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The Clothes On Their Backs
In a red brick mansion block off the Marylebone Road, Vivien, a sensitive, bookish girl grows up sealed off from both past and present by her timid refugee parents. Then one morning a glamorous uncle appears, dressed in a mohair suit, with a diamond watch on his wrist and a girl in a leopard-skin hat on his arm. Why is Uncle Sándor so violently unwelcome in her parents' home?
This is a novel about survival - both banal and heroic - and a young woman who discovers the complications, even betrayals, that inevitably accompany the fierce desire to live.
Set against the backdrop of a London from the 1950s to the present day, The Clothes on Their Backs is a wise and tender novel about the clothes we choose to wear, the personalities we dress ourselves in, and about how they define us all.
This is a novel about survival - both banal and heroic - and a young woman who discovers the complications, even betrayals, that inevitably accompany the fierce desire to live.
Set against the backdrop of a London from the 1950s to the present day, The Clothes on Their Backs is a wise and tender novel about the clothes we choose to wear, the personalities we dress ourselves in, and about how they define us all.
308 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 2, 2008
66 people are currently reading
1905 people want to read
About the author
Linda Grant
96 books212 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads' database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Linda Grant was born in Liverpool on 15 February 1951, the child of Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants. She was educated at the Belvedere School (GDST), read English at the University of York, completed an M.A. in English at MacMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario and did further post-graduate studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, where she lived from 1977 to 1984.
In 1985 she returned to Britain and became a journalist. From 1995 to 2000 she was a feature writer for the Guardian, where between 1997 and 1998 she also had a weekly column in G2. She contributed regularly to the Weekend section on subjects including the background to the use of drug Ecstasy (for which she was shortlisted for the UK Press Gazette Feature Writer of the Year Award in 1996), body modification, racism against Romanies in the Czech Republic, her own journey to Jewish Poland and to her father's birthplace and during the Kosovo War, an examination of the background to Serb nationalism.
Linda Grant was born in Liverpool on 15 February 1951, the child of Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants. She was educated at the Belvedere School (GDST), read English at the University of York, completed an M.A. in English at MacMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario and did further post-graduate studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, where she lived from 1977 to 1984.
In 1985 she returned to Britain and became a journalist. From 1995 to 2000 she was a feature writer for the Guardian, where between 1997 and 1998 she also had a weekly column in G2. She contributed regularly to the Weekend section on subjects including the background to the use of drug Ecstasy (for which she was shortlisted for the UK Press Gazette Feature Writer of the Year Award in 1996), body modification, racism against Romanies in the Czech Republic, her own journey to Jewish Poland and to her father's birthplace and during the Kosovo War, an examination of the background to Serb nationalism.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 385 reviews
July 23, 2016
"If you try, if you have a profound willingness to let yourself go completely you can enter the mind of another person. It takes a certain habit of thought, honed by many years of reading in the way I read, that immersion in books, so that they are not so much inside your head; rather, as if they are a dream, you are inside them."
That is how I felt reading this book. I entered the mind of not just the narrator, Vivian, but of all the characters. Ervin and Berta, her parents, who escaped from Hungary to London in 1938, and spent the rest of their lives trying to hide from the world. Uncle Sandor, the pimp/slumlord/evil man/good man, who stayed behind in Hungary with his parents and became a slave laborer for the Germans, finally making it to London in 1956. Eunice, Sandor's lover, a black woman who we met on page one, admired all along, and said good-bye to on the last page. And Claude, a young man not good enough for Vivian, who became her lover for a short while.
I entered the stories of all these characters through the bits and pieces that Vivian shared. There is a world of stories and living glimpsed through her eyes, and the people she meets while trying to escape from the narrow world and expectations of her parents. She wants to LIVE, and this book tells of her search for her past, and also her future.
Some other quotes I particularly liked:
"Human nature is not necessarily a pretty sight, close up."
"Their is no anesthesia in the pages of a novel."
"You know, my life turned out more banal than I ever expected, for as I found out, to live IS banal."
This is a book that I was not aware of, by an author I had never heard of, until I saw the 4 stars given it by a GR friend, Cynthia. Our opinions on books and types of books we like are very similar, so I thought, I should look for this one. What a wonderful discovery! Thank you Cynthia, I owe you one.
A note on the brilliant title, it has many different layers of meaning, just like the book itself.
That is how I felt reading this book. I entered the mind of not just the narrator, Vivian, but of all the characters. Ervin and Berta, her parents, who escaped from Hungary to London in 1938, and spent the rest of their lives trying to hide from the world. Uncle Sandor, the pimp/slumlord/evil man/good man, who stayed behind in Hungary with his parents and became a slave laborer for the Germans, finally making it to London in 1956. Eunice, Sandor's lover, a black woman who we met on page one, admired all along, and said good-bye to on the last page. And Claude, a young man not good enough for Vivian, who became her lover for a short while.
I entered the stories of all these characters through the bits and pieces that Vivian shared. There is a world of stories and living glimpsed through her eyes, and the people she meets while trying to escape from the narrow world and expectations of her parents. She wants to LIVE, and this book tells of her search for her past, and also her future.
Some other quotes I particularly liked:
"Human nature is not necessarily a pretty sight, close up."
"Their is no anesthesia in the pages of a novel."
"You know, my life turned out more banal than I ever expected, for as I found out, to live IS banal."
This is a book that I was not aware of, by an author I had never heard of, until I saw the 4 stars given it by a GR friend, Cynthia. Our opinions on books and types of books we like are very similar, so I thought, I should look for this one. What a wonderful discovery! Thank you Cynthia, I owe you one.
A note on the brilliant title, it has many different layers of meaning, just like the book itself.
September 21, 2013
Vivien, the protagonist in this unfocused and bland novel, reminisces on her youth and her attempts at understanding her uncle, a famous slumlord in London, through his narrative of his upbringing in pre-WWII Hungary. Well, if at least Vivien was an interesting character, the reader may want to know more about her as she discovers her family’s background. Alas, Vivien is as bland as the story she tells. Her parents are two-dimensional caricatures of timid Jewish refugees, and the reader suspects that this may have been as a matter of convenience to the author (to sort of shove them into the background and to add the feel-sorry-for-us factor). How many times does one need to know that Vivien’s parents lived in the same place, never did anything, never went out, and never talked about anything? The apartment Vivien grows up in is as exciting as a tomb. Amazingly, over the course of some twenty years, she is the only child ever growing up there, which is plain unbelievable, but is another unsuccessful plot device to try to indicate alienation. Aside from the characters’ lack of credibility, Vivien is just plain someone I personally could not care less about.
