It Was Nice to Meet You

So far in the book many characters have been introduced and many have been the focus of the story. The following are characters that have been mentioned so far:

Stingo

• main character
• born in Virginia
• mother is dead, grew up with his father
• from his childhood, he received the nickname Stinky because of his inability to care about hygiene ( he was later "shamed" into becoming clean)
• became a writer - worked for McGraw Hill
• was a member of the military during World War II
• lives on his own in a University Residence Club in the Manhattan area, New York City
• loses his job at McGraw Hill and loses money very quick
• his father "bails" him out and sends him money to help him survive
• past generations of his family (grandparents) have been a part of the slavery movement
• Stingo's grandmother would tell him stories about the slaves that she had at one point, they were named Artiste, Drusillia, and Lucinda
• he then moves in Yetta Zimmerman's house in Brooklyn
•  it is here in this new house the Stingo meets all the other characters in the book

Nearby Neighbors of Stingo

• the wife becomes a sexual interest to Stingo
• he recalls that he had had sex with this particular female interest in the garden, that he can see from his house
• from the description in the book this couple seems to be somewhat materialistic and of high prestige. (Eg. Abercrombie and Fitch references, "over groomed Afghan hound")
• later in the chapters the female neighbor is named Mavis Hunnicutt 

"The Weasel"

• boss of Stingo at McGraw Hill
• Stingo does not take a liking to him
• Stingo says that both him and the "Weasel" took an immediate dislike to each other
• from the south like Stingo

Yetta Zimmermann

• Stingo associates her with a Buddha
• she is widowed by her husband Sol
• description of Yetta: "...squat and expansive, sixty or thereabouts, with a slightly mongoloid cast to her cheerful features that gave her the look of a gleaming Buddha" (35)

Morris Fink

• the first person in the book that Stingo meets
• tells Stingo about Nathan and Sophie
• explains to Stingo the history of the people that live in the house

Sophie Zawistowska

• young character
• the "love interest" of Nathan 
• she was once in a concentration camp liberated by the Russians
• she is Polish with a bit of German and French
• her parents are not both from Poland
• her mother is from Lodz and her father is from Lublin
• they met while at school in Austria
• her receives  a lot of verbal abuse from Nathan, he will call her a " Anti-Semitic Polish pig" (87)
• she does not know what love really is and she is always being either verbally or physically abused by Nathan
• the potential new lover of Stingo
• Stingo takes a slight interest to Sophie and helps her when Nathan leaves one night

Nathan Landau

• love interest of Sophie
• verbally and physically abusive to Sophie
• vindictive 
• rude
• has very sudden mood swings
• he does not think before he speaks, he then later will regret what he says
• he is always in a conflict 
• very domineering
• takes advantage of Sophie
• racist 
• offensive

Side Note: The Soviet Union liberated Auschwitz in World War II. In the book there is reference to the ``Russians liberated that camp she was in`` (69), this is said by Nathan Landau.
YouTube video-Auschwitz haunts Soviet veteran