Yvvette EdwardsRecensioni

Described as "a poignant family drama and a gripping mystery", this was an intense read.

ALERT - Spoiler: Since her mother's death, Jinx is an orphan dealing with her mother's things and her memories. The cupboard/closet is full of Jinx's mother's coats, beautiful; coats, each one a gift from her boyfriend, given after he beat her.

fiction (1997 London; some characters speak in Jamaican? vernacular, for true).
sensory-rich prose and skillful storytelling make the unraveling of Jinx's mother's story an engrossing read, putting me in mind of Toni Morrison's style but (thankfully) requiring much less analysis. Maybe the descriptions of her undertaker/embalming job weren't as accurate as I'd like (in my experience, no amount of skill in cosmetic application can ever make a corpse appear natural), but generally would recommend for book clubs and such.

Deeply moving, The Mother by Yvvette Edwards is an emotionally compelling novel of healing.

Seven months following her sixteen year old son Ryan's murder, Marcia Williams remains grief stricken and desperately trying understand why his accused killer Tyson Manley took Ryan's life. With the murder trial now underway, Marcia attends the proceedings hoping to get answers to the questions that haunt her. As evidence is presented to the court, she is surprised by her sometimes compassionate response as she learns about Tyson's dysfunctional home life. Marcia is also forced to admit that she might have misjudged Sweetie Nelson, the young woman whom Ryan was involved with in the weeks preceeding his death. With her marriage crumbling under the weight of anger and unresolved grief, Marcia cannot help but lash out at her husband Lloydie as he continues to withdraw from her as he struggles to cope with his loss on his own.

It is impossible not feel sympathy for Marcia as she tries to make sense of a senseless act of violence. Her hopelessness, her desperate need for answers and her desire to assign blame are palpable as she goes through her day to day life, locked in mourning. Despite her understanding that LLoydie is doing the best he can, Marcia cannot help but feel angry and resentful over his desertion just when she needs his support the most. While completely aware how deeply she is hurting him by her furious outbursts, Marcia is unable to keep her feelings to herself as the strain of the trial weighs heavily on her. Trying, yet failing, to bridge the ever widening gap between them, Marcia despairs her marriage will survive the unbearable loss of their son.

Lloydie is a quiet man who shows his love through his actions and he withdraws not only from Marcia, but life in general, after Ryan's murder. While he cannot give his wife the emotional support she craves, he quietly goes about taking care of her the only way he knows how. In the face of her unrelenting anger, Lloydie pulls deeper into himself and begins changing his routine in order to avoid her. Unable to accept the tentative olive branch she extends to him, their marriage continues to deteriorate and it is soon teetering on the brink of collapse.

The one person who could possibly provide some answers to Marcia's questions is the one person she avoids at all costs: Sweetie. Marcia made no effort to hide her disapproval of the young woman who captured Ryan's heart and she blames Sweetie for indirectly putting him in the path of a killer. Unable to avoid meeting with Sweetie, Marcia learns shocking information that she encourages Sweetie to reveal. Once Sweetie takes the stand during Tyson's trial, a stunning revelation gives Marcia unexpected hope and a new purpose that will honor Ryan memory.

The Mother by Yvvette Edwards is a raw, gritty novel that is heartbreaking, yet ultimately, uplifting. This powerful story will move readers to tears as Marcia tries to come to terms with an unbearable loss that no parent should ever have to experience. Although not all of the loose ends are completely wrapped up by the novel's conclusion, the ending is hopeful as Marcia, Lloydie and Sweetie find an unexpected bit of optimism that they can and will eventually move past this tragedy.

Well structured, a good plot if a bit bleak.
A shocking insight into inner city life

Marcia’s son Ryan has been murdered, and the trial of the accused killer is finally starting. In the months leading up to the trial, Marcia’s life has unraveled. She is physically a wreck, nearly a walking skeleton. Her husband can’t cope with the loss of their son and distances himself from her emotionally. As she searches for answers as to why this accused boy murdered her son, the reader becomes acquainted with the life the accused led and how the paths of the victim and the killer became entangled. The author paints a compelling story of how some young men want to help people while others kill with seemingly no reason or thought or remorse. Good character development adds much to the depth of this novel.

The Mother is Marcia Williams, and her sixteen-year-old son Ryan has recently been murdered. She is attending the trial of his accused killer, Tyson Manley. As the trial proceeds, we watch Marcia deal with her feelings about her son, her husband Lloydie who is unable to attend the trial, the accused and his own mother and the young woman who seems to be the link between Tyson and Ryan. It's a bit unusual as the main setting is a court room, but the story isn't really about the trial or the crime. Rather, it's a story about motherhood and the doubts so many of us have about whether we are doing the right things for our children. It's also a commentary on race and violence in modern society. Very well done.½

Solidly written with compelling characters. The story kept me interested but ultimately wasn't terribly surprising. I didn't quite buy the moment of redemption at the end, but by the time I got there I was so attached to Jinx that I was mostly just happy for her.

Edwards explores motherhood, specifically mothers of sons, through an incident of fatal violence between two older teens. The novel begins just as the trial is set to start. Marcia, mother of the victim, feels compelled to be present at the trial because she owes it to her son. Her husband refuses to go so Marcia relies on her sister and other friends for support. She hopes the trial will finally answer some of her questions and bring a sense of closure. Marcia's anger, frustration, and sorrow are palpable as the trial forces her to acknowledge her own failings as a mother. But there's plenty of blame to go around, not the least of which is the murderer and his mother who show a remarkable lack of concern about the case. This contemporary story explores many issues but the writing is compelling and easy to read. Thought-provoking literary fiction that is surprisingly a page-turner.

Solidly written with compelling characters. The story kept me interested but ultimately wasn't terribly surprising. I didn't quite buy the moment of redemption at the end, but by the time I got there I was so attached to Jinx that I was mostly just happy for her.

The Mother opens on the first day of Tyson Manley's murder trial. The story is told by Marcia Williams, mother of Ryan, the boy Tyson is accused of killing and she relates the details of the trial, along with some of what happened just before.

It's quite an unusual story in that respect, but it also deals with Marcia's feelings both about the loss of her son and about the trial. It took me a little getting into, but at around the half way point I started to get quite engrossed in it. I found it quite easy to feel empathy with Marcia and her husband, Lloydie, in what is ultimately a very sad story.

This book looks at how the stabbing death of 16-year-old Ryan affects all those around him, especially his mother Marcia. This book takes us through the arrest of another black teen and concludes at the end of the trial. However, throughout we see the effects Ryan’s murder has upon his parents’ marriage, the girl he was involved with and other members of his family and community. The author looks at race, poverty and abuse in this moving tale that shows just how random life can be and what a waste of two lives such actions bring about.

This is a brilliantly written, passionate mother-daughter story. Jinx has lived very contentedly with her mother Joy after the death of her elderly father leaves them financially secure. Joy, however, hides from her daughter her desire to be with a man and her unhappiness with their quiet life. When she falls in love with Berris, a fellow expat from Montserrat, the household turns upside down as the relationship between Joy and Berris leaves Jinx feeling rejected. Berris's friend Lemon steps into the fraught situation and provides comfort for Jinx. But there are dark places in all of these relationships and when tragedy occurs, there's more than enough blame to be shared and even more difficult forgiveness to be rendered. Somehow, each character is simultaneously innocent and guilty.

As told by Jinx, the story immerses the reader in the back stories of each character as if we are inside their heads. It's a genuinely strong and sorrowful read.

It's 14 years since teenage Jinx's mother was brutally killed by her fiance in Hackney, London. Now the murderer's best friend, and Jinx's former inappropriate crush, shows up on her doorstep. They spend a weekend talking and drinking, while he cooks Caribbean comfort food, and reveal to each other their (unwarranted) feelings of culpability in the murder.

Although this wasn't the most fascinating or compelling of books, for the most part I enjoyed listening to A Cupboard Full of Coats and having the story disclosed, bit by bit. I particularly commend the reader, Adjoa Andoh, who smoothly transitioned between a pretty straightforward British narrator, a working class/East End London accent, and various Caribbean voices. Between her skill here, and the well-rounded characters, A Cupboard Full of Coats felt fresh and different.

Rating: 4 stars. Good job, Yvette Edwards, in getting your debut novel nominated for the Booker Prize.

This is the story of a daughter and a family friend who both feel responsible for the murder of the girl's mother about 15 years ago. The man who actually committed the murder has just been released from prison and this leads the two main characters to get together to retell the events leading to the murder and to assess their lives and other relationships. I felt it was a slight story, but well written and intelligently presented.

This is the story of Jinx, now a 30-year-old mother estranged from her husband and son. The story takes place over a weekend when a family friend, Lemon, visits Jinx to review what happened leading up to her mother's murder fourteen years earlier.