I picked up the book at the Belmont Library, because the mention of the characters’ Hungarian background intrigued me (and also perhaps swayed by a recent review in the Oregonian?). I plodded along, essentially forcing myself to read on, and the story never got any more interesting, with flimsy and vague descriptions of the background as it pertained to Hungary, characters with the substance of paper doll cut-outs, and a protagonist who was unsubstantial and uninteresting. Attempts at “fleshing her up,” such as by introducing some preposterous tragedy in her life, - a husband choking to death on a piece of steak on his honeymoon -, were almost comical, and the subsequent abortion of the child she expected does not elicit any sympathy in the reader, but come off as cheap tricks to bulk up her life experience (what, with the childhood spent with her two-dimensional parents). Lots of unexplained, unresolved issues, such as Eunice, the ex-girlfriend of the slumlord uncle, who, by the way, the author repeatedly describes either as a man with a golden heart or as the “face of Evil,” with no explicit examples of when, why, how, and who cares? Anyway, at the beginning of the novel, Eunice, the ex, accuses Vivien-the-niece of having broken her uncle’s heart, with no explanation as to how that was achieved. Vivien, in her tepid reminiscences, relates that someone who’d met her uncle had told her that said uncle had once insinuated that he had a child (Vivien), but then our author veers course and conveniently notes that said uncle’s testicles had been crushed, rendering him sterile (wouldn’t that also render him impotent, thereby dooming the relationship with women and prostitutes he was famous for?) Anyway, there is no follow-up about this uncle-with-child story. Vivien also tell how she introduces herself to her uncle as “Miranda,” and later on is referred to seamlessly as “Vivien” by her uncle; I don’t know, it seems to be that this would at least warrant a little conversation between the uncle and the niece.
The uncle is apparently dispatched by his attempt to kill the niece’s lower class boyfriend (and his subsequently being tossed in jail where he shortly dies from a stroke), but the reader is left in the dark as to any motive for this action. It turned out that the loser boyfriend has a girlfriend and a child as well, who both appear to “take him back home” (read “dispatch”; I guess, since the uncle didn’t succeed in killing the boyfriend, the author had to intervene). Vivien, whose first husband (a boiled-beef faced vicar’s son) warranted a few pages of text at most, apparently marries again; her second husband is another plot device, since the man just died and is not mentioned again; the same goes for her two “fat” daughters (whatever that means).
Ah, let us not forget the random introduction of a “sub-storyline,” the Skinheads, Neo-Nazis, etc. The introduction of graphics in a text-only novel generally indicates something significant and important. I cannot figure out why the author even bothers with the sign used by the Hungarian Nazi-sympathizers or with the logo for the National Front in England. Who cares? Write it if you must, but don’t introduce any graphics unless you’re writing “The Da Vinci Code” and your graphics lead to the discovery of some incredible esoteric secret. Anyway, it’s obvious the attempts at introducing some neo-Nazi theme is to give some edginess to the story, but, as in the rest of all attempts, this fails again.
The theme of the novel, at least as suggested by the title, may relate to how one’s status in life is affected by one’s clothes, but this narrative does not seem to be the thread that weaves (no pun intended) through the novel. What I get is that Vivien is as much a dullard as her parents and the purchase of a dress that fits her, the excuse for the start of this sorry mess, and the plot device to conclude it, fail to justify the some two hundred and forty pages in the middle. In the end, the only part that was interesting was the red dress that fit perfectly and molded itself tightly on her body, and made her feel sexy. I want one of those for myself.
I picked up the book at the Belmont Library, because the mention of the characters’ Hungarian background intrigued me (and also perhaps swayed by a recent review in the Oregonian?). I plodded along, essentially forcing myself to read on, and the story never got any more interesting, with flimsy and vague descriptions of the background as it pertained to Hungary, characters with the substance of paper doll cut-outs, and a protagonist who was unsubstantial and uninteresting. Attempts at “fleshing her up,” such as by introducing some preposterous tragedy in her life, - a husband choking to death on a piece of steak on his honeymoon -, were almost comical, and the subsequent abortion of the child she expected does not elicit any sympathy in the reader, but come off as cheap tricks to bulk up her life experience (what, with the childhood spent with her two-dimensional parents). Lots of unexplained, unresolved issues, such as Eunice, the ex-girlfriend of the slumlord uncle, who, by the way, the author repeatedly describes either as a man with a golden heart or as the “face of Evil,” with no explicit examples of when, why, how, and who cares? Anyway, at the beginning of the novel, Eunice, the ex, accuses Vivien-the-niece of having broken her uncle’s heart, with no explanation as to how that was achieved. Vivien, in her tepid reminiscences, relates that someone who’d met her uncle had told her that said uncle had once insinuated that he had a child (Vivien), but then our author veers course and conveniently notes that said uncle’s testicles had been crushed, rendering him sterile (wouldn’t that also render him impotent, thereby dooming the relationship with women and prostitutes he was famous for?) Anyway, there is no follow-up about this uncle-with-child story. Vivien also tell how she introduces herself to her uncle as “Miranda,” and later on is referred to seamlessly as “Vivien” by her uncle; I don’t know, it seems to be that this would at least warrant a little conversation between the uncle and the niece.
The uncle is apparently dispatched by his attempt to kill the niece’s lower class boyfriend (and his subsequently being tossed in jail where he shortly dies from a stroke), but the reader is left in the dark as to any motive for this action. It turned out that the loser boyfriend has a girlfriend and a child as well, who both appear to “take him back home” (read “dispatch”; I guess, since the uncle didn’t succeed in killing the boyfriend, the author had to intervene). Vivien, whose first husband (a boiled-beef faced vicar’s son) warranted a few pages of text at most, apparently marries again; her second husband is another plot device, since the man just died and is not mentioned again; the same goes for her two “fat” daughters (whatever that means).
