Review: THE NAMES (+Friday56 LinkUp)

Title: The Names by Florence Knapp

Book Beginnings quote:

Cora's mother always used to say children were whipped up by the wind, that even the quiet ones would come in after playtime made wild by it. Cora feels it in herself now, that restlessness. Outside, gusts lever at the fir trees behind the house and burst down the side passage to hurl themselves at the gate. Inside, too, worries skitter and eddy. Because tomorrow -- if the morning comes, if the storm stops raging -- Cora will register the name of her son. Or perhaps, and this is her real concern, she'll formalize who he will become.

Friday56 quote:

Sometimes he is benign, sometimes stern, always maleficent. A word so close to magnificent, she thinks, a word sent off-course by maleness.

Summary: The year is 1987. A son has been born to Cora and Gordon, a doctor by profession -- kind to his patients by day but a monster to his wife/family by night. The day after the storm (see the opening quote) Cora has been tasked with registering the boy's name after his father, Gordon, but Cora is afraid that name will make him into another monster like his father. As Cora and her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, walk to the registrar's office they talk about names. Cora dislikes the name Gordon, "the way it starts with a splintering wound that makes her think of cracked boiled sweets, then ends with a downward thud like someone slamming down a sports bag." Cora wants to name the boy Julian, which she learned from the baby book means "sky father," a meaning which might placate her husband. Maia, on the other hand, likes the name Bear. She thinks it sounds "all soft and cuddly and kind...also brave and strong."

In a sliding door tale, each of the three names are selected. Three names, three futures, three consequences, all laid out in a pattern of seven year intervals for the next 35 years. The reader meets Gordon/Julian/Bear and sees how each life path is altered by the difference of a name.

Review: The Names is a well-crafted story which may feel a little formulaic with the seven-year intervals. Because of the jumps the details of Gordon/Julian/Bear's life (lives?) seemed disjointed and left me wondering at what happened next. Aside from the obviously awful and possibly triggering details of the spousal abuse, the story unfolded in surprising ways and I thought the writing was beautiful. Reread the Friday56 quote (which isn't from page 56 but I don't have a physical copy of the book so who knows which page it's from?) and you will see what I mean. In the bad times, the word-smithery made the story soar. The patchwork quilt of stories were cleverly sewn together. Minor characters in one thread, were major characters in another. Sometimes I would get confused whose story was being told, especially since I was listening to the audiobook and didn't have the option of looking back for clues, but I could usually figure things out. Despite the interesting premise, the book left me with the understanding that it is not so much our names as it is the decisions we make which shift the balance and may lead to futures which are unpredicted. 

At the conclusion of the story, Knapp spends a few pages on the definitions of all the names of characters in the book and I could see how carefully she selected each name.

This is a book club selection for an upcoming meeting. These questions all seem to get to points I'd like to discuss so I won't add any questions of my own this month: Reading Guides/The Names.

My rating: 4.25 stars.

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-Anne