I have always thought that our names often shape what others expect us to be when they first meet us. But can they also shape who you are within your own life?
Does it matter if you are named for your father, mother, a more rugged name or a more common one?
That is the basis of the story line for this fiction novel where we watch the development of the same boy as he grows into a young man according to what his mother writes down on his birth certificate.
Set in England during an extraordinary storm, we meet Cora, a new mother, whose only job that week is to register her new son’s name with the courthouse.
The only problem is, she can’t decide what to name him. Her husband insists that it be Gordon Jr., as that is a family name and several generations have named the first son in the family accordingly.
However, the Gordons in the family haven’t been particularly nice men and some even step into the area of being abusive. Cora doesn’t want these behaviors handed down to her son. But does a name really matter? Can it shape a life?
Her nine year old daughter, Maia, wants to name him Bear. She loves the name because she loves her bear and thinks this will make him cuddly and lovable. Makes sense, but there are many sides to a bear.
They are also rugged and tend to live a singular life. Could this affect the life of the child? Or there is still another choice. Cora would like to name him Julian. She has given this a lot of thought since she named her daughter, Maia, which can mean mother. Perhaps her husband would be appeased with the name Julian as it means sky father.
Which should she choose? And what if we got a look at what the boy’s life would be were he given any one of the names? Which life would be the better one? Would one be better than the other?
This novel is split into three sections in which we get to see how life will turn out depending on whether Cora chooses Bear, Julian or Gordon Jr.
As the boy grows we see how his personality develops, including his dreams, his career choices, his relationships with those that mean the most to him and who, in fact, means the most to him.
It is not only the boy’s name that is essential to this story. In the back, the author has supplied a list of all character names and what they mean in different cultures.
I would suggest browsing this section first to see if the characters’ names fit the characters in the story. This book leads to a lot of thinking.
Which boy’s life is the best? Which is the happiest, the saddest? Which one grows more and which one accomplishes the most? Who is saddest? Who experiences the most loss?
I feel this is an excellent choice for a book club as the discussions could be nearly endless.
I also think it’s a good choice for anyone who just enjoys a good fiction novel with a lot of work put into it.
See if you can find where the characters’ lives overlap and how each one turns out according to what Cora chooses to name her little boy. The reverberations are unlimited.