Ah, let us not forget the random introduction of a “sub-storyline,” the Skinheads, Neo-Nazis, etc. The introduction of graphics in a text-only novel generally indicates something significant and important. I cannot figure out why the author even bothers with the sign used by the Hungarian Nazi-sympathizers or with the logo for the National Front in England. Who cares? Write it if you must, but don’t introduce any graphics unless you’re writing “The Da Vinci Code” and your graphics lead to the discovery of some incredible esoteric secret. Anyway, it’s obvious the attempts at introducing some neo-Nazi theme is to give some edginess to the story, but, as in the rest of all attempts, this fails again.
The theme of the novel, at least as suggested by the title, may relate to how one’s status in life is affected by one’s clothes, but this narrative does not seem to be the thread that weaves (no pun intended) through the novel. What I get is that Vivien is as much a dullard as her parents and the purchase of a dress that fits her, the excuse for the start of this sorry mess, and the plot device to conclude it, fail to justify the some two hundred and forty pages in the middle. In the end, the only part that was interesting was the red dress that fit perfectly and molded itself tightly on her body, and made her feel sexy. I want one of those for myself.
December 17, 2019
Rochia cea nouă (The Clothes On Their Backs, publicat în 2008 și câștigător al Premiului Booker) este un roman scris de autoarea britanică Linda Grant, în care ne este prezentată viaţa unei tinere sensibile, care doreşte să-şi regăsească identitatea şi să afle secretele familiei ei.
Vivien Kovaks face parte dintr-o familie de evrei unguri care a emigrat în Marea Britanie la începutul celui de-al doilea Război Mondial, stabilindu-se la Londra. Vivien locuieşte în Benson Court alături de părinţii ei, și are o viaţă monotonă, aceştia preferând să se izoleze de lume şi să trăiască o viaţă liniştită. „Părinţii mei m-au crescut să fiu un şoarece. Din recunoştinţă faţă de Anglia, ţara care îi găzduise, au ales să fie oameni-şoareci…” (p. 88).
Tânăra este nepoata lui Sándor Kovacs, un baron binecunoscut pentru afacerile sale necurate, care şi-a construit averea pe baza chiriaşilor săi de culoare. Vivien l-a văzut pentru prima dată când avea zece ani, iar imaginea lui a marcat-o pentru multă vreme. „Acesta purta un costum de mohair albastru electric, pantofi negri de piele întoarsă cusuţi manual, iar la mâna lui lucea un ceas cu brăţară de diamante” (p. 41).
Peste ani, la puţin timp după moartea stupidă a primului ei soţ, Vivien se întâlneşte accidental cu unchiul Sándor, într-un parc. Intră în vorbă cu el, adoptând un nume fals. După ce află că tânăra era şomeră, Sándor îi cere lui Vivien să-l ajute în redactarea unei cărţi despre viaţa lui. De aici încolo, viaţa protagonistei devine mai palpitantă, petrecându-şi câteva ore pe zi ascultând, întrebând, înregistrând şi scriind diferite secvenţe şi amintiri din viaţa controversatului om de afaceri evreu. Oare ce va afla Vivien 11111despre trecutul familiei ei, care i-a fost ascuns timp de douăzeci şi cinci de ani şi cum o va ajuta să descopere adevărul despre unchiul său?
Stilul cărţii este accesibil, autoarea utilizează destul de multe detalii, iar evenimentele importante sunt amintite de mai multe ori pe parcursul firului narativ. Linda Grant face referiri cu privire la cel de-al doilea Război Mondial, la viaţa evreilor din lagărele de concentrare, la Liga Antinazistă, dar fără a transforma cartea într-un tratat de istorie sau într-unul ideologic. Mai sunt amintite şi anumite aspecte despre felul în care trăiau tinerii în anii ’70 şi despre modă.
În concluzie, prin intermediul rochiei celei noi, Vivien face o retrospecţie asupra întregii sale vieţi. Ea vede hainele ca pe nişte măşti. Hainele, la fel ca măștile, odată ce le porți, devin o parte din tine.
http://elitere.ro/rochia-cea-noua/
Vivien Kovaks face parte dintr-o familie de evrei unguri care a emigrat în Marea Britanie la începutul celui de-al doilea Război Mondial, stabilindu-se la Londra. Vivien locuieşte în Benson Court alături de părinţii ei, și are o viaţă monotonă, aceştia preferând să se izoleze de lume şi să trăiască o viaţă liniştită. „Părinţii mei m-au crescut să fiu un şoarece. Din recunoştinţă faţă de Anglia, ţara care îi găzduise, au ales să fie oameni-şoareci…” (p. 88).
Tânăra este nepoata lui Sándor Kovacs, un baron binecunoscut pentru afacerile sale necurate, care şi-a construit averea pe baza chiriaşilor săi de culoare. Vivien l-a văzut pentru prima dată când avea zece ani, iar imaginea lui a marcat-o pentru multă vreme. „Acesta purta un costum de mohair albastru electric, pantofi negri de piele întoarsă cusuţi manual, iar la mâna lui lucea un ceas cu brăţară de diamante” (p. 41).
Peste ani, la puţin timp după moartea stupidă a primului ei soţ, Vivien se întâlneşte accidental cu unchiul Sándor, într-un parc. Intră în vorbă cu el, adoptând un nume fals. După ce află că tânăra era şomeră, Sándor îi cere lui Vivien să-l ajute în redactarea unei cărţi despre viaţa lui. De aici încolo, viaţa protagonistei devine mai palpitantă, petrecându-şi câteva ore pe zi ascultând, întrebând, înregistrând şi scriind diferite secvenţe şi amintiri din viaţa controversatului om de afaceri evreu. Oare ce va afla Vivien 11111despre trecutul familiei ei, care i-a fost ascuns timp de douăzeci şi cinci de ani şi cum o va ajuta să descopere adevărul despre unchiul său?
Stilul cărţii este accesibil, autoarea utilizează destul de multe detalii, iar evenimentele importante sunt amintite de mai multe ori pe parcursul firului narativ. Linda Grant face referiri cu privire la cel de-al doilea Război Mondial, la viaţa evreilor din lagărele de concentrare, la Liga Antinazistă, dar fără a transforma cartea într-un tratat de istorie sau într-unul ideologic. Mai sunt amintite şi anumite aspecte despre felul în care trăiau tinerii în anii ’70 şi despre modă.
