Good for book club

The Names, Florence Knapp, author; Dervla Kirwan, narrator
The story starts in October of 1987, after a terrible storm. It continues for 35 years until July of 2022, during another terrible event, the Covid Pandemic. In seven-year intervals, the author offers alternate versions of the lives of the four main characters.
It begins with the naming of Cora and Gordon Atkin’s second child, a son. It is expected that this child will be named Gordon like his father and grandfather. However, the thorn in Cora’s side is that Gordon Atkin, her husband, like his father, is both physically and verbally abusive. She does not want to have a son tainted by their violent behavior. She does not want him to follow in their footsteps, and thus, she does not want her son called Gordon, at all. Still, she fears for her own safety if she does not follow the demands of her husband.
When the time comes to register the baby’s birth, while walking to the registrar’s office, she and her daughter, nine-year-old Maia, engage in a casual conversation suggesting alternative names for the baby. Maia suggests Bear for a name, because a bear is both cuddly and strong. Cora would like Julian to be the name. It means sky-father, and she hopes that Gordon will see that the name honors him, as well. Impetuously, however, she names him Bear to please Maia. She will pay dearly for this naming transgression in each version of the story.
When Gordon discovers that Cora has betrayed him and defied his and his family’s wishes, the story takes off in three alternative directions, each with a different outcome depending on the name chosen. Each story follows Gordon, Cora, Maia, and the alternate names of Bear, Julian, and Gordon, as their lives go forward. Each of their lives is propelled in a different direction that is very much dependent on the particular name chosen at the registrar’s office, coupled with Gordon’s reaction to it. Each story is violent, psychologically and physically, to some degree. Each of them is scarred in myriad ways by the choices and reactions of the father and husband, a man they each fear as they recognize the danger he threatens.
Although in each version Gordon treats Cora differently, he is always manipulative and cruel, trapping her in an abusive situation from which she cannot escape. It is only in the final few sentences that the author imagines a more perfect outcome based on Cora and Gordon’s interactions. Ultimately, their interactions effect and alter their children’s lives, as well as their own.
Can a name actually determine the personality and outcome of a child’s life? Which is more influential, the environment, the genetics, the ancestry or the name? How do the interactions of the parents, coupled with their influence and the directions in which they point their children, determine the future of each of them? Fear is a major driving factor in the lives of Cora and her children as Gordon, in every version of himself, presents one face to outsiders and one at home, where he is dangerous, most of the time. Outsiders revere him because he is a doctor who is kind and compassionate, but at home, he tolerates no mistakes, no choices other than the ones he approves of, and he is completely controlling and in charge, expecting strict obedience from all of them, but especially Cora whom he abuses. He has limited her life, basically imprisoning her in the home she occupies with him. She has no money, no key, no television or radio, no phone to familiarize herself with the outside world, other than what information her children provide. He has made her totally dependent on him and helpless to defy him.
In alternate versions the children play major roles and either offer her salvation or condemnation, sometimes with destructive comments, intentionally or otherwise, designed to please their father and diminish her. In each version the shame and secrets scarred their development and influenced their choices in life.
There are so many variations of their lives, involving so many characters in this novel, that it is often hard to keep track of them, especially in this very well narrated audio version. Perhaps a print version would be easier to follow since it is easier to refer back to the pages when one loses track of the story’s threads.