Six Degrees of Separation: From The Optimist's Daughter to Wave Me Goodbye

 

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point. Last month she did not supply a title and asked us to start with the last book on our previous Six Degrees post. So for me, the starting book will be The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty.

The Optimist's Daughter was published in 1972 and won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Laurel McKelva Hand is a widow, living and working in Chicago. Laurel returns to her hometown in Mississippi for her father's funeral. The story explores her relationship with her father, her mother who died when she was younger, and her new stepmother who is much younger than her father and has inherited the house that Laurel grew up in. It also focuses on her memories of losing her husband during World War II, not very long after they were married. There is a lot of depth to the novel, which is only 180 pages long.

1st degree:

I chose the first book in my chain, Kissing the Gunner's Daughter, because of the title, the mention of a daughter. It is a perfect link, because there are two daughters that figure in the story. This is the 15th book in the Ruth Rendell Inspector Wexford series. A family is attacked at dinner time and a famous author and her daughter and son-in-law are killed. Only the teenage granddaughter lives through the attack. And while Wexford is investigating this horrible crime, he is worried about his daughter Sheila, who is in a relationship he disapproves of. Kissing the Gunner's Daughter is a dark story of psychological suspense.

2nd degree:

My next book, Henrietta Who?, is also a police procedural mystery which features a daughter. Grace Jenkins has been killed in a hit and run accident. When her daughter is called home from college, Henrietta learns that she cannot be Grace's daughter because the woman has never had a child. This is not only the search for a murderer but also the story of a very young woman coming to terms with questions about her parents and her origins.

3rd degree:

My next book in the chain takes me to The Hollow by Agatha Christie, which features another character named Henrietta. This is the 25th book in the Hercule Poirot series although as I remember it, there is not much of Poirot in the book. The story is built around a country house weekend; the characters are interesting, somewhat quirky, and all seem to be hiding something. Henrietta Savernake is a successful sculptor who is in love with Dr. John Christow, who has a wife and children.

4th degree:

Gallows Court is the first book in a relatively new series by Martin Edwards featuring Rachel Savernake, the daughter of a hanging judge, and an amateur sleuth. The setting is London in the 1930s. I have not read this book but the series is doing well and I am eager to try it soon.

5th degree:

My next link is to Perfect Gallows by Peter Dickinson. This book is about a murder that occurs in 1944 in the UK, on an estate occupied by US forces preparing for the invasion of France. It is primarily set during World War II, with a framing story set in 1988. Peter Dickinson was a wonderful writer who has written many books in the mystery and fantasy genres.

6th degree:

Using World War II as a link, my next book is Wave Me Goodbye: Stories of the Second World War. The book is comprised of short stories that take place during the war or the years immediately afterward; the authors are all women and all but one story was written during that time. The stories are mostly home front stories. I have read only a few stories in that book so far.

My chain starts out in Mississippi in the US but moves to the UK after that. Was there any connection between the first book and the last? Only the tenuous connection to World War II because the death of Laurel's husband was connected to that conflict.

Have you read any of these books? And where did your list take you, if you participated in this month's Six Degrees meme?

The next Six Degrees will be on March 2, 2024, and the starting book will be Tom Lake by Ann Patchett.

Six Degrees of Separation: From Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow to The Optimist's Daughter

 

The Six Degrees of Separation meme is hosted by Kate at booksaremyfavoriteandbest. The idea behind the meme is to start with a book and use common points between two books to end up with links to six books, forming a chain. The common points may be obvious, like a word in the title or a shared theme, or more personal. Every month Kate provides the title of a book as the starting point.

The starting book this month is Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. I wasn't in any hurry to read this book, but when it came up as a starting book for Six Degrees, it motivated me to get a copy. I have been reading it (at a slow pace) for three days now and am only halfway in. It is about two young people who create video games, and so far it focuses on relationships and family. I like the way it is structured, and I am enjoying reading it, immensely. 

1st degree:

Staying with the theme of video gaming, my first link is to Didn't See That Coming by Jesse Q. Sutanto. This is a young adult novel; the main character is an avid video-gamer. When she plays online she uses a male name to avoid harassment. The storyline is similar to The Shop Around the Corner (or You've Got Mail).  

2nd degree:

I enjoyed reading another book by Jesse Q. Sutanto, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. Vera Wong is sixty years old, widowed, and lives alone above her tea shop in San Francisco's Chinatown. One morning she finds the dead body of a man on the floor of her tea shop, a man she does not recognize. She reinvents herself as an amateur detective.

3rd degree:

Staying in Chinatown in San Francisco, my next book is City of Dragons by Kelli Stanley. Miranda Corbie is a 33-year-old private investigator who investigates the death of Eddie Takahashi, against the wishes of the Chamber of Commerce and the police. Kelli Stanley makes San Francisco of the 1940's come alive; she describes the tensions within Chinatown due to the war in Asia and Europe very well. I learned much about Chinatown and the US attitude toward the war at that time. My husband introduced me to this series and he has read all four books in the series.

4th degree:

China Trade is another book set in Chinatown, but this time in New York City's Chinatown, in the 1990's. It is the first book in S. J. Rozan's series about two private investigators who frequently work cases together. Bill Smith is a white private investigator in his forties who lives in Manhattan; Lydia Chin is an American-born Chinese private investigator in her late twenties who lives in New York’s Chinatown with her mother. I am linking to Constance's review at Staircase Wit, because I read this book before I was blogging.

5th degree:

My fifth book is another book by  S. J. Rozan, Paper Son. This is the 12th book in the Bill Smith and Lydia Chin series, published in 2019. In this book Lydia discovers that she has relatives in Mississippi. Lydia's mom, Chin Yong-Yun, requests that Lydia go help out a cousin in Mississippi who is in jail, and she insists that Bill Smith go along to help. This is one of the best books in the series, and I enjoyed it especially because of the setting. I grew up in Alabama and I had relatives in a small town in Mississippi. This is a pretty good look at the South, without being over the top, not that I have spent a lot of time there in the last few years.

6th degree:

Another novel set in Mississippi is The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty. The book was published in 1972 and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1973. Laurel McKelva Hand is a widow, living and working in Chicago. She goes to New Orleans with her father, Judge McKelva, and his second wife, Fay, to visit the Judge's eye doctor. The judge dies while in the hospital for eye surgery. Laurel returns to her hometown in Mississippi for the funeral. Many readers love this book, but I did  not. It was funny at times, sad at times, but I could not connect with the characters or feel any involvement in the story.

The links in my chain of books centered on Chinatowns in different cities in the US, contemporary and historical, and then hopped over to Mississippi. 

If you did this month's Six Degrees, where did your links go?

The next Six Degrees will be on February 3, 2024, and the starting book will be the book you finished on this month (or the last book read).

My reading in May and June 2023

In May and June, I read a total of 17 books. Two were nonfiction, and two were general fiction, both from my Classics Club list.

The other 13 books were crime fiction. Two of those were short story books that I was finishing up from previous months. 

In June I started on my 20 Books of Summer list and read 6 from that list. I have even posted my thoughts on four of those. 

So here are the books I read.

Nonfiction / Health

Hello, Sleep (2023) by Jade Wu

The focus of this book is insomnia. The subtitle is "The Science and Art of Overcoming Insomnia Without Medications." The book offers a self-guided program that helps change a person's sleeping patterns and behavior using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I). The book was extremely interesting to me and I learned a lot from it.

Nonfiction / Books about Books

Book Lust to Go (2010) by Nancy Pearl

My third read of this book, and I enjoyed it every time I read it. This time I read it specifically for the Bookish Books Reading Challenge and to look for some books for the Wanderlust Challenge at FictionFan's Book Reviews, which I am planning to start working on (after 20 Books of Summer).

Fiction

The Optimist's Daughter (1972) by Eudora Welty

I read this book for the Classics Club Spin #33. The book is very short, 180 pages in the edition I read. It was published in 1972 and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1973. Welty was a well-known author of Southern fiction but she only wrote five novels, between 1946 and 1972. See my thoughts here.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) by Carson McCullers

I read this book for the Classics Club Spin #34 and it is also on my 20 Books of Summer list. How lucky was that? I liked the book a lot, and will be reviewing it in July.

