Florence Knapp stopped by the Today show to discuss her debut novel, The Names.
Knapp’s novel, published earlier this month by Pamela Dorman/Viking, follows Cora, a mother on her way to register the name of her new son. The book is divided into three sections: In one, she agrees to her abusive husband’s demand that the son be named after him; in the other two, the son is given different names, with different life outcomes. In a starred review, a Kirkus critic said the novel “explores a sobering topic with creativity, cleverness, and care.” The novel was the May selection for Jenna Bush Hager’s Today show book club.
On Today, Knapp answered questions from members of New York’s Booked and Busy book club.
One member asked Knapp, “Do you think that the characters are defined by their destiny, or is it their choices in each of the narratives that define the trajectory of their lives?”
“I think often that we’re all probably shaped by external forces around us, and that often we don’t have much control over that, and so it can start to seem like there’s a certain inevitability about our lives,” Knapp replied.
Another member asked, “Both of Cora’s kids wrestle with the fear that they will inherit their father’s violence, yet the storylines seem to suggest that is not our DNA, but it’s our environments that shape us. So was it your intention to make a case for nurture over nature?”
“I think my intention was really to look at…what it must be like to grow up carrying the idea that you have the genes of someone who’s done something totally abhorrent,” Knapp said. “There’s a scene in the book where we see [Cora’s son] Bear standing in a supermarket checkout line, and he’s feeling really frustrated that he’s having to wait…and rather than thinking, It’s normal to feel impatient in a line sometimes, he’s there thinking, Is this awful part of my father in me?”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer
