Sigmund Freud is listening. Oops, I mean reading.And I guess I am talking about one-book characters more than series characters. Of course we remember Wexford, Poirot, Adam Dagliesh, Tom Ripley, Tess Monaghan, Alan Banks, Morse, Harry Lime, etc. But how often does the name of a character from one book stay with you.
On Facebook, Stephen Allan mentioned Frank Wheeler and I knew who it was immediately (perhaps because of the recent movie). Same with Daisy Buchanan, Dean Moriarty, Humbert Humbert, Yossarian, Hester Prynne, Sammy Glick. Which characters from one-book efforts, (where the title of the book was not the name of the character) stay with you?
Who was indelible their only time out?
32 comments:
Beal Obenchain in Annie Dillard's THE LIVING and Granville Sutter in William Gay's TWILIGHT come to mind right away.
Scrooge and Edwin Drood jump to mind. The hero of Donald Westlake's Somebody Owes Me Money is Chet SomethingOrOther. As you can see, I remember the first name because it is an old name no longer used. And, until (or if) Christa Faust writes another book featuring her, Angel Dare is a pretty cool and memorable name.
Frankie Machine, from The Man With The Golden Arm.
I wonder if that's a good idea really-using a name out of fashion to create a more memorable person. I usually try hard to use a name that fits with those used in the time.
Patrick-haven't read Gay at all. I know I am really negligent in that.
Nice one, Paul. Does the movie cement it, I wonder?
Joe Trona, from T. Jefferson Parker's SILENT JOE.
Two by Richard Russo: Sully in NOBODY'S FOOL, and Miles Roby in EMPIRE FALLS.
I'm also going to include Chili Palmer, from GET SHORTY. He also stars in BE COOL, but he was already indelibly etched in my mind from GET SHORTY, and, frankly, BE COOL isn't that good.
Holden Caulfield , dorain grey, David Copperfield,
Dana: If you're going with Sully from NOBODY'S FOOL, you have to throw in his sidekick Rub Squeers, too.
Patti: The Dillard book is set in the 19th century and Gay's novel takes place in the 1950s, so the names aren't anachronistic.
Yeah, I was referring to Scott's comment that he remembered names that stuck out in the times. How about Captain Ahab, but that has taken on iconic status so it's not really fair. God I loved Nobody's Fool. But I forgot the name Rub Squeers. How could I?
God help me John Galt from Atlas Shrugged.
I barely remember anyone's name, just one reason I'll never be much of a politician...but I'm more likely to remember a name that has been written down.
There are almost no names that can't be in currency somewhere, as I discovered when I moved to Hawaii and met more than one person each with the first names Layton and Carson. Hell, I went to Boy Scout Camp with a guy named Gaylon Spinney, whose parents clearly didn't feel that they should protect their child from mockery thus.
Scarlett O'Hara was the first one that jumped out at me and a close second was Virgil "Fucking" Flowers from John Sandford's "Dark of the Moon". Love that character and I just discovered that Sandford seems to be turning him into a series character.
Eddie Coyle, from George V. Higgins' THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, is a character that's stayed with me for over 35 years.
Badly chosen names are a topic to themselves. Witness a child born to a single mother when my mother worked for a social service agency and called Ortho Novum because it was the beautiful name on the prescription the doctor gave her.
I hear Eddie Coyle is out on DVD next month. I've never seen it.
Scarlett O'Hara, another iconic name. Would you dare to name a character Scarlett?
Atticus Finch, of course,
Lots of good names that have already been tossed out there.
Mathurin Kerbouchard from Louis L'Amour's THE WALKING DRUM has always stuck with me.
Funny how difficult and strange these names are. Invented names-- not from the white pages.
Pattie - how well known are the Morse books stateside?
Very well and sadly missed. All of the tv series have been shown here. Our library carries both books and movies. Dexter was certainly one of my favorite writers and John Thaw was the ultimate Morse.
Interesting that he's popular over there. After all he's so English. Perhaps its the same reason as why westerns are so popular over here.
Ortho Novum is a beaut! I worked for a charity in London and one client was called Eilleen Starr-which is a good named.She'd changed it legally from Dora Grey-which was also good . The name on her birth certificate, however, was 12. She'd been born in an orphanage were the kids weren't given names.(I digress, I know....)
I'm something of a devotee of Ned Beumont, who appeared in 'The Glass Key', of course.
If plays count, Algernon Moncrieff from The Importance of Being Earnest.
Now I've seen that play at least three times and I couldn't have come up with that last name. Is there a Lady Bracknell though?
Many years ago, I worked in a hospital, where a very very young girl had given birth to a baby girl. The young mother was ecstatic that the staff had named her daughter for her: Fi mah lee (Female).
Yikes! I hope she was Asian.
Pip and Mrs. Haversham from Great Expectations.
I came to this discussion a little late as everyone has already picked some of my favorites. I will say I have a mind like a steel trap when it comes to names of characters and when I write stories myself I try to be as memorable as a Holden Caulfield or Norman Bates.
Yes, there is a Lady Bracknell.
If Algernon Moncrieff isn't memorable, how about Algernon the mouse? (But he does have his name in the title.)
Atticus Finch has already been mentioned. Rhett Butler from Gone With The Wind.
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