First Name Second Name – Steve MinOn

Steve MinOn is an award-winning advertising copy writer, so when I received a copy of his debut novel First Name Second Name (kindly sent to me for review by UQP), I was expecting something flashy and stimulating. I got something… different.

First Name Second Name begins with the death of Stephen, a young man who leaves a note for his sisters instructing them to carry his corpse on foot back to his birthplace in Far North Queensland. Of course, they scoff, and proceed with their own plans for a quiet run-of-the-mill funeral. Meanwhile, Stephen’s body escapes the morgue drawer and makes the journey alone.

Chapters from the corpse’s perspective – complete with descriptions of rigor mortis and rotting flesh – alternate with chapters depicting four generations of Stephen’s family history. From his great-great grandparents in the 1800s through to his immediate family in the early 2000s, the story that unfolds is one of migration, trauma, and assimilation.

First Name Second Name is an odd book, and I’m not sure where to place it. It’s not a straight ghost story, but it’s not straight historical fiction, either. I think I would have been more engaged by it if it had been structured differently, or leaned more definitively in either direction. MinOn clearly draws directly from his own family’s history, which gives the story a ring of authenticity but perhaps curtails the freedom that should come with fiction. All told, it’s not bad… but it’s not exactly good, either.

Read First Name Second Name on audiobook via Libro.fm here. (affiliate link)