The story is compelling and Jinx is very real. However, I found the writing style a bit disjointed...there were foreshadowing references where it only became clear what the characters were referring to later on in the book. Sometimes this works; in this case, I found it frustrating and distracting. I liked the book more a few days after reading it than immediately after finishing it. The frustrating gaps were, by then, filled in and I was able to reflect on the full picture of what happened and why.½

This book begins with an older man knocking on a London door in the pouring rain. The man is from the worst part of Jinx's past, the part involving her stepfather and the murder of her mother, for which she feels responsible. Lemon was her stepfather's best friend. Together, over the following days, they discuss their shared past.

Edwards begins her book by making Jinx, the narrator, unsympathetic and then works forward to make her actions and thoughts understandable. This is an uncomfortable book, with its theme of domestic violence tied to the coming of age of a teenage girl. Jinx may have made her home as clean and uncluttered as possible, but as Lemon cooks for her, her house fills with the tastes and aromas of her childhood, as the only child of an emigre from Montserrat, and with that the memories of when her mother fell in love with the wrong man.½

A Cupboard Full of Coats tells the story of Jinx a young woman who still struggling to heal after her mother's murder fourteen years prior. Jinx has trouble maintaining relationships and is estranged from her husband. She has a young son to whom she is a detached and seemingly uncaring parent.One weekend her mother's friend, Lemon shows up at Jinx's house wanting to revisit the events leading up to the murder. Jinx is reluctant at first but Lemon sways her with delicious home cooked food and alcoholic beverages. What follows is a tragic tale. I enjoyed this book and thought it was very well written. The pacing was good at the characters were believable. I would recommend this to fans of contemporary fiction.

Summary
Jinx is living in London alone. As an embalmer, she works better with the dead than with the living, including her own young son and his father, her ex-husband. Painful memories resurface one day when she opens her front door to a man she's known since she was 16. Lemon was a friend to her mother's lover, Berris...the man who now is in jail for her violent death. After his own failed attempt at finding and living a normal life, Lemon has returned to confess everything the secrets of the past; what he doesn't realize is that Jinx too suffers as well from living with her own secrets, secrets that have literally eaten her alive from the inside out. She is a numb shell of the person she could have/should have become. Over the course of a few days, Lemon bares his soul and forces Jinx to do the same.

What I Liked

The complications - I kept thinking of Toni Morrison again and again and again as I read this book. The issues are so complicated and so obviously deeply felt/understood by the author that the reader can sometimes feel left out. I liked this bc I like a book that makes me think...I don't want it to be an easy read or one that is obvious...this book has no chance of being obvious.

Lemon - I had to struggle to keep up with the story it took him 3 days to tell (he himself called it a "long-winded roundabout")...but I wanted to.

The dialect and vocabulary - to be honest I both liked and disliked this aspect of A Cupboard Full of Coats - the cultural voice adds authenticity to this story...a glimpse into the rich life of a culture other than my own, actually a culture within a culture. But, I did sometimes feel left out...and especially with Lemon's dialect and choice of words, I had to re-read sections and searched for context clues where many times there actually were none. I actually used Google searches several times to familiarize myself with words like "digi," "sorrel," "Dunlop plimsolls," "poofter," "jingbang," "cassava," "christophine," "sabaca," and "shebeen."

The coats and their symbolic meaning...I didn't get it at first but when it hit me...wow, not an excited, loud "WOW!"...just a quiet introspective "wow"...a quite effective piece of imagery to say the least.

Jinx's son's connection to her mother was another piece of strong vine that holds this story and the Jinx's inability to be a mother to her own child together. Jinx's lack of maternal feeling toward Red and was actually unbelievable to me until the story circled back around...and it's not like me to believe actions like these. Another wow moment.

What I Didn't Like

The ending - things worked out a little too nicely for me...granted there's a lot of story left to be told...but still. These are seriously damaged people who are struggling with very deeply ingrained issues; then within the last few pages, the sun comes up and everything's ok. Huh?

Berris - duh, he's an abuser...how could anybody like him? Except for the woman he's abusing.

Sam - I am still not sure what her significance is to this story...I'll let you know if I figure it out.

Curry - there's a lot of it in this story...and I don't like it :P Jinx finds comfort in the smells of home and hearth but it was difficult to appreciate her comfort when my own personal aversion is so strong :/

This is one of those stories that unpeels itself in unsystematic ways...questions didn't always get answered when I needed them to and a few times I felt as if I didn't have enough information to figure out what in the world was going on or why Jinx acted the way she did. I actually found one post-it note about midway through the story where I simply wrote "huh"?

I don't mind switching back and forth in time, but I swear I felt like there was another part to this story, one that began during Jinx's childhood, that I missed completely...there's has to be some connection somewhere with Sam, but I never got it.

