Obviously, most characters in fiction books are either completely fictionalized or are vaguely inspired by real-life people/figures. However, there have been maybe 3 characters I have encountered in all the books I’ve ever read that have genuinely made me question whether or not the author and I share a mutual friend/relative because of how shockingly they resembled someone in my own life.
For example, just recently I read Don’t Cry For Me by Daniel Black, and I swear to God the father in this book is the *spitting image* of my own father. Like, it is genuinely uncanny. Both were born in the same place, grew up in the same place, have extremely similar family histories, have the same childhood “incident” at school that deeply affected them, hell, even the way the dad writes is almost the exact same way my dad speaks (for context, the whole book is written as a letter from the POV of the father). It is just crazy how I originally picked this book up because of the way the premise sounded SO SIMILAR to my own life (Black father writing to his estranged gay child), but I *did not* expect to *literally* be reading about my own damn father!!!
I will put a disclaimer that many Black Americans whose families descend from slaves do share similarities in our family histories, i.e. our ancestors’ struggles to rebuild our lives post-abolition, as well as just generally experiencing similar struggles in American society and in the world period. So in this particular book, given the subject matter, it felt familiar in all those general ways, too. But even so, this sh\*t was a damn-near copy paste of my dad’s life story!
In the same realm but on a lesser scale, I was also extremely (happily) surprised the first time I read Six of Crows because Jesper is so similar to one of my old best friends in high school! Their wit and humor, their speaking style, their character traits, even their extremely poor financial conscience are just so alike.
So, have y’all ever come across a character that hit a little too close to home, whether they resembled a family member, a friend, a past relation, or even resembled yourself? Of course, it does not have to be so extreme as my examples (although I’d love to hear about it if it is), and obviously, to some extent, most characters are generally archetypal enough to be similar to lots of people in the world. But even so, has anyone else encountered a character that seems as though you’ve already met the real-life version of them?
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by cshizle64