În concluzie, prin intermediul rochiei celei noi, Vivien face o retrospecţie asupra întregii sale vieţi. Ea vede hainele ca pe nişte măşti. Hainele, la fel ca măștile, odată ce le porți, devin o parte din tine.
http://elitere.ro/rochia-cea-noua/
February 10, 2011
This is my kind of book- a well-written novel from a woman's point of view that has layers and layers of meaning. The story is captivating and the characters fully realized and multidimensional without being overly conscious.
The joys to be had in dressing and costuming in all of the ways that clothes express who we are or who we wish we could be ties all of the parts of the book into a great package.
The main character, Vivien, is endearing through as she searches for her family history by talking with her father's estranged brother, Sandor, once convicted of being a slum lord. Sandor is complicated-a slum lord, a pimp, a survivor of slave labor camps during WWII, an escapee from communist Hungary. He is by turns the face of evil and the soul of human kindness.
Another interesting part of the book is the underlying story of London in the '70's - punk music & the rise of the National Front. It's interesting to think about how frightening the skinhead movement must have been to those who had survived the first go-round with Fascism.
The joys to be had in dressing and costuming in all of the ways that clothes express who we are or who we wish we could be ties all of the parts of the book into a great package.
The main character, Vivien, is endearing through as she searches for her family history by talking with her father's estranged brother, Sandor, once convicted of being a slum lord. Sandor is complicated-a slum lord, a pimp, a survivor of slave labor camps during WWII, an escapee from communist Hungary. He is by turns the face of evil and the soul of human kindness.
Another interesting part of the book is the underlying story of London in the '70's - punk music & the rise of the National Front. It's interesting to think about how frightening the skinhead movement must have been to those who had survived the first go-round with Fascism.
August 17, 2008
Linda Grant comes to this year’s Booker longlist following on from her longlisting for this year’s Orange Prize, an accolade she won in 2000 with her second novel, When I Lived In Modern Times. Her third novel, Still Here, flirted with the Booker back in 2002, but never made it to the shortlist. The Clothes On Their Backs (2008), her fourth novel, might yet see her take one step further to the Booker, especially in a year where, judging by the discussions on the Booker site, the field seems average.
Although Grant’s family history is lodged in a distant Russian-Polish background, The Clothes On Their Backs imagines a Jewish Hungarian one. And the Hungarian connection is here in force, with poet and translator Georges Szirtes appearing three times over: in the dedication, the acknowledgements, and an epigraph. Call it a three piece suit, which is fitting as The Clothes On Their Backs is a novel all about clothes and what it means to wear them.
Read my full review here.
Although Grant’s family history is lodged in a distant Russian-Polish background, The Clothes On Their Backs imagines a Jewish Hungarian one. And the Hungarian connection is here in force, with poet and translator Georges Szirtes appearing three times over: in the dedication, the acknowledgements, and an epigraph. Call it a three piece suit, which is fitting as The Clothes On Their Backs is a novel all about clothes and what it means to wear them.
Read my full review here.
November 11, 2008
This book was a birthday present, and it's not a mystery why it was chosen for me. The story contains, among other things: slumlords, Jews, immigrants to the UK, the UK, and (as the name suggests) clothes. The giver probably over-estimates my interest in clothing and the acquisition of clothing, as many men do of many women, but it's a forgivable mistake.
My own interest in clothing is one of necessity, although not in the strictest sense of needing it to survive. I don't love clothing for its own sake, for the most part, but because it allows you to present an image of yourself. It's completely superficial and shouldn't matter, but it seems to. I revert to adolescent angst about what to wear to important events, and occasionally find myself half-naked in front of the bedroom mirror and unable to get dressed for work.
The author explores self-definition through clothing, through this idea that clothing can define you or, maybe, reflect you. Although I think this is meant to be the overarching theme of the book, I found it to be the least interesting or compelling aspect of the novel, even as I relate to it.
The stories in the book--of a family history that has been largely hidden from the narrator and of her early years as an adult--are far more interesting and compelling to me than the theme suggested by the title. The characters are vivid, the writing is very clean, and the stories told are genuinely interesting.
My own interest in clothing is one of necessity, although not in the strictest sense of needing it to survive. I don't love clothing for its own sake, for the most part, but because it allows you to present an image of yourself. It's completely superficial and shouldn't matter, but it seems to. I revert to adolescent angst about what to wear to important events, and occasionally find myself half-naked in front of the bedroom mirror and unable to get dressed for work.
The author explores self-definition through clothing, through this idea that clothing can define you or, maybe, reflect you. Although I think this is meant to be the overarching theme of the book, I found it to be the least interesting or compelling aspect of the novel, even as I relate to it.
The stories in the book--of a family history that has been largely hidden from the narrator and of her early years as an adult--are far more interesting and compelling to me than the theme suggested by the title. The characters are vivid, the writing is very clean, and the stories told are genuinely interesting.
May 14, 2011
I thought this book was great. I don't understand some of the 2 star ratings and people who said it was boring. It is a coming of age story, a story of discovering your roots, and a story of coming to terms with who you are and where you come from. Clothing does play an important role, as the title suggests, but in a way that paints important pictures of the main characters - Vivian Kovaks and her uncle Sandor. Clothing is very important to each character but for entirely different reasons. For Sandor it is about showing off, looking important, for Vivian it is for hiding in a sense. But for each of them, the clothes they wear is also a way of reinventing themselves. And in a way it is also what connects them to each other. I found parts of this book to be humorous, and parts to be sad, but very compelling throughout. A very good exploration of the immigrant experience and even more so the experience of those first generation off-spring who are often forced to live between two worlds - the culture their family comes from and the culture of this new environment.
May 3, 2009
What a disappointment! This book was shortlisted for the Mann Booker Prize so I figured it was a good bet. Instead, the story was really, really predictable. This is just another coming of age, child of holocaust survivors story, the wrinkle here being the immigrant parents don't tell their daughter about their past at all, and she discovers their history through a rogue uncle she meets when she's a young adult. The plot telegraphed all it's 'surprises' from the get-go. Some of the writing was lovely, even graceful, but overall, not worth the time.
January 10, 2009
Avoid at all costs. I cannot believe the Man Booker would shortlist this. And they really need to redeem themselves since snubbing _Arthur and George_ for the win two years ago.
August 9, 2016
Deceptively quiet. A deep exploration of personal family secrets on one level. An even deeper meditation on Fascism and the universal immigrant experience on another level. Very well done.
February 15, 2025
I really enjoyed this story about a girl finding out her family's past and connecting with her uncle. Linda Grant is a great writer.
December 28, 2008
How could anyone not like a book in which the author has one of her characters state the following about George W. Bush (whom he fervently admired)?
"Not a smart man, but's that what you want--the last thing we need is for the intellectuals to gain power; I tell you, some ideas are so ridiculous only a professor could swallow them." (15)
Contrary to what you might expect, the novel is actually set in 1970s London against the backdrop of the rise of the National Front. But much of it is also set in the past. It is the past of Vivien's uncle who survived labor camps in Hungary during WWII. Like Hensher's "Northern Clemency" (also nominated for the 2008 Booker Prize), this is a book about a family and the tensions within. Both books are very different--in my mind, you can clearly see the impact here of the family's experiences in Hungary and the different concepts of "success" each brother imagines for himself as emigrants. Nonetheless, this book also raises the very interesting, even if impossible to answer, question of how much the choices that each brother makes are actually influenced by the move to Britain. To what extent, in other words, has each brother been formed by the forces of nature and nurture? If you have read Hensher's "The Northern Clemency", I recommend you read this book. They form nice bookends to each other, set, as they are, in the same time period, but in very different parts of England with the central protagonists shaped by very different pasts.
"Not a smart man, but's that what you want--the last thing we need is for the intellectuals to gain power; I tell you, some ideas are so ridiculous only a professor could swallow them." (15)
Contrary to what you might expect, the novel is actually set in 1970s London against the backdrop of the rise of the National Front. But much of it is also set in the past. It is the past of Vivien's uncle who survived labor camps in Hungary during WWII. Like Hensher's "Northern Clemency" (also nominated for the 2008 Booker Prize), this is a book about a family and the tensions within. Both books are very different--in my mind, you can clearly see the impact here of the family's experiences in Hungary and the different concepts of "success" each brother imagines for himself as emigrants. Nonetheless, this book also raises the very interesting, even if impossible to answer, question of how much the choices that each brother makes are actually influenced by the move to Britain. To what extent, in other words, has each brother been formed by the forces of nature and nurture? If you have read Hensher's "The Northern Clemency", I recommend you read this book. They form nice bookends to each other, set, as they are, in the same time period, but in very different parts of England with the central protagonists shaped by very different pasts.
September 2, 2009
The narrator of the novel is Vivien Kovacs the only child of Hungarian immigrant parents, Ervin and Berta who keep themselves to themselves and are even secretive about their past with their own daughter. It is a tantalizing portrait of life for this family in 1970’s London, it is only after Vivien is grown up and once again living back at home after a personal disaster that she decides to discover her roots. Using snippets of information she has overheard as a child she discovers her father’s estranged brother Sandor. This sets off a chain of mainly tragic events but at least she learns the truth about her family.
This paragraph from the novel sums up for me how Linda Grant used clothes in this novel as an allegory of personalities.
‘The clothes you wear are a metamorphosis. They change you from the outside in. we are all trapped with these thick calves or pendulous breasts, our sunken chests, our dropping jowls. A million imperfections mar us. These are deep flaws we are not at liberty to do anything about except under the surgeon’s knife. So the most you can do is put on a new dress, a different tie. We are forever turning into someone else and should never forget that someone else is always looking’
The clothes descriptions are a clever use of imagery which I felt painted a very vivid portrait of not only the clothes but helped bring the characters personality and appearance alive on the page.
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6...
This paragraph from the novel sums up for me how Linda Grant used clothes in this novel as an allegory of personalities.
‘The clothes you wear are a metamorphosis. They change you from the outside in. we are all trapped with these thick calves or pendulous breasts, our sunken chests, our dropping jowls. A million imperfections mar us. These are deep flaws we are not at liberty to do anything about except under the surgeon’s knife. So the most you can do is put on a new dress, a different tie. We are forever turning into someone else and should never forget that someone else is always looking’
The clothes descriptions are a clever use of imagery which I felt painted a very vivid portrait of not only the clothes but helped bring the characters personality and appearance alive on the page.
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6...
September 17, 2009
The Clothes on Their Backs, by Linda Grant is a story of a first generation American woman's search for her family's past, something her parents have deliberately kept from her. Isolated in their British flat, her parents keep a kind of old-world mixed with fear outlook on life.
Growing up in the 60's and 70's of such parents, the narrator naturally begins to explore her world in a way that horrifies her parents, even if much of it is kept secret from them.
She gravitates towards her much disapproved of uncle and learns of the country and family her father has come from but never speaks of.
Given this premise, I expected what she discovers to be more sensational. Too, much of what she goes through is put forward as it is experienced--happening without much explanation or redemption. There is much in this book that is left unexplored--her parents are never forthcoming in emotion or explanation. She is forced to internalize things through her estranged uncle's eyes.
As someone who likes to read meaning and metaphor into things, this book was less than satisfying. It has a very post-modern feel to it. Even the most repulsive revelations and occurrences are very matter-of-fact, and while the author attempts to close the circle, so to speak, it it not done successfully.
Growing up in the 60's and 70's of such parents, the narrator naturally begins to explore her world in a way that horrifies her parents, even if much of it is kept secret from them.
She gravitates towards her much disapproved of uncle and learns of the country and family her father has come from but never speaks of.
Given this premise, I expected what she discovers to be more sensational. Too, much of what she goes through is put forward as it is experienced--happening without much explanation or redemption. There is much in this book that is left unexplored--her parents are never forthcoming in emotion or explanation. She is forced to internalize things through her estranged uncle's eyes.
As someone who likes to read meaning and metaphor into things, this book was less than satisfying. It has a very post-modern feel to it. Even the most repulsive revelations and occurrences are very matter-of-fact, and while the author attempts to close the circle, so to speak, it it not done successfully.
January 25, 2011
Built on a promising premise of showing us how clothes define our selves, this novel was also ambitious in its attempt to capture the history of a slum landlord in London through the eyes of his estranged niece.
Interspersed with thread narratives about slavery, the plight of East European refugees, discrimination and family ties, it also tries to deal with a displaced youth's sense of belonging and relations with her timid parents who are afraid to live life (in her opinion).
But perhaps it is the breadth of issues that the novel tries to tackle that causes it to fall flat in the end. They could not keep up with the characters the author was trying to paint, and for the most part, the characters just remained as characters on a printed page for me. The lackadaisical narrator failed to engage me in her problems. I remain unconvinced nor particularly moved by the narrator's changed impressions of her Uncle Sandor (termed the 'new face of evil' by the press), her plight as a young widow, nor her callous dismissal of her parents, especially in her conversations with her mom. She sounded like a cruel, overgrown and bratty 25-year-old teen in those exchanges.
A disappointment, considering the accolades this book garnered, and being on a Man Booker Shortlist, no less.
Interspersed with thread narratives about slavery, the plight of East European refugees, discrimination and family ties, it also tries to deal with a displaced youth's sense of belonging and relations with her timid parents who are afraid to live life (in her opinion).
But perhaps it is the breadth of issues that the novel tries to tackle that causes it to fall flat in the end. They could not keep up with the characters the author was trying to paint, and for the most part, the characters just remained as characters on a printed page for me. The lackadaisical narrator failed to engage me in her problems. I remain unconvinced nor particularly moved by the narrator's changed impressions of her Uncle Sandor (termed the 'new face of evil' by the press), her plight as a young widow, nor her callous dismissal of her parents, especially in her conversations with her mom. She sounded like a cruel, overgrown and bratty 25-year-old teen in those exchanges.
A disappointment, considering the accolades this book garnered, and being on a Man Booker Shortlist, no less.
June 2, 2012
I don't like writing negative reviews. This time I have to.
From the opening page I had issues with the style and the stilted dialogue. I decided to give it a chance but at page 106 and only 39% read, I have declared defeat.
The main character, Vivian, is underdeveloped and unlikable. Her parents are unrealistic shadows of people. Her first husband dies from an accident that evokes no feelings of sympathy. Vivian then goes in search of her mysterious uncle who is banned from her parents flat and her life. A slum lord with a jail term behind him, he has the most potential to be a decent character.
Some readers will disagree with me and that's fine. We all have to read what we like. This book, for me, is very similar to Zadie Smith's "White Teeth", which I also didn't like. I don't mind contemporary fiction but I find it to be lazy writing when the author assumes a modern setting is enough to keep a reader interested. There is such a wealth of fiction out there that this falls very short for me.
From the opening page I had issues with the style and the stilted dialogue. I decided to give it a chance but at page 106 and only 39% read, I have declared defeat.
The main character, Vivian, is underdeveloped and unlikable. Her parents are unrealistic shadows of people. Her first husband dies from an accident that evokes no feelings of sympathy. Vivian then goes in search of her mysterious uncle who is banned from her parents flat and her life. A slum lord with a jail term behind him, he has the most potential to be a decent character.
Some readers will disagree with me and that's fine. We all have to read what we like. This book, for me, is very similar to Zadie Smith's "White Teeth", which I also didn't like. I don't mind contemporary fiction but I find it to be lazy writing when the author assumes a modern setting is enough to keep a reader interested. There is such a wealth of fiction out there that this falls very short for me.
February 20, 2014
Two Jewish brothers, one who escaped Hungary, on the verge of WWII, the other who stayed and suffered thru a work camp, are seen in the 70's thru the eyes of a daughter/niece. One, a reclusive workaholic, has never even told his daughter they were Jewish, and the other, a flamboyant , gangster/slumlord is anxious to tell his story to his long unknown niece. The theme of clothing is ever present; Do the clothes make the man? Is the outward appearance of a person, or a life, a factor in who one really is? A powerful book , and definitely not standard Holocaust fare.
February 3, 2014
There are times when one picks up a book, begins to read, and thinks, "I just can't seem to dig into this one." Sometimes, the effort pays off. I remember this feeling when I started to read "Stones from the River" - difficult to get into, but I stuck with it, and it is one of my all-time favorites books. Unfortunately, "The Clothes on their Backs" is not such a story. I stuck with it, and frankly, the characters were flat, two-dimensional. I stuck with this one, but would not recommend.
August 25, 2017
Foi um livro que julguei pela capa (vendo tudo muito arrumadinho estão a ver?) que seria algo divertido, mas que bruta desilusão que apanhei. Fala da Vivien e que vive com os pais, que são um casal de regufiados, mas num dia aparece em casa um Tio que ela não conhecia, e mostra-lhe um outro mundo que ela desconhecia. Esperava mais deste livro, por isso fiquei desiludida com o raio do livro.
http://aviciadadoslivros.blogspot.pt/...
http://aviciadadoslivros.blogspot.pt/...
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July 26, 2017دیدار اتفاقی با یک دوست قدیمی باعث می شود که ویویان کواکس به یاد خاطرات جوانی اش بیافتد، به یاد ناکامی اش در عشق و ازدواج، به یاد سختی هایی که پدر و مادر مهاجرش کشیدند، و به یاد عموی ناخلف و جنایتکارش. عمویی که چیزی را به وی داد که پدر و مادرش از آن دریغ کرده بودند. گذشته پنهانی پدر و مادرش و عمویش. او از طریق ضبط حرفهای عمویش از آنچه بر سر این سه نفر افتاده مطلع می شود. و به شناخت بهتری از آدمهای زندگی اش می رسد.
February 9, 2009
BORING! i was very disappointed in this book. i expected so much for. i found it long, vague, going nowhere.
June 13, 2011
thought i was going to love this - but it really didn't work for me. the characters seemed un-believable and the story dragged. surprised it almost won the booker!
July 22, 2022
2.5⭐
Okay so I have a few thoughts about this, positive and negative. I liked it overall, but there were a few things that just didn't sit right with me all that much.
One things was: I can understand that there was racial tension at the time in which this book was set, but does that mean that's it's necessary for certain vocabulary to be included in a book written by a white woman?? No.
Other than that, yes, I liked this book. It was insightful at times and right up my alley being a tale that resembled a glimpse of life and it's twists and turns. It covered a lot of important themes, but let's just say that I can't quite say confidently whether some of them were handled in the right tone.
Okay so I have a few thoughts about this, positive and negative. I liked it overall, but there were a few things that just didn't sit right with me all that much.