Overall Recommendation

If you like family sagas including painful, hard to read sometimes, issues, then you'll like this one. Don't expect a happy, sunny ending though; if you need everything to work out like a Cinderella story, this isn't your read. It's quite dark at times, but it's supposed to be.½

This was a very dark book and Jinx was a very damaged main character and narrator. Jinx and Lemon spend the weekend sharing their perspectives on Jinx's mother's murder with each other. Through flashbacks, it becomes apparent how Jinx grew into such a cold, almost robotic adult. She is not a good mother and the part when her four-year old son comes over for a visit was hard to read. I was left wondering how someone like Jinx came to get married and have a son in the first place. However, the focus of this novel is the immediate time period around Jinx's mother's death and the weekend that Lemon comes to visit fourteen years later. I think not including much information on Jinx's life in the time between her mother's death and Lemon's visit makes the weekend seem that much more intense.

Even though I didn't really like Jinx, I thought her character was well-developed and the reasons she turned out to be such a dysfunctional adult were definitely authentic. The domestic abuse storyline was tough to read but realistic. Jinx and Lemon put each other through the wringer - their weekend together is like an intensive therapy session. I enjoyed the way the author revealed the events of the past slowly and thoroughly as Jinx and Lemon open up to each other.

The writing was beautiful yet melancholy. I can see why A Cupboard Full of Coats was longlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize.

Man Booker long list? Geez, they must have been scraping the bottom of the Booker barrel in 2011. Sure, this is an OK read, but to my mind it doesn't really rise much above the level of romance. The characters have little depth, the story is implausible, and there's not much complexity to the underlying message. It seems to me that the Man Booker must have become more like the children's book prizes here in Australia where politically correct stories about refugees and indigenous people are seen as intrinsically more meritorious. This is a story about, and in the voice of, a particular ethnic group living in London. I have no idea of its authenticity in that regard, but it was a little bit interesting to me to read about a cultural enclave which I wouldn't otherwise encounter.½

What would you do if you opened the door to find a man you hadn't seen in 14 years standing on your doorstep, a man who disappeared from your sixteen year old life? What if you had loved him with every fiber of your teenaged self? What if the last night you saw him was the night your mother died, was murdered? What if you held yourself responsible for her death, you felt you killed her? How would you respond to this man from the past then? This is the opening premise of Yvvette Edwards' first novel, a novel longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Jinx has spent the past fourteen years blaming herself for her mother's violent death. She is so full of guilt and anger at the situation that she is completely emotionally frozen, unable to connect even to her young son Ben. Her husband Red moved out with Ben when he was just a baby and Jinx hasn't been able to repair the relationship either with Red or with Ben because she is so trapped by her feeling of culpability. So she lives a lonely and unfulfilled life. But when Lemon shows up on her doorstep, he starts to thaw her just by his very presence, forcing her to remember that terrible night and what led up to it.

Inviting him to stay, Jinx is afraid to re-open herself emotionally to Lemon but he gently and insistently takes her into the tragedy of his own life, having just lost his wife and been estranged from his own son for his son's entire life, as he leads her to face the biggest tragedy of her life. Alternately narrated by Jinx and by Lemon, the past comes to life as they finally speak of Jinx's beautiful mother and of Berris, her fiance and lover, the man who murdered her in a fit of jealous rage. Each of them adds layers to the tragedy, sharing from their own perspective, admitting their feelings from the time, exposing what drove them to act the way they did, finally creating a complete and total picture of that night. As Lemon listens and expands on Jinx's understanding of the events leading up to her mother's murder, he cares for her, nurtures her, and cracks open her heart just the tiniest bit, allowing her to finally face all her confused and unhappy feelings, to share the unspeakable, and to let go.

The novel is exquisitely written. It takes place over one weekend although it ranges backwards fourteen years and to the months leading up to the murder. There is a slow uncovering of long, intentionally buried memories and Edwards uses all of the senses to show this blossoming, describing sights and sounds and noises with a startling vividness. And she tackles race, conceptions of beauty, abuse, love, family, and coming of age surprisingly fully all within this relatively short novel. The way that the reverberations of the murder leak into every crevice of Jinx's life and the way that her all-consuming guilt dooms her to be an emotionally distant and confused mother are convincingly shown. While there is certainly no doubt as to the fact of the murder (it is made clear almost from the start that Berris went to prison for it), the way in which the whole truth about the circumstances is revealed is masterfully done, keeping the tension of the story constant and drawing the reader ever forward. Intense, passionate, and brimming with emotion, this is a compelling read.

