Tall Tales from Kansas

The Names, by Florence Knapp, is my latest “listen” from the library on Libby. I finished it in the airport and on the plane while traveling to see Sister recently. This novel, set in England and Ireland, explores the idea of how a life might turn out differently based on the names we are given. It follows Cora, her daughter Maia, and husband Gordon as their lives unfold in 3 different ways depending on the name given to the new baby boy they have just welcomed into the family. Cora, Gordon, and Maia each have their own thoughts on what would be a good name for the baby. They are unconventional; Gordon says they are continuing the tradition and naming the baby Gordon, just as he is named after his father Gordon.

The story is told in 7 year increments, and as life proceeds and the things unfold we are introduced to other characters that also inhabit the lives of the different iterations of the son. It is not just the son whose life is different based on his name, but all the others characters as they are are shaped by their interactions with the son. The author did not resort to making one path of the son “bad”, one “good”, and one “middle of the road”. Each path was filled with the highs and lows of life, making the reader feel the sadness and joy in each name he was assigned.

This is a hard story at times. Gordon the father is abusive to Cora and everyone lives in the shadow of that. My friends Peggy and Annette also read or listened to this and we finished within a week or so of each other, making it very nice to be able to discuss it, while it is still fresh and very much on our minds. This is a book you WANT to talk about with someone else.

Very highly recommended. Extremely well written and such a different concept for a story. If you can listen, the narrator, Dervla Kirwan is really quite exceptional.

P.S. do you know why you were given the name you have? I never thought to ask Angie until after she was gone why she named me Carol. Just another one of those things you don’t think about asking until it’s too late.