One things was: I can understand that there was racial tension at the time in which this book was set, but does that mean that's it's necessary for certain vocabulary to be included in a book written by a white woman?? No.
Other than that, yes, I liked this book. It was insightful at times and right up my alley being a tale that resembled a glimpse of life and it's twists and turns. It covered a lot of important themes, but let's just say that I can't quite say confidently whether some of them were handled in the right tone.
March 29, 2017
Consegui ler seguido até meio do livro, depois simplesmente saltei para o final por curiosidade para não abandonar o livro a meio.
É um livro chato, aborrecido, com uma historia que parece sempre que vai dar a lado nenhum, onde a autora perde tempo com pormenores insignificantes....
Uma história sobre um ex preso do tempo da guerra, do tempo de Hitler, que conta a sua história mas que esta está sempre a ser interrompida pela história da personagem principal que para mim nada tem de interessante e que parece que está sempre a dar lições de moral.
É um livro chato, aborrecido, com uma historia que parece sempre que vai dar a lado nenhum, onde a autora perde tempo com pormenores insignificantes....
Uma história sobre um ex preso do tempo da guerra, do tempo de Hitler, que conta a sua história mas que esta está sempre a ser interrompida pela história da personagem principal que para mim nada tem de interessante e que parece que está sempre a dar lições de moral.
October 27, 2022
I liked this book, but I found it hard to sink my teeth into. I liked the premise - a young girl with wild hair and parents who fled Budapest for a better life, an alluring criminal uncle who lived in a flat of thrones. It just dragged on somehow.
October 19, 2018
I enjoyed this. It gave a good sense of London in the seventies. Loosely based on the life of slum landlord Peter Rachman.
September 12, 2018
The narrator is clearing out her parent's flat after their death and rediscovers some tapes of her uncle (a character based on Rachman) that she had made many years before. Through these she tells the story of immigration and various forms of exploitation. the book weaves around a range of ideas regarding morality. Lots of backstory that is not explored to its full but this makes the existing story fairly punchy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 16, 2024
Teisinga turbūt pradėti nuo lūkesčio –
pasinerti į istoriją be aktyvaus smegenų dalyvavimo.
Pastarasis buvo išpildytas. Skaitytoja patenkinta.
Lengvas, sklandus, turtingas pasakojimas.
Bet gal verta paminėti dar, kad vis galvojau, koks lemtingas skaitant yra (ne)atpažinimas. Ir gali būti, kad būtent dėl to, kad atpažinau dalį personažų, atpažinau izoliaciją, kurioje kartais save įkalina emigrantai, galėjau knygą pajusti, o ne tik suprasti. O dar gi taip puikiai pavaizduota senojo Londono atmosfera…
Gal tik drabužių tema kiek pritempta pasirodė, net nereikalinga, sakyčiau. Pavadinimas kiek klaidinantis taip pat. Bet jos nebuvo tiek daug, kad spėtų rimtai įkyrėti,
tai sakau, kad labai patiko – 4*.
pasinerti į istoriją be aktyvaus smegenų dalyvavimo.
Pastarasis buvo išpildytas. Skaitytoja patenkinta.
Lengvas, sklandus, turtingas pasakojimas.
Bet gal verta paminėti dar, kad vis galvojau, koks lemtingas skaitant yra (ne)atpažinimas. Ir gali būti, kad būtent dėl to, kad atpažinau dalį personažų, atpažinau izoliaciją, kurioje kartais save įkalina emigrantai, galėjau knygą pajusti, o ne tik suprasti. O dar gi taip puikiai pavaizduota senojo Londono atmosfera…
Gal tik drabužių tema kiek pritempta pasirodė, net nereikalinga, sakyčiau. Pavadinimas kiek klaidinantis taip pat. Bet jos nebuvo tiek daug, kad spėtų rimtai įkyrėti,
tai sakau, kad labai patiko – 4*.
March 12, 2013
Originally published on my blog here in September 2009.
The 2008 Booker Prize short list has once again proved dull, to the point that this, the fourth I have started, is the only one I have so far bothered to finish. As well as being an enjoyable book from the short list, it also falls into another small category, Booker-short-listed-novel-not-tapping-into-British-post-colonial-guilt. True, it does have immigrants as characters, but they're wartime Hungarian refugees, not from the former Empire at all.
Vivian Kovaks grows up in a central London flat, rented for a song by her parents who originally offered it as charity to a pair of refugees,not expecting them to stay for forty years. She, as narrator of the novel, describes her parents as mice seeking to bring her up as a mouse. A sheltered childhood, followed by study at York University, then marriage.
But there's what might be called an "elephant in the room". Vivian's uncle is Sandor Kovaks, who is a successful businessman; the problem is that his wealth is based on being an exploitative slum landlord, also in London. The character is based on a real person, Peter Rachman, who I vaguely remember reading about (probably in a much later Sunday colour supplement magazine). Vivian's parents won't admit to the relationship, but Vivian remains fascinated by her one childhood memory of her uncle, from the only time he visited their flat. Sandor is imprisoned when she is about ten, but she later meets him again, and the second half of the novel is really about her discovering what the man behind the tabloid horror stories is really like.
The major difference between Sandor Kovaks and Peter Rachman (ignoring the fact that Kovaks is fictional while Rachman was real) is the existence of living, known family members. Rachman too came from Eastern Europe, and after the war was unable to trace his family, though he continued to try to do so until his death in 1962. (Grant also has Kovaks live a great deal longer.) Sandor's brother and his family are useful inventions to the author, as it makes it much easier to explore his character through the complexities of the relationships between him and them - relationships which still exist, even if they have disowned Sandor, even changing the spelling of their surname by deed poll so that strangers will not ask whether they are related.
The story is told in a way which is quite complicated chronologically. The first chapter and the last chapter are set much later than anything else (and are obviously intended to be from the time at which the narrator is telling the story). In the rest of the novel, Vivian apparently adds details from her childhood or illustrative incidents from later in her life as they occur to her, prompted by details in the main flow of the story. And the central part of the novel is taken up with Sandor's life story, which reaches back before the war, long before Vivian was born. But it all rings true, because it is carefully put together so that it mimics the way that people tell anecdotes in real life. Deliberately creating this kind of simplicity through underlying complexity is a skill I admire greatly.
