Woo hoo, our house is sold (though not quite off our hands), and spring has sprung down under (just), so the Gums are feeling ready to begin the next stage of our lives. We are relieved, but, you know, it’s acceptance that we are on the downward trajectory – to put it bluntly, so let’s just get to Six Degrees. If you don’t know how this meme works, please check host Kate’s blog – booksaremyfavouriteandbest.
The first rule is that Kate sets our starting book. In August it’s another book I haven’t read, Anna Funder’s Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s invisible life. It is about Eileen O’Shaughnessy who married Orwell in 1936 but has been barely mentioned in biographies of Orwell. Funder set out to discover why.
Now, it appears that some of my links have been a bit obscure lately. So, in deference to regular commenter here, MR, who wants a fighting chance to work out my links, my first one this month is an obvious one, Stasiland (my review), which is another non-fiction work by Anna Funder.
Stasiland was well-reviewed when it came out and was shortlisted for many awards. It won at least one of those, the 2004 Samuel Johnson Prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. Ten years later, in 2014, Helen Macdonald won the same prize for her book, H is for Hawk (my review). FYI, in 2015 this prize was renamed, the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction.
Macdonald writes about training, and hunting with, a hawk, while she works through her grief for her father who died suddenly. A very different work about a hawk is Australian writer D’Arcy Niland’s short story, “The parachutist” (my review) though we do also see the hawk in hunting mode.
In “The parachutist”, the hawk preys upon an innocent young kitten who is oblivious to the danger of a predator from the skies. Chris Flynn‘s novel Mammoth (my review) also includes a predator from the skies, Pterodactylus, who tells the other “characters” in the novel, “I was referred to as the Reptilian Eagle, an apex predator who dominated the skies. It would have been a compliment, had it not come from the mouths of maniacs”. (The maniacs were the Nazis.)
Pterodactylus, like many characters in Mammoth, is a fossil. Another historical fiction novel (if you can call Mammoth historical fiction) that deals with fossils is Tracy Chevalier’s Remarkable creatures (my review). It tells the story of the early 19th-century fossil collector, Mary Anning.
Mary Anning’s collecting work focused on the marine fossil beds in the cliffs at Lyme Regis. Some of you, on hearing this, will immediately guess my last link, and you would be right. It is to Jane Austen’s Persuasion (my post on volume 1), in which a significant (and memorable) event occurs in the same place.
My post this month started in England with Kate’s choice and ended there, but in between we visited Germany and Australia, and we traversed a wide expanse of time from pre-history to the 21st century. We also, unusually, spent a bit of time in the animal kingdom.
Now, the usual: Have you read Wifedom? And, regardless, what would you link to?
Whispering Gums 
No, I haven’t read it – but you will know that ! 🙂
These links are MUCH BETTER ! – although some of your followers, ST – those who, like yourself, are literary intellectuals – may prefer the more abstruse joinings of yore .. Bottom line ? – you can’t win. [grin]
Or, I just win differently each time! Thanks MR!
H’indeed !
A win-win solution is always best…
H’indubitably. 😀
Hmpf, you’ve chosen the link I was going to use for the Funder. I wanted to start with something positive because I admired Stasiland but All That I Am, not so much.
So now I am racking my brains for an elegant segue from the starter book…
Sorry, Lisa … you should have got in first! I don’t usually do a link like that but this was for MR!
When have I ever been first with #6Degrees?!
(You know I was only stirring, don’t you?)
PS Congratulations on selling the house:)
Yes, I do … and I was stirring back. Thanks re the house. A relief.
And here it is
(Not sure about how elegant it might be, ha ha).
Hm… I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with the links in your chains. No matter – some good ones here!
Haha, thanks Davida …
I’m cheating a bit here, with two books that I haven’t read. Still
Degree one will be Poets in Their Youth by Elaine Simpson, who was married to the self-destructive American poet John Berryman. Simpson became a psychoanalyst, and must have known quite a few case studies–Robert Lowell was hospitalized from time to time, Randall Jarrell walked in front of a bus, perhaps intentionally. This one I have not read.
Degree two will be Manhattan When I Was Young by Mary Cantwell. Her husband was not an author, or not primarily an author, but a literary agent. This marriage was also unsuccessful.
