In the wake of a catastrophic storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son's birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the infant after him. But when the registrar asks what she'd like to call the child, Cora hesitates.
Spanning thirty-five years, what follows are three alternate and alternating versions of Cora's and her young son's lives, shaped by her choice of name. In richly layered prose, "The Names" explores the painful ripple effects of domestic abuse, the messy ties of family and the possibilities of autonomy and healing.
In 1987, Cora has just had her second child and is heading to register her son's name. Gordon, her dominating and abusive husband, wants their son to be named "Gordon" after him and his father. Cora wants to name him "Julian". When she asks their nine-year-old daughter, Maia, what she would like him to be named, she suggests "Bear". What follows are the three different versions of the naming of their son over the 35 years. It's not the name itself that affects their lives but Gordon's reaction to the name and the repercussions.
I thought this was an interesting premise for a story ... kind of like the movie, Sliding Doors, which I've seen many times. The story is chopped up in seven year increments over the next 35 years, each covering the three name versions. I liked the writing style but I found I really had to focus because when the stories changed names and time periods, I'd have remember what was going on and who was involved. In hindsight, it might have been better to skip ahead and read all the same name sections at one time (so all the Bears, then Julians and then Gordons). As a head's up, it was hard to read the parts with the domestic violence.
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