When’s the last time you really got invested in a character?

[Ed]

What character lately packed an emotional punch for you? And I don’t mean a teenage crush ‘Bella Swan’ kind of impact, but a real adult connection, so powerful maybe you can’t get them out of your mind, or had trouble eating or sleeping. When I think about it, it happens so rarely I wonder why I even read books.

In 2016 it was Maya in The Butterfly Garden

2013: it was Gary & Hannah in the little known To The Survivors The only story in the last decade that actually made me cry.

2008: Lisbeth Salander The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo made a huge impression on me.

1986: ‘Forrest Gump in Forrest Gump affected me for a long while.

1981: John and Franny in The Hotel New Hampshire, I’ll always remember their taboo love.

1980: Howard Roark from The Fountainhead is a character I shall never forget.

[Jim]

2005: Llewelyn Moss - No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy.

2005: Cathy H. - Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

2004: Roland of Gilead (The Gunslinger) - The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King.

1996: Richard Hamilton - The Morning River by W. Michael Gear.

1970: Michael Corleone - The Godfather by Mario Puzo.

1980: Mixtli (Dark Cloud) - Aztec by Gary Jennings.

1978: Stuart Redman - The Stand by Stephen King.

1964; Holden Caulfield - The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

1960: Jurgis Rudkis - The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.

[Ed]

Good one! And a couple I've never heard about so thanks for the recommendation.

[Elizabeth]

I find many of the characters that, to me, are unforgettable are deeply flawed characters. They are not people that I "like"---but they are so interesting that I think about them long after finishing the book. A couple that come to mind are from the classics: Lily Bart in Edith Wharton's THE HOUSE OF MIRTH and Raskolnikov in Dostoyevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. The themes that these characters embody are so powerful and enduring.

[M.]

From among the many books I've read in the past 2 years, there've been very few that have made me feel as if I'd slipped inside the character's skin. Usually these books are written in first-person, the eyes and ears and emotions coming from one focused point. And now I think it's this intimate first-person narrative that allows me to get lost inside a character's single perspective, and allows me to live that character's life inside my head; their pain and struggle become my own, as well as their joys, achievements, strengths, weaknesses, successes, and failures. I think about these characters long after I've finished reading their stories. Here are those characters (or actual people, in the case of memoirs):


Paul Kalanithi's memoir, "When Breath Becomes Air"

Lola from Alex Tizon's memoir, "My Family's Slave"

Bagoas from "The Persian Boy" by Mary Renault

Amir from "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini