I don't think the author should make the reader do that much work to remember who somebody is.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
A reader should encounter themselves in a novel, I think.
But I do think it's important to remember that writers do not have a monopoly of wisdom on their books. They can be wrong about their own books, they can often learn about their own books.
People always want to identify a writer with their protagonist.
It's that kind of thing that readers have. I have it as a reader myself: that expectation that the writer will be that person. Then I meet other writers and realize that they're not.
Writers are rememberers.
Writers don't write about people they know. They write what they know about people.
Writers have to be careful not to confuse personal attention with the attention that's going towards the book.
An author's characters do what he wants them to do.
Don't write for who your reader is. Write for what your reader wants to be.
That writer does the most who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.