Empty Wardrobes
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
“A compact, merciless tragedy… I read this novel with something resembling a rapturous grief.” —Kate Zambreno
For ten years Dora has ritualistically mourned her husband's death, a pointless ritual that forced her to rely on support from old friends and acquaintances. Her beloved husband, a “Christ” so principled he rejected any ambition whatsoever as a construct of a corrupt society, succeeded only in leaving Dora and their daughter with nothing. When her mother-in-law reveals a shattering secret about their marriage one night, Dora’s narrative of her own life is destroyed. Three generations of women—Dora, her daughter, and mother-in-law—must navigate a world that has been shaped by the blundering men off in the distance, figures barely present who nonetheless define the lives of the women they would call mother, wife, or lover.
Narrated through the gritted teeth of an acquaintance, Empty Wardrobes—Maria Judite de Carvalho’s cutting 1966 novel, translated from Portuguese for the first time by Margaret Jull Costa and introduced by Kate Zambreno—is a tale of women who are trapped within the quiet devastation of a patriarchal society and preyed upon by the ambient savageries that perch in its every crevice.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Portuguese writer de Carvalho's sharp 1966 novel follows three women through an oppressive Catholic society. Dora Rosário, a widow in her late 30s, still mourns her husband, Duarte, who died a decade earlier. She confides to the narrator, Manuela, an old friend of Duarte's, about her grief, leaving Manuela to convey Dora's story secondhand—with her own occasional fabrications sprinkled in. Dora has kept to herself, raising her daughter, Lisa, now 17, and dealing with the interference of Duarte's mother, Ana. Duarte left them no money, so Dora took a job at an antique store where she's worked for many years. One day Ana reveals a terrible secret, changing Dora's vision of her husband as a "Christ" and releasing her from her grief. Manuela's lover Ernesto then comes to the antique store to buy a rug, but instead becomes interested in Dora. They go for a car ride, ending in a wreck that leaves Dora's face permanently scarred. The story concludes with a startling outcome that serves as a critique of a society that only values women for their youth and beauty. It's a bit didactic, but de Carvalho (1921–1998) complicates things with Manuela's unreliable narration and internalized misogyny. This unearthed story leaves readers with much to chew on.
