Which Is the Most Memorable Character Written Since The Year 2000? (10/7/18)

[Marc]

Tell us which fictional characters of the 21st century have stood out in your memory. You can share the most memorable, your favorite, etc. A character you felt has, thus far, and will, stand the test of time.

[Nadine in California]

My offhand memory can never seem to extend beyond the last five or so books I've read, but that includes the indelible Big Angel in Urrea's The House of Broken Angels.

[Doug]

Cyril Avery in The Heart's Invisible Furies

[Robert]

Boris in The Goldfinch

[LindaJ^]

I can only remember characters from series. I suspect some of the following will stand the test of time, and they are all among my favorites:
1. V.I. Warshawski, created by Sara Paretsky;
2. Harry Potter, created by J.K. Rowling;
3. Maisie Dobbs, created by Jacqueline Winspear;
4. Charlie Parker, created by John Connolly;
5. Lisbeth Salander, created by Stieg Larsson;
6. Harry Hole, created by Jo Nesbø;
7. Essun, created by N.K. Jemisin; and
8. Bren Cameron, created by C.J. Cherryh

[Hugh]

I am struggling to think of very many (I don't regard strong characters as essential to good literary fiction). One that does qualify is Harriet Burden (Harry) in The Blazing World. If we are allowed real characters that appear in historical fiction, Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell

[Kathleen]

I'm going to say Anjum in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. She is surprising, unusual and heroic, and it doesn't hurt that Arundhati Roy writes so beautifully about her.

[Whitney]

Definitely a food for thought question. LindaJ gave some great examples, which were, touching on Hugh's point, mostly from what would be considered genre novels. It seems that 21st Century literature in general is less focused on character studies. We seem to have many fewer eponymous characters than in previous decades (Don Quixote, Jane Eyre, Jay Gatsby, Oliver Twist etc. etc.), which maybe speaks to there being less focus on strong or quirky characters per se?

[Hugh]

The other issue with multi-book series is that some of the characters were created in books before 2000 and continued to be developed afterwards. A literary fiction example would be Frederica Potter from A.S. Byatt's quartet - the first three were 20th century but A Whistling Woman was published in 2002 (incidentally the first V.I. Warshawski novel dates from 1982!).

[Lark]

Zou Lei in Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus Lish.

This novel reminded me of the great power novels have to give readers a sense of what it's like to live a very different life from his/her own life. So much of literature now is either books about people just like the readers of that book, and/or autobiographical books that hew closely to the writer's own life experiences.

This novel is a throwback to Steinbeck-style or Dreiser-style or Stephen Crane-style empathy for others and Zou Lei is an incredible character.

[David]

One of my favourite 21st century writers is Ottessa Moshfegh. I first discovered her short stories three years ago and have since read all of her published work. From the start it was clear to me that her greatest strength as a writer is in creating compelling characters. Eileen, the title character of her first full-length novel, is someone who stands out to me as a particularly memorable one. As memorable as I also find McGlue, the title character of her first novella and the unnamed narrator of her most recent novel, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Eileen is the one who stands out the most.

[Maggie]

The Count from A Gentleman in Moscow.
"The book is like a salve. I think the world feels disordered right now. The count’s refinement and genteel nature are exactly what we’re longing for." —Ann Patchett

[Susan]

Maggie wrote: "The Count from A Gentleman in Moscow.
"The book is like a salve. I think the world feels disordered right now. The count’s refinement and genteel nature are exactly what we’re longing for." —Ann P..."

Agree! I remember the Count like I read it yesterday.

[Lily]

Maggie wrote: "The Count from A Gentleman in Moscow.
"The book is like a salve. I think the world feels disordered right now. The count’s refinement and genteel nature are exactly what we’re longing for." —Ann P..."

Such a fascinating nomination. He went through my head, too. Sort of an ideal character to strive to be in adverse conditions? Yet, subsequent to reading AGIM, I recall all the conversations I had with people who held out that such a character was probably not realistic to exist under those conditions, including a discussion with a major critic who acknowledged that he downplayed the unreality in his favorable review of the book. But it was ordinary people familiar with Russia at that point in time who first raised the concerns that seem highly plausible. The Count's nomination here does a nice job of raising questions about what we might look for in naming a 21st century memorable character.

[Lily]

Hugh wrote: "...If we are allowed real characters that appear in historical fiction, Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell ..."

Another one that occurred to me. But I am beginning to read challenges to Mantel's portrayal. If her Thomas Cromwell withstands the critiques, I do think it will be a good candidate for an outstanding character representation to come out of 21st century literature.

[Lily]

Probably Marilyn Robinson's Rev. John Ames (Giliad) deserves consideration. I'm not sure I want to suggest his wife Lila or combatant Jack Boughton, but 'tis hard to fully consider one without the others.

My favorite book, The Memory of Love , offers no obvious single character to suggest.

[Marc]

I actually suspect there's a sort of immediacy bias potentially going on where more recent characters drown out others for most of us.

Those who joined us in reading Han Kang's The Vegetarian are not likely to forget Yeong-hye.
Kavalier & Clay might be contenders. Elena and/or Lila from Ferrante's Neapolitan series? Karl Ove (maybe not fair since it's got such a strong autobiographical element)? Mantel's Cromwel, Jemisin's Essun, Robinson's John Ames, and Rowling's Harry Potter have definitely stuck with me from the ones mentioned above.

[Whitney]

Marc wrote: "I actually suspect there's a sort of immediacy bias potentially going on where more recent characters drown out others for most of us.

Those who joined us in reading Han Kang's [book:The Vegetaria..."

Yeong-hye, yes!

I sort of discounted Karl Ove for the reason you sited. A mini-series probably makes the characters from Game of Thrones a little cheaty, too.

[Nadine in California]

Whitney wrote: " A mini-series probably makes the characters from Game of Thrones a little cheaty, too."

Yes, the TV series has done damage to my memory of the books. I remember enough to know that the TV Tyrion Lannister is a prettied up version of the original, which makes him less interesting to me, but I still think he's a powerful character in both incarnations.

[Lily]

Marc wrote: "...Elena and/or Lila from Ferrante's Neapolitan series?.."

Also wondered about them, and I haven't finished the series. But it is their relationship, more than their personalities, that stays with me. I, too, liked some of Linda's suggestions, such as Harry Potter or perhaps even other characters (Hermione?) from those books. Certainly Larsson's Lisbeth Salander is a character I shall always remember. There is something weirdly sticky about Coetzee's Simon and David from The Childhood of Jesus, no matter how much I didn't like that book. On the "lighter?" side, we have Eleanor Oliphant and Raymond (Gail Honeyman), Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout), Mathilde (Lauren Groff -- Fates and Furies ), Chick (Saul Bellow -- Ravelstein ), Sarah Grimke and Handful (Sue Monk Kidd -- The Invention of Wings ), Snow Flower (Lisa See), Nick and Amy Dunne (Gillian Flynn -- Gone Girl), Reno (Rachel Kushner -- The Flamethrowers ), .... Definitely not on the lighter side, Bob Thurber's "Paperboy" -- Jack. Or Florence and Edward of McEwan's On Chesil Beach or Briony Tallis of Atonement.