Customer Reviews

A Cupboard Full of Coats

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Yvvette Edwards's debut novel, A Cupboard Full of Coats, is an elegantly structured story of guilt and redemption. Fourteen years after her mother's murder, Jinx still blames herself for her role in the crime. She is living alone and in a state of emotional exile in London's East End, separated from her husband and young son, when Lemon arrives on her doorstep unexpectedly: "He just knocked, that was all, knocked the front door and waited, like he'd just come back with the paper from the corner shop, and the fourteen years since he'd last stood there, the fourteen years since the night I'd killed my mother, hadn't really happened at all." An old friend of Jinx's mom and her abusive husband, Lemon blames himself for the death. Lemon's arrival sparks "some kind of voyage of discovery" for Jinx and Lemon as they spend the next few days revisiting old wounds and reliving past events.

Jinx's first-person narration is emotionally raw and brutally honest. Her edgy voice is counterbalanced by Lemon's melodic, Caribbean diction. Over several days, the healing process begins as Lemon breaks down Jinx's self-defenses with home-cooked meals and other ministrations, including a foot massage that left Jinx a "shapeless, boneless heap of melted contentment." Edwards's vivid language captures the full range of human appetites and emotions with admirable precision. Jinx's dark thoughts are portrayed in clipped, brusque sentences--"I wanted to kill him. I'd been angry before in the past, but nothing on this scale ever. I wanted him dead"--but the passages of longing and desire are flowing and sensuous:

"He'd cooked oxtail and butter beans for dinner, with small round dumplings the size of marbles, brought it to me in my bedroom on a tray, waited while I adjusted the pillows behind my back and smoothed a level space on the duvet for him to put it down. ... The meat was so tender it fell from the bone, melting inside my mouth, the gravy spicy and so compelling I found myself unable to stop eating even when the plate was empty, sucking out every crevice of the bones, using my mouth like a bottom-feeder, my tongue like a young girl French-kissing an orange."

The narrative alternates between the present day interactions of Jinx and Lemon and Jinx's memories of her mother's last months of life, culminating in the events leading up to her violent death. A Cupboard Full of Coats is a masterfully structured novel, building suspense even though the ending is revealed on the first page. Impressive in its psychological complexity, this is one of the best novels I've read this year.

This is a first person narrative taking place in two time frames, the present and fourteen years in the past. The narrator is a 30 year old woman, Jinx Jackson, who lives in London, but whose family is from the Caribbean. Jinx is the main narrator of the earlier sections, but we also hear the voice of Lemon, a friend of Jinx's mother's fiance. Lemon shows up at Jinx's house one day and insists on reliving the events of that earlier time, events culminating in the murder of Jinx's mother.

Jinx is emotionally closed down and unable to communicate with Lemon, her ex-husband or even her four-year old son. Her complete inability to bond with Sam, her son, is told with such complete lack of maternal empathy or love that I finished the scene of her aborted weekend with Sam intensely disliking the narrator. And then I realized with a shock that the author expected me to dislike her narrator, she was purposely withholding any facets of the narrator's personality that would create empathy. That is a very gutsy move early in an author's first book.

I never liked any of the characters in the book, except the brief view we have of Red, her ex-husband, but I didn't particularly care. I simply became intrigued to discover what the author would do with this unappealing narrator. And the answer is that the narrator slowly breaks through the immense self-protective shields created for self-protection as she listens to Lemon provide an alternative narrative of those earlier events.

The unfolding of events through alternate narratives is reasonably well done, though the narrative voice of the younger Jinx is an overly familiar coming of age saga that followed a predictably depressing story line. It is only in the interplay of that earlier narration with the older and emotionally shut-down Jinx that the story has originality. I don't think any particularly unique issues are raised in this book, but the handling of the narrative voices is very well structured. I would only hope that Ms. Edwards' next book might contain more likeable characters.

Every now and then I read a book that reminds me to be thankful for a loving and nurturing childhood, because a lack of one can often lead to a disturbing adult life. Yvvette Edwards' impressive debut novel, A Cupboard Full of Coats is such a book for me. The book is a tale of family dynamics, jealousy, tragic betrayals, and guilt that mesmerizes the reader through its searing language and characters drawn so well they fill spaces in the readers mind. Jinx, a 28 year-old woman who is haunted by her childhood, and the brutal murder of her mother 14 years ago, is the book's main narrator. While these events are always present in Jinx's mind, she has not spoken about them to anyone so lives her life in a fog, until a person from the past, Lemon, shows up at her door. With teasing language, Ms. Edwards hooks the reader from the beginning. "He just knocked, that was all, knocked the front door and waited, like he'd just come back with the paper from the corner store, and the fourteen years since he'd last stood there, the fourteen years since the night I'd killed my mother, hadn't really happened at all." Lemon is back because Berris, the mother's boyfriend, who was convicted of killing Jinx's mother, has just been released from prison and has asked Lemon to forgive him. Lemon has his own demons and needs for Jinx to forgive him for past transgressions. Jinx does let Lemon in, and over the course of three days, as the stories goes back forth between the present and the past we are told a tale that will test the limits of forgiveness.

