Another steady theme

Although I am not entirely finished with the book, I feel like I have already noticed a theme. I think the theme for Magic for Beginners of "not being able to go home" can apply to this book, but also a theme of ambiguos names. Either characters can't remember names (wife in Carnation, Lily,Lily,Rose and the dead? babysitter in The Specialist's Hat), or they name odd things (Ellen, the wooden leg), or the names are odd (Humphrey Bogart).