Six Degrees of Separation - Following Bret Easton Ellis

Would you pick this up in a bookstore?

Oh dear! I've never read any of Bret Easton Ellis' novels. He was the enfant terrible of young writers in the 1980s. I have a memory of American Psycho appearing on bookshelves sealed in plastic. His first novel, Less than Zero, is the subject of Six Degrees of Separation this month.

While I agonise about where Less than Zero will lead me, regular readers will know that Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman began the 6 Degrees of Separation meme in 2014 and now it is managed (is that the right word?) by Kate at Books are my favourite and best. The idea is that Kate nominates a book and, on the first Saturday of the month, participants reveal chains of six books that all connect in some way. If you are curious to see where other people's reading leads them, Kate's blog is a good place to begin. But I owe my introduction to Whispering Gums, another very good place to start - I also owe her for some mentoring on how to set up comments. Hopefully that's under control now.

But back to Less than Zero. The online blurbs suggest its reminiscent of Luke Davies' Candy - but I haven't read it either. The book I remember reading when Easton Ellis what at the height of his fame was Donna Tartt's The Secret History. The Paris Review, via Google, tells me that Tartt and Easton Ellis attended the same college and shared early drafts. Saved by Google.

The Secret History is set in a college and starts with a murder. I'm going to take the easy route and follow the crime. This time to Tana French, the Irish crime writer, I read In the Woods earlier in the year, looking for a new crime series to follow. She was getting a lot of press at the time, although her novels were quite hard to find in local bookstores. It was an enjoyable read but I didn't get the bug and haven't read any others yet.

I'm now in Ireland, though, and thinking about Irish fiction. Probably the first Irish novel I read was The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien. I read it a very long time ago. It was one of a number of books I read that helped me explore what being a feminist might mean.

Simone de Beauvoir is another writer I read around about the same time (surprise!). I discovered her via the marvellous biography by Deirdre Bair. I ended up reading all de Beauvoir's novels but the one that remains foremost in my mind is The Mandarins. Set in France in the aftermath of the Second World War, it is believed to be based on the group of intellectuals who surrounded de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Satre. The truth disguised as fiction, perhaps?

Now reading

Another novel based on life is Alex Miller's new book, The Passage of Love. I'm reading it at the moment (up to chapter 5) and, while it might be based on his early years in Australia, I've quickly stopped second-guessing and am becoming immersed in the story of Robert Crofts, who travelled from England at 17 to become a stockman in the far north before becoming a writer.

Another book about a writer is Stephen King's Misery. (I love the cover text I've linked too: 'Paul Sheldon used to write for a living. Now he's writing to stay alive'.) Funnily enough, Misery has some connections to Less than Zero. The first is that I haven't read either - although the film starring Kathy Bates and James Caan is forever etched in my memory. The second is that Stephen King is apparently one of Bret Easton Ellis' influences.

Now how's this for a coincidence: I've just looked at Books are my favourite and best to find out what December's book is ... Stephen King's It! I don't think I'm going to read it (I'm not good with horror and scary clowns) but I look forward to seeing where it leads me.

Six Degrees of Separation - Like Water for Hot Chocolate

Last weekend, I was clearing out the shed where I store boxes of books acquired nearly 20 years ago. There were a few reading memories there, I can tell you. On the shelves, I found my copy of Like Water for Hot Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. I remember buying it on a lunchtime walk to Paperchain Bookstore in Manuka. In those days, a friend and I often spent our lunch hours walking to the bookshop, browsing the shelves, and inevitably carrying something new back to the office. Like Water for Hot Chocolate is this month's choice for 6 Degrees of Separation. 

You might already know that Annabel Smith and Emma Chapman began the 6 Degrees of Separation meme in 2014 and now it is managed (is that the right word?) by Kate at Books are my favourite and best. The idea is that Kate nominates a book and, on the first Saturday of the month, participants reveal chains of six books that all connect in some way. If you are curious to see where other people's reading leads them, Kate's blog is a good place to begin. But I owe my introduction to Whispering Gums, another very good place to start.

So where will Like Water for Hot Chocolate lead? There are a few paths we could take to begin - Chocolat by Joanne Harris; perhaps to Isabel Allende who I also discovered at Paperchain. But as Like Water for Hot Chocolate is 'a novel in monthly instalments with Recipes, Romances and Home Remedies', it has made me think of another book about cooking - Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. Do you remember it? Blogger Julie spends a year recreating the 524 recipes Julia Child included in Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Still on the cooking in fiction theme, my next book is a novel, The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones. It also includes recipes but these were secondary to the story of a widowed American food writer who travels to Beijing to unravel her husband's past and her own present. 

The Taste of Memory leaps to mind. Marion Halligan's memoir about food and families and life is one of the few books with recipes I've read where I did attempt one of her recipes. For a little while there, I made her pizza dough - until Jim broke a tooth biting into it. Let's blame the cook, not the recipe. It's still one of my favourite books about life in Canberra and also in France.

Food is very much on my mind because now I'm thinking about the series of archaeological detective fiction created by LJM Owens, another Canberra writer. In the first book in the series, Olmec Obitutary, librarian and super sleuth Dr Elizabeth Pimms is adjusting to life in Canberra, only to be distracted by the mystery of a royal Olmec cemetery. 

Suddenly I'm not thinking about food at all. Now I'm onto graveyards. Specifically Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry, which is set in London's Highgate Cemetery. I wanted to love this book as much as I loved her first novel, The Time Traveller's Wife. I didn't, but Highgate Cemetery was a very impressive character.

Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, on the other hand, will stay with me forever. I discovered Gaiman relatively recently (I know, the rest of the world fell in love with him years ago). I adore that moment of discovery. The Graveyard Book tells the story of Bod Owens, who is adopted by the supernatural inhabitants of a graveyard after his parents are murdered. I seem to recall food playing an important part in the story too. Bod's adopted family have no need of food - unlike Bod himself.

We haven't travelled very far today, have we? We began with recipes and magic in Mexico and we've ended with food and fantasy in England, with short visits to New York, France, China, Canberra, France, Canberra, and Mexico in between. 

Next month, it's back to the 80s with Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero. 

PS Thank you to those who have commented on previous posts. Being a 'comments novice', I've only just discovered them lurking, waiting to be published! Will try to get myself organised so it doesn't happen again. It was great to hear from you.