Reviewed by Rod McLary
Juliet [Romeo and Juliet] famously asked ‘what’s in a name?’ and answered herself by saying ‘a rose by any other name would smell as sweet’.
But the premise of Florence Knapp’s debut novel is that a person’s name will shape the direction of his/her life and this is subsequently explored through this intriguing and sometimes confronting narrative.
It is October 1987 and Cora – married to Gordon a well-respected GP – has recently given birth to a son. She and her nine-year-old daughter Maia are on their way to register the birth. Gordon has given strict instructions to name the child ‘Gordon’ after himself and his father. Cora prefers ‘Julian’ – she has never liked the name Gordon ‘the way it starts with a splintering sound … and ends with a thud’ [1]. Cora also believes that naming the child Gordon may mean that he will become just like his father. Maia would like the child to be named ‘Bear’ – meaning cuddly and warm.
The novel then divides into three alternating narratives each exploring over the subsequent thirty-five years the lives of Bear, Julian and Gordon as they negotiate their places in the world. In the early stages of the novel, each narrative has a different outcome for Cora, Gordon and the children depending on the choice of name for the child. The later stages focus more on the attitudes and behaviours of the teenage and later adult son. There are additional characters who play a role across all three narratives and others appear only briefly. But the connecting narrative which runs through all three is the story of Cora, Gordon [the husband] and Maia and how their lives too are shaped by the name given to the child.
The immediate consequence of Cora’s choice of name becomes frighteningly evident when she tells her husband she has named the child Bear. In a heart-wrenching and very confronting scene, Gordon demonstrates to Cora – and the reader – exactly what he thinks of her choice. It is evident that Cora is a victim of family violence in all its manifestations – physical cruelty, coercive control and sexual assault. This scene and others like it also draw emphatic attention to the disconnect between the private and public personas of perpetrators and how they are seen by others to be high-functioning and well-respected in their working lives but are monsters at home.
But while The Names is the story of how one decision can have a long-lasting impact on the lives of those it affects, it is also a story of familial love and how it can transcend even the most dire of circumstances. It also movingly and sometimes confrontingly canvasses the toxic nature of family violence and the extent to which it damages all those impacted by it.
The author has crafted a novel which will remain with the reader for some considerable time. While the core issue is a difficult and distressing one, there are glimmers of hope that decisions taken with courage may have positive outcomes.
A finely written novel with credible protagonists. Well-recommended.
Florence Knapp has previously written a non-fiction book about quilt-making and has contributed to a book for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The Names is her first book of fiction.
The Names
[2025]
by Florence Knapp
Hachette
ISBN: 978 1 3996 2403 9
$32.99; 343pp