A Cupboard Full of Coats allows those of us who have trouble understanding how the cycle of violence is perpetuated. This booklets the reader into the mind of Jinx, a young woman born into a violent household and clinging to violent men, even while she professes to cower from it. It is a tale of anguish and guilt as well.
Jinx' mother is killed by her boyfriend--the mother does what many abused women do--she escalated the violence so as to get the beating over with and get to the part where the man professes his undying love and starts to try to make it up to the woman. Only the last time that didn't happen. Jinx' mother is killed instead.
After her mother’s violent murder, Jinx’s prolonged struggle beneath the weight of the blame herself puts her in danger of driving away the little family she has left. She seems incapable of breaking the chain of hurt that was forged many years before and risks shackling her infant son within the same painful confines which she inhabits.
An unexpected visit from Lemon, a man who played a prominent role in the most miserable period of her past, forces Jinx to explore the causes of her anger and self-loathing. Lemon, in spite of his faults and confessions of wretched jealousy, charms (and at the same time repels) Edwards’ reader and heroine with his honeyed patois, his talents in the kitchen, and his silky swagger.
Edwards presents the sharp and paradoxical nuances of human nature as well as the ironies of intimate relationships that resonate and terrify. Could this happen to me? Please say no. The characters are complete, compelling people and the narrative that that contains them unfolds in a slow and enjoyable manner.
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