Reviewed by Leah on
In terms of opulence, and the nosiness of neighbours, The Walk-In Closet reminded me a little bit of Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan! The Ebadi family are Richie-Rich-rich, with money being no issue, and Leila Ebadi regularly spring-cleaning her closet and giving all her old clothes to her son’s beard Kara. (Not that Leila knows Kara is a beard.) Money isn’t an issue for the Ebadi’s, but I admired that fact that their money was made by them – it wasn’t family money, it was made thanks to the hard work of Hassein, the head of the household, Leila’s husband. It’s also blatantly obvious from the off that in “Tehrangeles”, as Kara calls it, everyone knows everyone and everyone knows your secrets, so if you’re trying to keep secrets, it’s best to keep them far, far away from the people of Tehrangeles, because otherwise EVERYONE will end up knowing what’s going on in your life. Because of that, I could totally understand why Bobby was loathe to spend time with anyone other than his parents, because that kind of pressure, where any peep is heard by all, makes me feel claustrophobic and I wasn’t even the one being pressurised!
Obviously I wasn’t sure The Walk-In Closet would be my kind of read but it was very appealing and the narrative skips along very well, helped by the fact that Kara is our narrator; I very much enjoyed getting to know her and I loved how deep her friendship with Bobby was, and how welcoming the Ebadi’s were about her being a part of their family. I thought the cast of characters were bonkers, but adorable. I adored the Ebadi’s, they’re the type of family you’d love to have around you, even if they were blinded by Bobby’s (very obvious to anyone else) secret. I loved how open and honest they were, except when it came to their sons, ironically enough, and despite their flaws, which I suspect is part to do with their being Persian (not to cast aspersions on Persian people), I liked them and thought they were lovely. I liked Kara, too. She’s flawed, which I liked, and the only aspect of her I didn’t really like were the way she acted with her friends Fiona and Joanne. She was kinda awful to the two people she says is meant to be her best friends, and it made me cringe to see her putting them down.
The Walk-In Closet is a tad cruder than I normally read, which was surprising but only because it’s rarity I come across it when reading, which is entirely coincidental. I’m not averse to bad language, it was just a bit coarse at times, Kara and Bobby were obviously totally honest with each other about literally everything, and it was just surprising to see the way they talked to each other sometimes. The addition of Kyle was perhaps my favourite addition to the novel, I wished we had seen more of him than his hotel room, mind, because I rather liked his mysterious ways and he and Kara seemed to click immediately, easily riffing off each other, as Kara tried to learn more about him. It led to a very interesting reveal. The only disappointment with the book is I would have liked to have seen more of Kara’s job. She works for a lady whose name I have forgotten, but eventually stands up on her own two feet and decides to go it alone, and I’d have liked to have seen how that panned out, because why make her go it alone if we aren’t going to be shown how it pans out?! It just petered out, so they may as well have just left her working where she was before ya know? But otherwise it was a very entertaining read, and I loved learning more about Persian people, they certainly lead interesting lives, and I rather yearned to become one of the Ebadi’s myself…
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 4 June, 2014: Finished reading
- 4 June, 2014: Reviewed