Degree three will be Images and Shadows by Iris Origo. Antonio Origo was not an author, and the couple were too European to divorce in the manner of Cantwell and too sane to need to divorce like Simpson.
Degree four will be Nadezhda Mandelstam’s Hope Against Hope: Osip Mandelstam was the real thing as a poet, and he did not need to go looking for trouble in alcohol or infidelities: trouble found him and he died in a Soviet transit camp.
Degree five will be Leaving a Doll’s House by Claire Bloom, which is largely about her ultimately unhappy time with the novelist Philip Roth. I have not read this. There is an adage about not getting into a war of words with someone who buys ink by the barrel, and alas Roth took his revenge by writing her unfavorably into a novel.
For degree six, I will slide over to fiction, with Turn, Magic Wheel by Dawn Powell. Two ex-wives of the writer Andy Callingham (modeled on Ernest Hemingway) appear in it.
Of the books you mention, I have read only H is for Hawk and Persuasion
You’ve stuck to the literary theme wonderfully well George, and I loved your descriptions, particularly of Osip Mandelstam who “did not need to go looking for trouble in alcohol or infidelities: trouble found him and he died in a Soviet transit camp”. And, there’s Dawn Powell again!
I’ve also heard of Claire Bloom (and Roth of course), and of the subject of one of your other books, John Berryman.
You’ve intrigued me with the Origos.
Is this a record? Your having read two of my books this time?
Great chain! I really loved Stasiland.
I enjoyed your chain very much. I’ve read two of the books -Persuasion, one of my favourite books and H is for Hawk, which bothered me. I really wanted to love it, but I found it difficult to read and draining, despite some richly descriptive narrative. I am not comfortable with keeping wild creatures in captivity and think the training is just so cruel.
Thanks Margaret. H is for hawk was one of the more controversial books my reading group has done, but it was the grief aspect that tripped most up. I take your point about training wild creatures though. I just found the whole thing fascinating.
Super chain!! Especially since it contains my favorite Tracy Chevalier book, Remarkable Creatures. I loved the “hawk” part of H is for Hawk, too.
Yes I enjoyed those books too…
Congratulations on selling your house! The only book I’ve read on your list is H is for Hawk, which I quite liked. I was editor of a bird magazine at the time and we had a regular section on falconry, which is such a fascinating “art” for want of a better word.
Thanks kimbofo. It’s a relief to have that done and to be able to start living again!
Falconry is fascinating I agree, and Macdonald showed that well I thought. An interesting book (to me, anyhow.)
So glad the sale is through-congratulations!
I’ve read and very much liked Remarkable Creatures and it had me thinking of Persuasion all though, so that’s the link I loved best in your chain this time.
Thanks Mallika. I thought I’d replied to this but clearly not, though I read it! Glad you liked the Remarkable creatures-Persuasion link.
I enjoyed Stasiland and am very intersted in Anna Funder’s new novel. I seem to remember that Eilleen O Shaughnassy’s contribution to the lightness of tone in Animal Farm discussed in Bernard Crick’s 1980 biography. To be Orwell’s wife seems to have involved a great deal of self sacrifice.
I did too Ian … it was a great read and really enhanced my visit to Leipzig. I’m
Interested in Wifedom too. Thanks for that point re Crick’s biography.
Well done on the sale. I did like Stasiland as an informative novel from a perspective rarely heard. I have a few of Anna’s book – she is an excellent writer. I have also listened to a few podcasts with her as guest. An interesting life.
Thanks Forestwood for commenting, and for your input regarding Funder’s writing. I’ve only read a couple of her works but I like her writing, and do find her interesting as she gives different things and ideas a go. I like that.
Way to work in a link to Jane Austen!
Congratulations on selling your house! You probably still have all the paperwork mess to get through, but golly, what a relief! And happy spring!
Haha Stefanie, I don’t like to overdo it, but I don’t want to let people forget her either!
And thanks re the house. We do have to get through all the paperwork and transfer, but that should just happen in time.
Glad to hear you’re feeling relieved and happy about the sale!
Congrats on taking another route with your 6Degrees to satisfy your “audience”!
Thanks Marcie. It is a great relief to have that done. And haha, I do like to please the “audience”.