I read “The Shadow of the Wind” and the next 2 books in the series. I loved “The Shadow of the Wind,” and liked each succeeding book a bit less. I read them all quite a while ago so my memory is bit fuzzy, but as I recall the storylines got increasingly fantastical.
I’ve also read “The Fountains of Silence,” which I liked a lot.
More recently I read “Metropolis” by B. A. Shapiro, who also wrote “The Art Forger.” “Metropolis” takes place in the city I live in, mostly in a building that actually exists, making it a fun read.
Next up for my RL Book Club is “The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes” by Ruth Hogan.
I really enjoyed this book, but I am confused about the author’s choice of names. The main character is Miss Jean Paget. She is the daughter of “Jean (nee Macfadden) and Arthur Paget.” (P. 18). I realize this might be common in real life, but why would an author choose to give two characters the same name (Jean Paget) when it is so much easier on everyone if they had different names?
Hi @seekingaid, I suspect it’s for the reason you mentioned – to add a tiny dose of realism, since it was pretty common back in the day to pass on one’s name to the next generation. It would have been really confusing if Jean’s mother were an active character in the novel, but fortunately that wasn’t the case. She’s pretty much dispensed with in the first chapter and not referred to again.
You got me thinking though: Are there other books where more prominent characters share a first name? I checked with my friend the internet and several people mentioned One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez. I haven’t read it, but I learned that the book spans six generations, where “the men of the Buendía line are named José Arcadio or Aureliano and the women are named Úrsula, Amaranta, or Remedios.” That’s partly for realism (paying tribute to one’s ancestors) and partly for symbolism (characters doomed to live out history repeating itself).
Also, many folks mentioned Game of Thrones having multiple characters with the same first name. Here’s what author George R. R. Martin said about A Song of Ice and Fire:
I violated a fair amount of rules that they teach you when you are a young writer. When I was younger, I tried not to violate them: Never have two characters in a story whose names start with the same letter; people will get confused. Certainly never have two characters with the same name because people will get really confused.
I knew the first rule wasn’t going to work because after the first chapter I had more than 26 characters and you don’t want a lot of X and Q names running around. I read a lot of medieval history in preparation for this series. I encountered English histories and the names are all Henrys and Edwards. In French history it is all Louies and Philips. Even the secondary families are using the same names over and over again. There were particular names associated with particular houses. I decided to do that-to hell with the rules. The readers can pay attention. I even have characters occasionally get confused about which Brandon is being talked about.
I felt this gave the world more verisimilitude. Our world-even our modern world-is filled with Davids, Stevens, and Brians. How do you keep them straight? You can use the same techniques for the book.
Thanks for the great question. As you can see, I have trouble giving a short answer to anything.
I think it’s unusual to have women with the same names, but it’s really common with men or there wouldn’t have a Charles Emerson Winchester III. (MASH) In my own family the nicknames changed - Fredericks were either Rick or Fred depending on the generation.
As someone who has spent the last 10 years digging into my family history, the repetition of names from one generation to the next has, at times, about put me over the edge! As @mathmom noted, it’s more common with men than women, although my family tree has many instances of the first daughter being given the same name as the mother. A wife’s maiden name was often given to the first-born as a middle name.
My mother’s name was Mary and that’s the name she gave all four of her daughters – three as the first name and one as a middle name. That wasn’t so unusual in the Catholic community in those days. The sisters in one family could be Mary Jean, Mary Beth, Mary Ann, etc. We knew who was who, but the Post Office and the credit bureaus definitely had problems over the years!
My father’s first name is his mother’s maiden name and my middle name. Last names for middle names are super common in my mother’s New England family, less common in my Dad’s family.
Yes! Very popular in my mother’s Italian family. I think there were 7 first cousins with the name Maria something…Everyone went by their “middle” name.
So fun that you picked Remarkably Bright Creatures (I was on vacation, ignoring the ipad). Loved it last year.
Several times I’ve recommended our book choices for a Zoom book club where I am a member - nice o have the thread notes. In this case, the title is what I had nominated for our April 2nd Zoom discussion. So… I’m hoping to read many insightful comments on April 1st!
Since I will be rereading it… I may opt to join Audible for a month to listen to the audio version.