Crime Fiction

Murder by the Book: Mysteries for Bibliophiles (2021) ed. by Martin Edwards

Murder by the Book is a short story anthology edited by Martin Edwards. It is a part of the British Library Crime Classics series, published in the US by Poisoned Pen Press. I reviewed some of the stories in this book here and here.

Paper Chase (1989) by Bob Cook

This is a humorous book about four old spies who retired years ago, and only get together at the funerals of other old friends who were intelligence agents. They are forbidden to publish their memoirs, and they decide to deal with this by writing and publishing a fictional story based on their memoirs. I enjoyed the book, it was short and fun but serious enough. And I love the cover.

Slough House (2021) and

Bad Actors (2022) by Mick Herron

Books 7 and 8 in the Slow Horses series. Mick Herron is an author that has never disappointed me. The "slow horses" are MI5 agents who have been demoted due to some disgrace or screw up in their jobs, and are now working under Jackson Lamb. Amazingly, this is one series I have kept current with. I love the writing, the characters, and the plots get better and better.

Murder is Easy (1939) by Agatha Christie

This is one of Christie's standalone mysteries, published in 1939. It isn't one of her best, but most books by Christie are worth reading, and this one was fun and entertaining. Luke Fitzwilliam, a retired policeman, returns to England after several years in the East. He is on a train when he meets Miss Fullerton, an elderly woman on her way to Scotland Yard to report some murders in her village. Later, when he finds that Miss Fullerton was killed in a hit-and-run accident in London, and that the man that she thought was going to be the next murder victim had also died recently, he goes to her village to investigate. 

Killers of a Certain Age (2022) by Deanna Raybourn

This story is about four older women who have worked for years as assassins. The organization that hired and trained them is the Museum, and now the Museum has turned against them and ordered their deaths. At first I was reluctant to read this book because I have had problems with books centered around hitmen, but I had heard so much about this one, I had to try it. I loved this book, and I regret that I did not have time to review it. 

Dolphin Junction: Stories (2021) by Mick Herron

This collection was published in 2021 and features 11 short stories previously published between 2006 and 2019. There are four stories about the Oxford wife-and-husband detective team of Zoë Boehm and Joe Silvermann, characters from Herron's Oxford Investigations series, plus a story about Jackson Lamb, top agent in the Slow Horses series, which goes back to a time in the past when he had an assignment in Berlin. There are also six short stories with no connection to any of his novels. I reviewed some of the stories in this book here and here.

Clark and Division (2021) by Naomi Hirahama

This is the first book I have read that gave me any insight into the internment of Japanese Americans into "relocation camps" during World War II. In this novel, the Ito family are sent to Manzanar shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Later they are resettled in Chicago, far from their original home Southern California. The oldest daughter was sent to Chicago first, and when the rest of the family arrives, they find that she has committed suicide. This was a good read, and it inspires me to read more about the subject. The second book in this series, Evergreen, will be published on August 1, 2023. In that book, the Ito family has been allowed to return home to California.

The Mitford Murders (2017) by Jessica Fellowes

The first book in a series set among the Mitford family, in 1920.  My review here.

Mindful of Murder (2022) by Susan Juby

Helen Thorpe returns to the Yatra Institute, a spiritual retreat where she used to work, after the owner of the institute dies. The author is Canadian and the setting is one of British Columbia’s gulf islands. My review here.

Our Man in Camelot (1975) by Anthony Price

This is the 6th book in the David Audley series, a Cold War espionage series usually set in the UK. See my thoughts here.

A Dying Fall (2012) by Elly Griffiths

This was the fifth book in the popular Ruth Galloway series, which features a forensic archaeologist living in Norfolk in an isolated cottage on the saltmarsh. Since both this book and Our Man in Camelot centered around the Arthurian legend, I combined my reviews in one post.

