Wild Swans // Six Degrees of Separation

The idea behind this exercise is to connect books in any way that’s meaningful to you, from the profound to the inane. Although Kevin Bacon is typically behind the six degrees game, books are just a bit more fun. September’s pick is Wild Swans. I thought, finally, a book I’ve read! Only it’s not that Wild Swans… The subtitle is important (Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang), clearly.

Naturally that is my first link. Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood is a novel about complicated family dynamics, particularly between mothers and daughters. So that is the connection between my next choice, Sweetgirl by Travis Mulhauser focuses on teenager Percy and her incredibly irresponsible, often absent mother. It reminds me, in the best possible way, of the television show Justified, which is one of my all time favorites.

Justified is based on, among other Elmore Leonard works, the novella Fire in the Hole, which appears in the short story collection When the Women Come Out to Dance.  Although I dearly love Stephen King, and Bag of Bones is one of my favorites, I found the television adaptation to be absolute shit, not to put too fine a point on it. Pierce Brosnan was the wrong actor to cast to play a young-ish American widower.

When I read that he’d be cast to star in the adaptation of another favorite of mine, The Son by Philipp Meyer, I was nervous. I’ve not had the chance to see it yet, but I hope it’s better than I expect. If I can, I like to end the chain with one I haven’t read, but plan to. In this case, I just downloaded My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent (like The Son, I do believe there is a fraught parent-child relationship), which I’ve heard wonderful (and also terrible) things about.

Care to join in? Please do!