopes and fears for the future, and memories that surface to make an enjoyable read.
Another book with a floral cover is:
The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan
The ‘Lost Things’ are little items lost by people which Anthony, a writer, collects and uses to inspire his short stories. When he dies, his assistant Laura is asked try and rehome them. There is another related story in a previous timeline too. Hogan brings the two time-frames together neatly, giving a very cozy outcome and closure all around. This debut was a big hit, but I found it rather overwritten in parts.
That’s it for this month, an eclectic set of links – where will your Six Degrees take you?
