Six Degrees of Separation

April and we are to consider another book chain in the meme 6 Degrees of Separation, hosted  Books Are My Favourite And Best . This month we start with the book Room by Emma Donoghue. I have not read the book, but heard about it, or at least the movie, which I have not seen either.

I make it easy for myself and start with Emma, which leads me into the book Emma by Jane Austen.
A book I tried to read for ages and just could not get into it. Finally, I decided "just to read it" and, although it is not my favourite Austen read by far, (I just can't stand Emma) it does improve after about half the book. The latter part is a relatively pleasant read.

From Austen I go to Austen! Or almost at least. Recently I read All Roads Lead to Austen by Amy Elizabeth Smith, about her trip to six South American countries in a quest to find out how Austen is interpreted by modern South Americans. A pleasant read.

While in South America my mind goes to a non fiction book I read recently; The Empress of South America by Nigel Cawthorne, about Eliza Lynch and her lover Francisco Solano Lopez, the ruler of Paraguay during the 19th century. A really gruesome, but very interesting story about the evils of people.

Hanging on to South America, I am thinking of another famous person from Argentina, Che Guevara. Last year I listened to an audio book, Che by Björn Kumm. Kumm is a Swedish journalist who also met Che Guevara. It is a fascinating account of a fascinating man and his never failing belief in a dream.

With Che Guevara we find a piece of the chain in Cuba, and that leads me to Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway is no Cuban, true, but he stayed there for many years and wrote some of his most famous books there. It takes me to his remembrances of Paris, A Moveable Feast and his words to a friend:  "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris, as a young man, then wherever you for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."

For the last piece of the chain I have both Paris and Hemingway as a connection. I go for the wonderful historical fiction on Hemingway's first marriage to Hadley Richardson and their first years in Paris, The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. A lovely written fictional account on their time in Paris. It also saw them divorce after a couple of years, but Hemingway said in the end of his life:  "I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her."

"Hadley, I wished I had
died before I ever
 loved anyone but her.

That was my six degrees of separation. I hope you enjoyed the chain I created.