Sworn to Silence (2009) by Linda Castillo

I had been putting off reading this 1st book in the Kate Burkholder series, another very popular mystery series, set in an Amish town in Ohio. Kate Burkholder is the police chief of the town. One of her deputies finds the body of a dead girl who has been raped and mutilated. I thought this book would have too much graphic violence and tension. It was not too tense (for me) and I loved the characters. The violence was a bit too much for me, but I will be reading more of this series. 

Walks

The images at the top and bottom of the post were taken in May, when we visited Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden, a small park in Santa Barbara. It covers only one city block, but has lots of paths to walk around on, and is a favorite for dog walkers. For three years when our son was very young, we lived across the street on Garden Street. It was the only time we have lived in the city rather than an unincorporated area.

My husband took the photos. Click on the images for the best viewing quality.

The Optimist's Daughter: Eudora Welty

I read The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty for a Classics Club Spin and I am a bit late reviewing it. The book is very short, 180 pages in the edition I read. It was published in 1972 and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1973. Welty was a well-known author of Southern fiction but she only wrote five novels, between 1946 and 1972.

Laurel McKelva Hand goes to New Orleans with her father, Judge McKelva, and his second wife, Fay, to visit the Judge's eye doctor. The judge is in his early seventies and the retina in one eye has slipped.  As a result of surgery, he is required to lie in bed for weeks and not move his head. As he lies there his condition degenerates. When he dies, Laurel returns to her hometown for the funeral.

This book was divided into four sections. The first section describes Judge McKelva's illness and death in a hospital in New Orleans, and the support that is provided by Laurel, his daughter, and Fay, his second wife, who is younger than Laurel. Fay is shallow and self-centered; she doesn't even attempt to hide her irritation because her first visit to New Orleans with the Judge has to be spent sitting in a hospital, when she could be going to Mardi Gras activities. 

The second section recounts the return to Laurel's hometown: meetings with her old friends; the visitation at the house; the funeral. Fay's family comes to support her, but she is furious when they show up. She had told Laurel that she had no family; maybe she was ashamed of them, or thought she had risen above them.

Probably the best thing about this book is the depiction of the visitation in the home, with dishes brought in from neighbors, and remembrances of the judge, although I found it painful rather than humorous. 

Fay inherits the Judge's estate, and she will now own the family home that Laurel grew up in. Fay returns to her hometown in Texas for a few days and Laurel agrees to be out of her former home before Fay returns.  Even though Laurel tries, they can find no common ground between them. Fay knows that Laurel looks down on her and resents her relationship with the Judge. 

In the third section, Laurel goes through the house, looking for mementos, things that belonged to her mother. She looks backs on trips she took to visit her mother's family in West Virginia. The fourth section is very brief. It focuses on her memories of losing her husband during World War II, not very long after they were married. 

My Thoughts:

In this review I have covered more of the plot than I usually do, and that is partially because I cannot really explain what I don't like about the book. For me, it did not have depth and it did not seem to go anywhere in the first two-thirds of the book. I had too many unanswered questions, and I did not want to fill in the blanks. 

The last sections were the best part of the book. I preferred Laurel's memories of her past and her attempts to come to terms with the loss of her parents and her husband to the first two sections. Others have had the opposite reaction to the book. They enjoyed the contentious relationship between Laurel and Fay, but found Laurel's musings over her past and coming to terms with her loss less interesting. 

The Optimist's Daughter was first published as a long story in The New Yorker in March 1969. Later it was revised and published in book form. Possibly that was why the book seemed to have a split personality, funny at times, sad at times, but not doing either very well. I haven't read the first version.

Many readers have loved this book. Many reviewers include their own experiences with losing their parents and other family members in their reviews. I think it is a book well worth reading, especially since it is a brief read. Some of the writing is beautiful. I just did not care for the book as a whole.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:   Vintage International, 1990 (orig. pub. 1972)
Length:       180 pages
Format:       Trade paperback
Setting:       USA; New Orleans; Mount Salus, Mississippi
Genre:        Fiction
Source:      On my TBR since May 2019.