The Clothes On Their Backs: A Novel
Orange Prize Winner and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2008, Llinda Grant has created an enchanting portrait of a woman who, having endured unbearable loss, finds solace in the family secrets her estranged uncle reveals. Vivien Kovacs, sensitive and bookish, grows up sealed off from the world by her timid Hungarian refugee parents. She loses herself in books and reinvents herself according to her favorite characters, but it is through clothes that she ultimately defines herself. Against her father's wishes, she forges a relationship with her estranged uncle, a notorious criminal, who, in his old age, wants to share his life story. As he reveals the truth about her family's past, Vivien, having endured unbearable loss, learns how to be comfortable in her own skin and how to be alive in the world. Linda Grant is a spectacularly humanizing writer whose morally complex characters explore the line between selfishness and self-preservation. In vivid and supple prose, Grant has created a powerful story of family, love, and the hold the past has on the present.
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Community Reviews
I tried to get into this book, but I just didn't connect with the characters, and the writer jumped from one period to another period without alerting her readers. I didn't like that, and I feel that you really have to set-up those kind of transitions so that your readers can follow along. I also didn't care for the lack of morals exhibited in the main character on the first few pages, and so I opted to read something else that I would enjoy.
The fact is that I struggle with putting any book down and saying: "No thanks" and casually moving on. I love books. I treasure books and like to add to my collection. But I'm trying to get better at recognizing a waste of time when I encounter it early on and better at deciding to put a book down and move on to something else especially when I determine that my time and my brain cells are worth more than mediocre writing or subject matters that don't interest me.
The fact is that I struggle with putting any book down and saying: "No thanks" and casually moving on. I love books. I treasure books and like to add to my collection. But I'm trying to get better at recognizing a waste of time when I encounter it early on and better at deciding to put a book down and move on to something else especially when I determine that my time and my brain cells are worth more than mediocre writing or subject matters that don't interest me.
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