Great names in fiction.

Milo Minderbinder .

Um,...Colonel Angus....

An ex of mine loved a mystery series with a lead character named Harry Bosch (after Heronemous Bosch) by author Michael Connelly.

He called him something that sounded more like Harry Bush.

Flagg was pretty scary Farmerman.

Who could forget Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov?

For some reason I always liked the pirate Ragnar Danneskjöld too.

Anyone remember Vasili Vasilovich Taleniekov?

I've read some of those books, littlek, but I don't recall the details. Do you remember the names of any?

I always hated the name Ellery Queen. It sounded so swish. But reading those mysteries was one of my guilty pleasures when I was a young 'un. At one point in my late teens, early twenties I had amassed a complete set of Queen mystery novels, some p-backs, some early original editions, some book-club selections. Don't have nary a one now in my library. Frequent geographic moves tend to break up sets and destroy entire collections.

I have recently started reading some of the pulp fiction that is being republished. Jim Thompson is one such writer and his books are actually quite entertaining.

"Farewell, my lovely" comes to mind.

Even more great additions! Thank you all.

Its funny how so many books don't seem to pay attention, then, you come across ones that do and it adds so much to the story.

I need to put my thinking cap on....

Jim Thompson, yes! I'm reading The Killer Inside Me right now. (Well, not right now exactly; I'm posting on A2K [I[right now[/I], but you know what I mean, knowateyemean?)

I always suspected you had taste, Merry.

You have just confirmed my suspicions.

Milo Minderbender makes me think..

Wasn't there a Major Major in "Catch 22"?

Wasn't he the real stick in the mud, careerist, by the book guy?

A real major Major?

Verbal Kint

Gus - not really. You can find out quick with a google search.

Major Major Major. No he wasn't a 'by the book' guy. He was a hapless victim of his father's wird sense of humor. The family name was Major. The father, against the weak-willed mother's wishes, entered the baby's first names as 'Major' also. So when Major Major was inducted into the army, a typical military-bureaucratic error automatically gave him the rank of major as well. He was totally clueless as to his duties and a running gag in the book is that nobody can ever get to see Major Major in his tent. The 1st Sgt., whose name I've forgotten, makes appointments and then tells visitors that they can only see the major when he isn't in. Another Catch-22.

Milo Minderbinder, symbol of rampant runaway capitalism, is the true villain of the book.

Of course! Major Major Major!
I forgot all about Catch 22!

Another great name from Catch 22: Gen. Scheisskopf. Anyone with even a smattering of German knowledge will know what the name means.

(I'm relying on memory here.) I loved the character, Diana Moonglampers (or Diana Moon Glampers?), the Handicapper General, in one of Kurt Vonnegut's short stories. It was her job to ensure that all people were equal in some terrible Orwellian time in the future. So, for example, if someone's beauty made them too special, they would be "handicapped" by wearing a bag over their head! ..... You get the picture. Does anyone remember the actual name of the story? I think it was in the Welcome To the Monkey House collection, which I read such a long time ago!

Oh, & I loved Elliot Rosewater the fireman, too. There must be heaps of other wonderfully named Vonnegut creations!

I just remembered Billy Pilgrim, from Slaughterhouse Five! So aptly named!

Wasn't Kurt wonderful?

Oh sure, littlek, make me do the work.

Dickens is a fund of great names -
Pecksniff
Esther Summersun
Uriah Heep
Lord and Lady Dedlock
Jaggers (the lawyer)
and so on almost forever...