The Clothes on Their Backs

The Clothes on Their Backs
By Linda Grant


It seems that the juries of the Man Booker Prize and I have a lot in common, or at least the same taste in books. Shortlisted novel The Clothes on Their Back is not the first of their picks that I have loved. I need to remember to print out their list next year and have at it.

The Clothes on Their Backs a delicately written account of what it was like to grow up as the child of refugees in London. Taking place mostly in the late 70's it helped fill in a time period that has somehow remained a literary vacuum in my personal reading experience. It seems like everything I read is current, or set before 1965.

The story unfolds as Vivien, (barely out of University and already suffering from her own personal tragedy) reconnects with her long lost uncle, the black sheep of the family, a pimp and a playboy, made famous in London after serving time for being a slumlord. As she gets to know him, in search of her own history, his history and that of her parents begins to emerge, and it is a history that has been shut away in the proverbial attic for good reason. As she finds out more and more about the past, Vivien begins to reexamine who she is as a person and how she has let her concept of herself and where she has come from dictate her life - even when so much of it was a black hole.

I found the use of clothing as metaphor deftly and sparingly used, adding to the beauty and layers of the story. Not surprisingly, I found the scenes between mother and daughter and the storyline of their relationship most compelling, at times bringing me to tears (one scene in particular when her slightly disabled mother dresses for a party will haunt me for a while I suspect.) Of course those are the scenes that often affect me the most because of my personal experience, but they are truly magnificent in this story.

Poetic and economically written, this is a beautiful book. Grant manages to pinpoint lonliness and bring it to life, whether it is the experience of being a person without a country or someone who has just lost a loved one. A lovely, and quick read.


Next up: When You are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris