Six Degrees of Separation: Dangerous Liaisons to Tomorrow When the War Began

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links. I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

This month's starting point is Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. I looked and thought yay! An opportunity to choose some books set in France. And then I looked at last month's post and realise that the majority of them were set in France! Let's see where the chain takes us this month. 

Another French classic is  Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I read this a long time ago now.  I just bought tickets to see this in an arena show in May. Should be interesting to see it in a crowd of around 10000 people, presumably singing along in some parts. Will have to watch the movie version to refresh my memory between now and then.

I have seen a number of plays and shows that were originally based on a book. A while ago now we went to see Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, and I also saw her live at Melbourne Writers Festival. 

Recently, I read There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak. I saw her online at Adelaide Writers Festival a few years ago. In There Are Rivers in the Sky, there were a couple of paragraphs musing over the nature of numbers and words, something I end up overthinking about myself on occasion. I tend to think more about who was the first person who called something it's name and why did they choose that, or how did the words evolve in the first place, because some words just look a little odd. I couldn't fit the passage into my review but I thought I would share it here instated. 

Sniffling, the boy pulls up his collar and rubs his hands. It is not good. The wind pierces through his frayed garments, chilling his bones. He does not mind the cold as much as the hunger. Hunger is a beehive in his abdomen, one that has been stirred with a stick, buzzing day and night, jostling, irritated and frantic. He reckons the bees need a distraction, something to keep them busy and out of mischief. So he seeks help from mathematics. Whenever he feels worried, he does sums and multiplications in his head. He takes a gander at a lady with a parasol strolling along the park or a gentleman in a top hat sprinting across the square, and he sets himself the task of calculating how many ruffles are on her skirt or how many lines pattern his frock-coat. Numbers, with their unwavering reliability, comfort him and make him forget the pangs in his belly.

Hearing the snap of a whip now, Arthur instinctively recoils. As he has reached a busy high street, he needs to be extremely watchful. Last winter on this very spot a man was trampled to death by a hansom cab. The horses slipped in a rut in the road, pulling the carriage a full tilt even as they charged on over human flesh and bones. No sooner does the boy reflect on that day than the word 'accident' flashes through his mind, leaving a curious taste in his mouth Words always come to him with their distinctive flavours. 'Accident' is gamey, like burning fat and stale sausages, bags o'mystery, whose ingredients no one really knows. 'School' has a pungency that lingers on the tongue, like licking old boots. And 'mother' is buttery, warm and sweet, though with an acidic undertone, reminiscent of an apple pie gone sour. For years, Arthur assumed it must be the same for everyone, that other people also experienced similar associations, until he realized this was not the case. Since then he has been careful not to mention it to anyone. A quiet boy by nature, there are lot of thing she keeps to himself.

Keeping with the idea of words, my next choice is The Beautiful Words by Vanessa McCausland. I still need to read her latest book.

I recently bought a new book called Pipsworth by Simon Van Booy. The only book I have read by him previously is Everything Beautiful Began After so I am using the word beautiful to create this link.

I am finishing this month using the word began as my link. I am choosing Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden, who recently passed away. Vale John Marsden. 

Next month, the starting point is the 2023 Booker Prize winner, Prophet Song by Paul Lynch.

Will you be joining us?

Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy

Simon Van Booy brings to the page his unique talent for poetic dialogue and sumptuous imagery in this his remarkable debut novel of love and loss, dependence and independence. Rebecca has come to Athens to paint. Born and raised in the south of France, Rebecca's mother abandoned her and her sister when they were very young, left to be raised by her loving yet distant grandfather. Young and lost, she seeks solace in the heat of Athens. George has come to Athens to translate language. Dropped off at a New England boarding school when he was a child, he has close to no relationships with anyone, except the study of ancient language and alcohol. Henry has come to Athens to dig. An archaeologist, Henry is on-site at Athens during the day, and roams the Agora on the weekend. Three lost and lonely souls whose worlds become inexorable enmeshed with consequences that ripple far among the ruins of ancient Athens

There are a number of very enthusiastic fans of Simon Van Booy. After hearing rave reviews from Jen and Bookfool (amongst others) I added his books to my list but he doesn't have any books in my library catalogue so I was contemplating how I was going to get my chance to try his writing! Lucky for me, not long after this book came up on Netgalley, and I requested instantly!

Now, I am lucky enough to be able to join in on the praise, because the language was a joy to read! Simon Van Booy has writing the human condition down. He conveys emotions with really beautiful language used to express them! For example, from pages 48-49.

"I think he looks lonely," Rebecca said.

"But there are always people on the street below his balcony ---"

"That doesn't mean anything," Rebecca interrupted. "Loneliness is like being the only person left in the universe, except that everyone else is still here.

Earlier this week I shared a teaser for Teaser Tuesday about one of the main characters, Rebecca, and now here is one about Henry from page 53:

And he would continue watching himself from the shadows - impersonating the man he should have been.

Van Booy understands and comments on human emotions - certainly ones that I could relate to (from page 79)

He wanted to love her, and almost could - but there was something holding him back, something he could feel but couldn't see. He'd felt it all his life, like a wall between him and happiness.

In addition to capturing the human spirit Van Booy also made me want to travel to Athens , to breathe in the air and gaze at the vistas that he had described in the books. I love it when a book makes me feel that way. This quote comes from page 171:

Hundreds of miles away in Greece, it was morning. Oranges stud the trees, even in winter. You imagined lines of cars at lights. Taxis on the main avenues around Omonia Square. Old women in black sitting on the steps of the church, their hard shoes bent to one side. You imagined your old apartment. A desk and the reflection of passing birds.

The square beneath your balcony. Athens at dawn, a cool blue breath.

Lingering stars.

At sunrise, the city blushes. Stone statues glow pink with life for a few minutes, and then fade back to plain white with no memory of their momentary passion.

Okay, enough quotes although there are a load more I could have chosen. What is the book about? Well, I actually am not going to say too much more than three lonely and isolated people are brought together in Athens. Their paths cross and each of them is changed in ways that they could never fathom. There is friendship, love and loss, deception and redemption, being lost and then finding your way back again and so much more. In fact this ended up being a completely different book than the one I was expected to read in many ways, but I don't want to spoil for anyone who is planning on reading the book. Even if you think that you know what this book is going to be about you really don't.

Despite how much I loved the book, I haven't given it the highest possible rating. When I read the prologue I actually commented to someone that I had no clue what was going on. It took a little while for the prose to settle down from being overly flowery into truly exceptional and eventually the prologue became clear but it took a while! Some might find it a little self indulgent at times, but if that doesn't bother you then you will find it a very enjoyable read. The other thing is that there was a plot twist late in the book, that I just don't recall seeing any clues about. I don't mind plot twists that come out of nowhere as long as you can look back and say oooohhhh, right!

Speaking of plot twists, the author used an interesting tool in the book in that there is a change of tense within the book from third person to second person. I am not the biggest fan of second person narrative, but I have to say that in this case it really worked! It definitely helped define the sense of helplessness, of loss, of despair in a way that third person might not quite have managed.

It should be noted that this is a book that it is probably best to read in paper as I had some issues with reading some sections in the book due to formatting in the ebook. There are a few sections where the narrative is driven forward through the use of letters which are type written on hotel stationery. Because they are inserted in the text as images I was unable to zoom in so that I could read those letters on my ereader. I ended up having to come onto my computer and read it through the software so that I could actually see what had been written. This hasn't affected my grade though because really this is a formatting issue rather than a story issue but it was something I felt should be mentioned!

I am so glad to have read my first Simon Van Booy book! It certainly won't be my last. I am intending to try and track down his previous short story collections.

Thanks for Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book!

Please note that all quotes from the egalley and therefore may be different in the final version of the book, and all page numbers refer to the egalley page numbers which will be different too!

Rating 4/5 although I am seriously tempted to change it up to 4.5/5

Teaser Tuesday: Everything Beautiful Began After by Simon Van Booy

Simon Van Booy has a big following in certain sections of the blogiverse and they are certainly passionate in their praise of him! My library doesn't have any of his books so when I saw this book on Netgalley a little while ago, I knew that I had to take this opportunity to try his work and see what all the fuss was about.

My teaser this week comes from page 12:

The real Rebecca lay beneath, smuggled onboard each flight inside her uniform, waiting for the moment to reveal herself.

But such a moment never happened, and her true self, by virtue of neglect, turned from the world and slipped away without anyone noticing.

Please note that this selection comes from a galley version of the book and therefore may be changed in the final version.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!