Characters in the novel

There are, by the author’s count, two-hundred-and-fifteen characters in the novel. Of these, one-hundred-and-twenty-eight actually lived (60%), thirteen more are based on actual people (6%), and seventy-four are fictitious (34%).

Some of the more improbable names are in fact actual ones, including Madam Steffleback, Prophet Collins, Pug Cloudy, True and Worth Chubb, Pokey Holmes, Chantos Pruyn, Buster Carper, Logan LaRue, Zip Zabel, and Mary Schmalzreid. Many characters who may seem a little too surreal to have been real, were real, such as Margaret Offer, the Tango Maids, Evelyn Bargelt, Billy Byrne, Tommy Coyne, Charmion, the Lady Battlers (Helen Hopkins and Emily Flynn), and “America’s Greatest Comedian,” Pat White. Among those based on real people is Pinks. He was constructed from Tom Rhoads’ memory of a man named Reds who once lived in Columbus many decades ago. A few people today may still recall him, but Tom confesses he does not know too much about Reds’ life or his issues within it—although he seems to have been an unforgettable character. Anyone who wears a heavy ankle length raccoon coat in the heat of a Kansas summer is not likely to be forgotten. That’s how Tom remembers Reds.