I was adding another review to The Book Book yesterday - a Second World War novel I read a while ago called 'War of the Rats', about the celebrated sniper duel during the last days of the battle for Stalingrad - and I thought I'd go noodling around on Amazon (Anonymousely, since Amazon is still blocked in China) to try to dig up some background information on the author, David L. Robbins, and find out if he'd written a sequel, or any other books with a similar setting.
I discovered that he has written another WWII novel called 'The Assassins Gallery' and decided to read a review of it. Verdicts on this book by Amazon users are a little mixed, but it seems like an interesting premise. And I was very impressed with Robbins's Stalingrad book - it was meticulously researched and surprisingly well-written.
However, there is one major problem with 'The Assassins Gallery': one of the key characters is apparently called Dag Nabbit. I kid you not. Is Robbins kidding us? Or did he have some kind of mental breakdown during the writing process? Why did his editor let him get away with this?? The entire credibility of the book undermined by one ludicrous character name! It's mindboggling.
7 comments:
note to self...
I hope he's not one of yours, MR. I can't believe he is. We know you're far too meticulous to let something like that pass.
If you fancy some non fiction to go with it, Froog, I have not read a better book about Stalingrad than "Stalingrad" by Anthony Beevor. His book on the Fall of Berlin is also stunning.
In fact, I think I have only read one book on the Eastern Front better than it.
maybe that is a "period" name. when was WWII, again?
I don't believe 'Nabbit' has ever been a surname in any language (though it's presumably trying to pass itself off as a plausible variation on something like Nesbit). Dag is only first name in..... is it Swedish or Norwegian? Possibly both.
Even if this were a conceivable combination of names, it should be avoided because of the unfortunate, inescapably hilarious coincidence that it is also a well-known phrase or saying - a mild American oath (of, I would guess, at least 200 years' antiquity) which presumably arose as a coy variation on 'Goddammit'.
If you choose this as a name for a character in your book, your book immediately becomes risible.
Isn't it the kind of thing Yosemite Sam would say?
*looks up risible*
I agree, if it is not an acceptable name for the background of the character, and if the book is not supposed to be witty or satirical, then it was a bad choice. It doesn't have the same effect as Major Major Major in Catch 22.
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