“A Cupboard Full of Coats” is a book about domestic violence that focuses more on thoughts and actions than plot. What do you do and think and say when your best friend is an abuser? What do you do and think and say when your mother is the abused? And what do you do with all the secrets and the pain that still linger many years later?

Domestic violence is not an original topic; it has been covered in many books and movies. But Edwards has taken the ordinary and made it extraordinary. There is much about the book that is wonderful. The characters are complex and utterly believable. It is richly atmospheric with the culture and dialect of both the West Indies and East London. And perhaps what is most remarkable is the structure the author uses.

The story slips back and forth in time, with nothing in the past or in the present quite making sense, but slowly unraveling, slowly revealing, until it is fully told. It is mysterious and tense and laden with emotion. And when the author explains the cupboard full of coats of the title, it is rich with symbolism and heartbreakingly perfect.

Amazingly, “A Cupboard Full of Coats” is the author’s debut novel. She is a remarkable talent and wholly deserving of the Booker nomination.

Dit boek is het eerste dat ik lees van de Booker Longlist 2011. Na het geweld van Winterson (Why be happy when you can be normal) is dit een rustig vertellend boek. Die rust is echter schijn. De gebeurtenissen die gaandeweg aan het licht komen zijn niet minder schokkend.

De taal in het boek is eenvoudig, maar de emoties die aan bod komen zijn dat niet. De hoofdpersoon is er van overtuigd dat ze haar moeder vermoord heeft. De man die voor dit misdrijf veroordeeld is, is net vrijgelaten. Familievriend Lemon brengt het nieuws en blijft meteen overnachten. Jinx woont nog steeds in het huis van haar moeder. Ze is gescheiden en haar zoon komt soms op bezoek. Lemon en Jinx vertellen elkaar verhalen uit het verleden, langzaam opbouwend naar de climax, de dood van Mavis Jinx's moeder, waarover beiden zich schuldig voelen. De dader, de tweede man van Mavis, was een bruut die zijn vrouw regelmatig sloeg. Lemon speelde een kwalijke rol als bemiddelaar en was bovendien jaloers. Jinx wilde van haar stiefvader af en was boos op haar moeder. Eerst omdat ze haar aandacht moest delen met een vreemde man, daarna omdat ze toestond dat hij haar sloeg. Lemon en Jinx hebben allebei een aandeel aan de laatste fatale ruzie.

Hoewel het plot spannend is, is dit niet het belangrijkste aspect van het boek. De taal is eenvoudig maar prachtig. Door de manier waarop vertelt wordt, zit je de personage dicht op de huid. De structuur waarin Jinx en Lemon elkaar telkens een deel van het verhaal vertellen en we vervolgens in hun herinneringen meekijken is briljant. De schijnbare eenvoud van het verhaal, houdt het licht, ondanks het zware thema. Een heel knap boek!

This book is a bit contrived both in its plotting and language. Jinx has been raised by her beautiful mother, but feels abandoned by her when she meets Berris who moves in with them and then abuses her mother – buying her a coat after each abusive episode. His friend Lemon is the intervener who Jinx falls in love with, and through his visit in later years serves as the catalyst for the uncovering of the tale and Jinx’s guilt over the final abusive episode in which her mother is killed. I was surprised this was listed for the Booker.½

If you wanted to count on one hand how many times a group of people can make wrong choices, A Cupboard Full of Coats will have you running out of fingers rapidly!

In a nutshell, this is the story of Jinx and how, as a teenager she watched her beautiful mother become a victim of her lover, Berris; his friend Lemon; and finally of Jinx herself. There is nothing new in the domestic violence theme of Cupboards - it is and always will be heart-breakingly sad that many women suffer this fate, regardless of whether it is of their own choice or not. When children are involved it is doublely sad, and I found the story moving, if not completely convincing.
First of all, Jinx seemed to have a few too many problems for a child who, except for 4 months during Berris's stay, had a wonderfully close and stable relationship with her mother. In my book, dysfunctional family relations have long reaching effects from a young age, and although teens can be unpredictable, when it comes to the crunch, early childhood experiences override short term chaos. I'm sure there are many example to disprove this theory, but there you have it.
Secondly, I found minor editorial errors that, although may be missed by some, annoyed my Booker Prize shortlist sensibilities (sorry, but these do matter). Worst example being the fact that Jinx found Lemon's cooking 'compelling', and on the next page she found her son's eyes 'compelling'. What's that about? If you want your readers to empathise with your characters, you simple have to do better than that.
Do I think you should read this book? Yes, the storyline is intense, real, and moves along to a ... well, I won't disclose the conclusion, but I do applaud the effort and encourage a writer of this, her first novel.