The Names
Florence Knapp, Orion
***** (5 stars)
Cora never liked the name Gordon. “The way it starts with a splintering sound that makes her think of cracked boiled sweets, and then ends with a thud like someone slamming down a sports bag. Gordon. But what disturbs her more is that she must pour the goodness of her son into its mould, hoping he’ll be strong enough to find his own shape within it. Because Gordon is a name passed down through the men in her husband’s family, and it seems impossible it could be any other way.”
But what if it could be another way, “considering all the times she felt a person’s name might have influenced the course of their life”? This is what The Names is about. It’s London in 1987, and Cora has to register the name of her son. We are then shown three parallel narratives based on her choice of name. We soon learn that each of these choices has crucial consequences for her life and the lives of her children: her doctor husband Gordon abuses her, and each decision leads to a totally different life for them all.
Some parts of the novel are set in England, and others in Ireland, where Cora was born. We get to know who the characters are based on what happened after Cora came home from the registry.
The first story is focused on the consequences of her naming the boy Bear, a name her nine-year-old daughter Maia picked out. “It sounds all soft and cuddly and kind ... But also, brave and strong.” Bear indeed acquires this persona, but there are setbacks in his life, as he has to process what his father did the night he was named. This event shapes his life because he does not want to be like his father.
The second narrative looks at the events that flow from Cora naming her son Julian, which means “sky father”. This is a name she hopes an angry Gordon will accept, given it is still a tribute to him. Julian starts off as a frightened child and becomes an introspective adult. He knows the world is a place where terrible things happen.
In the third version, Cora gives in and names him Gordon. Will the child grow up to live the life of a Gordon? His father and grandfather are both hardened, abusive men. Gordon has to fight not to become his name.
The stories unfold in these three threads over the next 35 years. Each section is set seven years apart, each chapter identified by the names Bear, Julian or Gordon. It may sound a bit convoluted and confusing, but Knapp has an uncanny ability to situate each narrative skilfully. She keeps the stories grounded in real life, even though the novel could easily have slipped into sci-fi or magical realism. The characters and storylines are so absorbing and gripping that one reads the book in great gulps, taking in the narrative as quickly as possible. Knapp writes these separate worlds, which are cleverly intertwined and filled with suspense, so deftly. Some characters flit in and out of the various stories, while others become mainstays, important for the development of the main characters. Each strand could work on its own, but what Knapp does with the three stories is highlight abuse and its consequences: control and coercion, violence, the assault of a domestic partner, murder, and the tragedy of damaged children who do not know who they are. The novel shows how a split-second decision can splinter a family and change the lives of its members forever. Though the focus of the novel is to tell the stories of Bear, Julian and Gordon from their point of view, the fates of Maia and Cora are just as important in the overall narrative.
The Names weaves together elements of parallel lives that are haunting and terrifying, but also sometimes so full of joy and wonder. Knapp has a knack for creating an exhilarating emotional rollercoaster no reader would want to get off.
