I’ve been known to give up reading a novel because there were so many characters introduced in the first few chapters that I couldn’t get them clear in my head. Fancy, I almost gave up on Anne Tyler’s Back when we were Grown-ups. What was she thinking with that first chapter?
I find it especially difficult when all the characters have foreign names that I don’t know how to pronounce. Somehow, being able to hear the sound of their name in my head helps me get a handle on them as a character.
Jane and I are currently working on the first section of our new novel (STILL WITH NO TITLE – poor thing, it’s like a baby without a name) and we need to introduce the characters in Sally’s voice in Sally’s diary without being unrealistic. i.e. no-one says in their diary - “Richard is my brother.”It is not as easy as you might think.
Meanwhile, over the ocean, my 19-month-old Californian granddaughter is spending an hour a day looking at books.
Go Lux! Her Dad says she likes to scrutinise all the pictures even if she isn’t up to listening to the storyline yet. She especially likes Peepo by Janet and Allan Ahlberg.
I bought it for her because I adore the Ahlbergs’ books, but also because I wanted to make sure she’d know something about her English heritage. We can’t have her growing up not knowing what a back-to-back terraced house is, now can we?
2 comments:
Know what you mean about numbers of characters introduced early in the book. Also the use of character names similar to each other, "Jean" and "Jane" for example, mean that I have to detach from my involvement and 'think outside the book'. Is it an age thing? Your Granddaughter looks lovely, you'll have to get out there again.
I am going in three weeks! and I shall be taking some Shirley Hughes books with me, Rojer.
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