Six degrees of separation (Nov): From We have Always Lived in the Castle to Bel Canto

The meme is hosted by Books are My Favourite Best and is described thus: On the first Saturday of every month, a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book. Each person’s chain will look completely different. It doesn’t matter what the connection is or where it takes you – just take us on the journey with you.

This month’s chain starts with We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Not only have I never read this, but I've never even heard much about before now. From what I understand, it’s a gothic story about two sisters living in isolation after a family tragedy. It sounds eerie and full of dark family secrets. 

That immediately makes me think of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, another unsettling tale in which an isolated house becomes a character of its own. 

From there, I’m moving to Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, which also has the grand house, the secrets, the ever-present sense of dread. 

My next link is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Both books centre on young women discovering their strength amid loneliness and mystery. And of course, there’s the appeal of a dark, brooding man with secrets.

From Jane Eyre, I’m leaping to Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, which tells the story from the other side of Mrs Rochester. I didn't enjoy this books at all but it does reframe a classic and remind us that every story depends on who’s telling it.

That brings me to The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, one of my very favourite books of all time and happily voted as number 2 in the ABC Radio National's Top 100 Books of the 21st Century recent countdown. I thought of this one because it is a story that commonly appears in fiction, but reframed as a tale told from the perspective of death - that tells the story of a family brought together by circumstance and having to come together i nextreme circumstances. It's above love and what it means to be human.

Finally, that leads me to Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, which is less about what happens and more about the people at its heart. It’s a story about strangers drawn together by crisis, learning to create a kind of family out of circumstance.

So there’s my chain. It's perhaps a little dark but if I were trying to think in a good light I would say that they about connection and people trying to make sense of those around them.