As the truth reluctantly unfurls, and the interactions of Jinx, Berris, Lemon, and the mother are exposed, the reader is treated to lush descriptions of Caribbean food and the lifestyle of the Caribbean immigrants living in the East End of London. The use of food to nourish both the body and the spirit is a strong technique of this book. But, under this facade of gaiety and community, is the darker subject of domestic violence. This is never an acceptable behavior, and while Ms. Edwards does not shy away from the nasty consequences, she does an excellent job of stripping the characters to the core to reveal their warts.

Compelling narrative combined with strong storytelling and vividly flawed yet interesting characters will captivate the reader until the last page. I look forward to reading future works by the author. I recommend this book to readers of literary fiction who enjoy stories of the immigrant experience and family dynamics.

Reviewed by Beverly

APOOO Literary Book Reviews

I got this book since it was a one dollar deal on amazon. The novel is pretty good, characters well defined and an interesting and intriguing story. However, the use of vernacular, and some regionalisms and particular situations akin to Montserrat island and its culture, lost my attention during certain parts.

Overall a nice novel.

In this impressive first novel, one of the titles on the 2011 Man Booker Prize longlist, Yvvette Edwards creates a stirring tale of a thirty year old woman consumed by feelings of guilt. She blames herself for the murder of her mother fourteen years ago. The novel presents the tale of Jinx; the narrator; her mother, the mother's violent boyfriend Berris, and Lemon, a close friend of the mother and her boyfriend. Edwards may be a first time novelist, but there is nothing of the novice in the telling of this story. She artfully employs the local argot favored by the three, natives of Montserrat. Effortlessly going back and forth in time, she presents herself as an adolescent, as well as an adult, and how guilt has prevented her from being the person she would prefer to be. Although some of the narration is a bit overdone, it does have a momentum that keeps the reader involved. There are some particularly harrowing, deeply disturbing scenes within the book, but they are all in keeping with the author's theme. Also, at the end, the narrator, and the reader, experience a feeling of deliverance. The next installment of the narrator's life is bound to be much happier and fulfilling.

I bought this book as it appears on Man Booker prize 2011 longlist. Can it get to the shortlist? I guess so, considering other books that even won in the past, this is a good material. The story is believable and nicely detailed, I did not necessarily connect to it but considering what the book is about (I am not going to spoil it for you here), it is probably a good thing. It was quite obvious how it would end up though and from that perspective, this book will not really leave the mark for the rest of your life. But I would not hold that against this book - it is not that kind of the book (such book for me would be e.g. The Vivisector from Patrick White) and I will surely keep an eye on future books from the author.

Jinx is a beautiful but deeply troubled east Londoner born to Caribbean immigrants, whose life was shattered 14 years ago when her mother Joy was brutally murdered by Berris, her second husband and Jinx's stepfather. Jinx blames her own jealousy and spite for her mother's murder, and has shut herself off from everyone, including her ex-husband and their young son, until the day that Lemon, Berris' best friend and a man she has admired since she first met him as a teenager, knocks on her front door. Lemon seeks to makes amends for his role in her mother's murder, now that Berris has just completed his prison sentence. During an intense weekend, filled with deep emotions and tempered by Lemon's irresistible cooked meals, the two relive their own separate and interlinked past histories, the passionate but troubled relationship between Berris and Joy, and the seemingly benign but malicious acts that led to Joy's murder.

A Cupboard Full of Coats is an intense and gripping debut novel which was an interesting selection for the Booker Prize longlist, which is highly recommended.

After reading the other reviews I am now wondering if I read the same book. The novel main protagonist is Jinx a woman who is haunted by her past, and who is forced to return to this past when Lemon an old family friend turns up on her doorstep seeking her forgiveness. Jinx's mother had been murdered 14 years previously and this has had a lasting effect upon her adult relationships and her ability to be a 'good mother'. Both Lemon and Jinx return to the past to seek redemption for their former behaviour, hoping that by doing so they can move forward in their lives.

Edward's writing isn't bad, the narrative works in fits and starts, but my main problem is with the characters and their motives. I found it hard to get to grips with Lemon's reasoning and his view of how women and men should behave in life. The relationship between Lemon and Jinx (past and present) didn't work for me, and in fact there were certain parts of the novel (I won't say what they are, so as not to spoil it for others) that I absolutely hated and thought were more suitable to a mills and boon book rather than a Booker nominated title. Maybe it's me, but I found this to be rather weak.

A Cupboard Full of Coats was a refreshing new read for me. The reader feels immersed in this book, the setting, the complicated relationships from the beginning. Yvette Edwards does an excellent job of painting emotions and scenes with words. It is a story of emotional pain,broken lives, and some dysfunction. It is human in the pain and forgiveness of self and others. This is not your ordinary read. I will be recommending this to my bookclub, friends and family.

I loved the use of vernacular in this novel. The language is deceptively simple, and it looks like the book has a simple plot. But as events start to unwind, the plot becomes as intricate as the emotions involved. Emotionally nothing is simple about this novel. It offers a well rounded view of its topic, without ever being heavy handed.