Review
Deirdre O Brien finds much to recommend in this Booker shortlisted tale.
- The Clothes On Their Backs
- Virago
Dressed To Kill
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, The Clothes on Their Backs follows the character of Vivien Kovaks, the daughter of Hungarian-Jewish immigrants who flee to London just before the Second World War
Theirs is a life of hush, secrecy - and skeletons in closets, that they hope will remain hidden. Vivien’s parents believe that remaining inconspicuous and maintaining a life of ‘normalcy’ is the only way to get by. Never fully adapting to the new country and never fully leaving behind the culture of their homeland behind, they live a quiet, respectable life. Vivien, their only child, grows up in a home where any questions of her background are immediately silenced by her parents until she eventually gives up asking.
When a mysterious man appears at their door Vivien sees her father fly into a blinding rage in his mother tongue - which is completely out of character. It transpires that this man, in his outlandish clothes, is her father’s brother; the uncle she never knew she had - the notorious slum landlord, Sàndor Kovacs. After tragedy strikes Vivien finds herself drawn to this uncle and has the chance to assuage the questions about her past and family that have never been far from her mind. The Clothes on Their Backs is an engaging, though sometimes slow-moving read. Grant stays true to the title of the book by using clothes in each situation as symbols and metaphors for the characters’ personalities, their existences and the changes in their lives. Even when people leave or die, the clothes they leave behind become the pieces of themselves they want to be remembered by or parts of themselves they wish to forget.
