Six Degrees of Separation: Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland to Putting Alice Back Together

 

 

It would be a rare reader who is not at least a little familiar with Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland. I can’t remember when I was first introduced to it but it was likely when I was quite young. To be honest it’s never been a favourite of mine, I find it a little too nonsensical, though I know for many that is part of the charm.

Choosing the first link in my chain was this month was easy. Still Alice by Lisa Genova is the story of a fifty year old wife, mother and renowned linguistics professor at Harvard University, whose life is turned upside down when she develops early onset Alzheimer’s. The shifts between lucidity and disorientation as the disease progresses could be said to have something in common with Alice’s adventures down the rabbit hole.

Still Alice leads me directly to Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante. In this unique mystery novel, Jennifer White is a suspect in her best friend’s murder, but Jennifer suffers from rapidly advancing Alzheimer’s, and slipping in and out of awareness, can’t quite hold on to her memory of what happened the last time she saw her friend alive.

In What Alice Forgot by bestselling Australian author Liane Moriarty, the titular Alice loses her memory of the past ten years after a fall, leaving her struggling to reconcile her 29 year old mind set with her 39 year old self. The style of writing here gives the impression of a lighthearted chic lit novel, but it disguises a story with surprising insight, and I think it is one of her best novels to date.

An award-winning Australian writer, essayist and journalist, Alice Pung’s first fiction novel Laurinda, features a teenage girl, Lucy Lam, who is awarded the inaugural ‘Equal Access’ scholarship to an exclusive Ladies College, where she struggles to fit in. Part satire, magnifying the pretensions of private school and the aspirations of immigrant families, part poignant coming of age tale, Pung draws on her own experiences which gives the story a sense of authenticity.

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (later revealed as a fictional novel by Beatrice Sparks) was probably the most shocking coming of age tale of my generation, it chronicled a teenage girl’s descent into drug addiction. I was only about eleven when I read it, and I believed every word of it was true. While today’s teens would probably it consider rather ridiculous, it certainly had a lasting effect on me.

In Putting Alice Back Together by Carol Marinelli, another Australian author, a young woman is struggling to maintain a facade of happiness and success. Plagued by anxiety attacks, addicted to drugs and alcohol, and sabotaging her career and relationships, her life is falling apart, as hiding a secret from her past takes its toll.

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So this month links all have an obvious connection, either the main protagonist of each book is named Alice, or the author’s first name is Alice. Without realising it I also created links using A words … Alzheimer’s… Amnesia… Australian… Adolescence… and Addiction. That was clever of me! LOL. Oh and this month I have actually read all of the books in my chain.

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Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the Linky section (or comments) of each month’s post at booksaremyfavouriteandbest . If you don’t have a blog, you can share your chain in the comments section. You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees