Quite unusual p reference

[Markekohut]

In Howard Jacobsen's ZOO TIME, a very funny satire of publishing and writers there is this from the writer-narrator: "  A rule of thumb when choosing a name is that it should look arresting on the page. I'd never been a Bill and Mary novelist [which might be a direct slam at a novel I know as well as a general slam] . Life is banal enough, in my view, without a writer replicating it. But you can also strive too hard. Beaufield Nubeem, for example, or Tyrone Slothrop." .....
A bit on:
" in fact I only choose a name for its sound and appearance, not its meaning. Only after the reviewers had been to work did I know why I'd called X, X. And by that time it was too late to disabuse them." 

Earlier, he does a two page riff on how novelists today are doing scientific research---climate scientists as protagonists, the barb [ against McEwan among others] which I might send around re our science in fiction thread if I can get it scanned. [ but it is not so relevant except to score   satirize trendiness in writers] 


Sent from my iPad