rose names all of the characters in milkman by anna burns

This book must be brilliant because it won a prize, but I admit I haven’t read it because NONE of the characters have names. They are all called things like “Tablets Girl’s Sister” and “Third Brother-in-law”. I am sure it’s brilliant, but I can’t even. No names at all?

I’m sorry, but I’m not even going to try to name these characters. Reader, you are on your own.

It’s a little-known fact that women in Ancient Rome weren’t named. (You might have heard that Julius Caesar’s daughter was named Julia, but Julia is simply her surname, with an -a on the end to signify that she is female. No matter how many daughters Julius Caesar might have fathered, they would have ALL been named Julia. Let that sink in.) (As it happened, he only had one.)

By the way, Julius Caesar’s first name was Gaius. Julius was his surname, and Caesar is just a word like Czar which means, well, ‘czar’.

I guess people who like this book would have enjoyed living in Ancient Rome.