The point of the novel, if there is one, is about the way that people's personalities are reflected in the small details of their lives such as the clothes they choose to wear. (It is exactly the sort of incidental information that creative writing courses suggest using to establish character, because these details are much more telling than a direct description of traits.) Clothe are important in the novel particularly Vivian's trawling of second hand shops to put together a wardrobe of old fashioned but stylish outfits: retro chic long before its time, and the description of how Sandor, forced to work in a slave gang of Jews in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, is never able to change the clothes he was wearing when first conscripted, for months and months.
It's not a happy story; no novel in which the narrator's husband is killed on the second day of their honeymoon could be described as such. But it is a pleasure to read The Clothes On Their Backs, which is in summary an excellent novel, something out of the usual way of things. Both Vivan and Sandor are fascinating characters, and the view of life in thirties and forties Europe is one not often encountered in novels by English writers.
The 2008 Booker Prize short list has once again proved dull, to the point that this, the fourth I have started, is the only one I have so far bothered to finish. As well as being an enjoyable book from the short list, it also falls into another small category, Booker-short-listed-novel-not-tapping-into-British-post-colonial-guilt. True, it does have immigrants as characters, but they're wartime Hungarian refugees, not from the former Empire at all.
Vivian Kovaks grows up in a central London flat, rented for a song by her parents who originally offered it as charity to a pair of refugees,not expecting them to stay for forty years. She, as narrator of the novel, describes her parents as mice seeking to bring her up as a mouse. A sheltered childhood, followed by study at York University, then marriage.
But there's what might be called an "elephant in the room". Vivian's uncle is Sandor Kovaks, who is a successful businessman; the problem is that his wealth is based on being an exploitative slum landlord, also in London. The character is based on a real person, Peter Rachman, who I vaguely remember reading about (probably in a much later Sunday colour supplement magazine). Vivian's parents won't admit to the relationship, but Vivian remains fascinated by her one childhood memory of her uncle, from the only time he visited their flat. Sandor is imprisoned when she is about ten, but she later meets him again, and the second half of the novel is really about her discovering what the man behind the tabloid horror stories is really like.
The major difference between Sandor Kovaks and Peter Rachman (ignoring the fact that Kovaks is fictional while Rachman was real) is the existence of living, known family members. Rachman too came from Eastern Europe, and after the war was unable to trace his family, though he continued to try to do so until his death in 1962. (Grant also has Kovaks live a great deal longer.) Sandor's brother and his family are useful inventions to the author, as it makes it much easier to explore his character through the complexities of the relationships between him and them - relationships which still exist, even if they have disowned Sandor, even changing the spelling of their surname by deed poll so that strangers will not ask whether they are related.
The story is told in a way which is quite complicated chronologically. The first chapter and the last chapter are set much later than anything else (and are obviously intended to be from the time at which the narrator is telling the story). In the rest of the novel, Vivian apparently adds details from her childhood or illustrative incidents from later in her life as they occur to her, prompted by details in the main flow of the story. And the central part of the novel is taken up with Sandor's life story, which reaches back before the war, long before Vivian was born. But it all rings true, because it is carefully put together so that it mimics the way that people tell anecdotes in real life. Deliberately creating this kind of simplicity through underlying complexity is a skill I admire greatly.
The point of the novel, if there is one, is about the way that people's personalities are reflected in the small details of their lives such as the clothes they choose to wear. (It is exactly the sort of incidental information that creative writing courses suggest using to establish character, because these details are much more telling than a direct description of traits.) Clothe are important in the novel particularly Vivian's trawling of second hand shops to put together a wardrobe of old fashioned but stylish outfits: retro chic long before its time, and the description of how Sandor, forced to work in a slave gang of Jews in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, is never able to change the clothes he was wearing when first conscripted, for months and months.
It's not a happy story; no novel in which the narrator's husband is killed on the second day of their honeymoon could be described as such. But it is a pleasure to read The Clothes On Their Backs, which is in summary an excellent novel, something out of the usual way of things. Both Vivan and Sandor are fascinating characters, and the view of life in thirties and forties Europe is one not often encountered in novels by English writers.
January 8, 2009
Generally, I don't like when a book is simply about a theme - for instance, a review that starts out - this book is about racism, or classicism, or whatever ism. For the most part, I like a story that comments on a theme, makes you think - and with that said, I was immediately skeptical of a book that has such a hit you in the head metaphor as its title, as well as its running theme. Luckily, this book is about a story, not about a big "ISM", and while the metaphor is perhaps to simplistic for the subject matters (the immigrant experience (they arrived with the clothes on their back), the faces of good and evil (what really is the face of evil - and can you see it from someone's outward appearance), the search for identity (are clothes a costume, or an expression?), it tied the book together, and I ended up really enjoying it.
One of the things I liked was the way clothes were used as a "costume." Throughout the novel, the main character, Vivien, changes clothes as she tries on different personalities. But, she always knows that the clothes are not a reflection of her, but rather what she wants people to see - the part she wants to play - the eccentric in vintage clothing, the tough politically aware punk with the shorn head. At one point in the novel, she discovers her boyfriend's secret desired tatoo is a swastika. She is horrified, but he simply shrugs, it's just a design, it doesn't mean anything. To him, it could be a dozen roses. Vivien though, is completely aware of the outward portrayal, the immediate feelings associated with symbols, and indeed with clothing, as she has been using clothing to hide, to be someone else, to escape.
At the end, its still unclear if Vivien defines the clothes, or the clothes define her, but it is all connected.
One of the things I liked was the way clothes were used as a "costume." Throughout the novel, the main character, Vivien, changes clothes as she tries on different personalities. But, she always knows that the clothes are not a reflection of her, but rather what she wants people to see - the part she wants to play - the eccentric in vintage clothing, the tough politically aware punk with the shorn head. At one point in the novel, she discovers her boyfriend's secret desired tatoo is a swastika. She is horrified, but he simply shrugs, it's just a design, it doesn't mean anything. To him, it could be a dozen roses. Vivien though, is completely aware of the outward portrayal, the immediate feelings associated with symbols, and indeed with clothing, as she has been using clothing to hide, to be someone else, to escape.
At the end, its still unclear if Vivien defines the clothes, or the clothes define her, but it is all connected.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 385 reviews