Empty Wardrobes

Empty Wardrobes / Maria Judite de Carvalho
trans. from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa
Two Lines Press, 2021, c1966.
184 p.

I was drawn to this book by the title and that cover image; but it's something quite different from what I'd expected. 

Set in Portugal in the 60s, we meet Dora Rosario, a widow of ten years. She has a teen daughter, Lisa, who is both beautiful and hard. Dora, however, is a constant woman - she's been mourning her husband faithfully, letting herself get a bit dowdy and working all day in an antique shop in the quiet, alone. At 36, she is presented as an old woman, past her prime. But then her mother-in-law lets slip something about Dora's saintly husband that changes her perspective on her entire married life and widowhood. 

Dora falls into a brief affair with Ernesto, the man her close friend has been partnered up with for ages. Ernesto with won't move in together or marry her, though. One day he finds Dora at the shop, and they begin a desultory affair that both brightens Dora up and makes her feel guilty. There was no need for her to feel anything, though, because in the end he leaves both of them in a moment, once he meets a very young girl who knows what she wants. 

This story is about more than plotlines, though. It really looks at a variety of women who are all independent in a way, but are still shaped by the presence of men in their lives. Their choices and lifestyles are determined by their relationships to men, and the options open to them are tied to men as well, even if those men are hovering in the distance or in Dora's case, already dead. 

It was both a slow burn and a powerful read. The conclusion was sudden and I did not expect it at all. But it was perfect, a logical conclusion to the story that the author was building. The three generations of women in the story all face similar struggles, all based in patriarchal expectations of women that are outlined without sentiment or gloss in this short but startling story.
 

Dora, Doralina

Dora, Doralina / Rachel de Queiroz
trans. from the Portuguese by Dorothy Scott Loos
NY: Avon, c1984
281 p.

I picked up this book from a secondhand bookshop many years ago, not realizing that the author is a Brazilian literary lion. I finally read it this year, and was absorbed in the messy life of Dora/Doralina. 

Dora is born to a family of landowners in rural Brazil; her father is not in the picture, and she is raised by her mother at their fazenda (estate). She has a difficult relationship with her mother, who she calls Senhora, never Mother. She is constrained by her rural, isolated life, with little money and a social structure that limits what she can do; she's also emotionally limited, with only a couple of the servants to care for her as a person. 

So she's ripe for being married off to a dashing young man that her mother selects for her. The marriage isn't happy though, with some pretty nasty revelations occurring early on. But it doesn't last, and the first section of the book ends with the marriage's end. 

Dora has had enough and runs away to the city, where she finds work in a travelling theatre. This small group travels around the country to regional theatres, which is an awfully good way for a novel to show conditions across a country. There is a lot of detail about the theatre and her coworkers - anyone who has ever acted or is interested in theatre might find all this very relatable. 

And the third part of the book comes out of these travels; Dora catches the eye of a riverboat captain who is older than her and quite a dashing scoundrel. They marry, and have a tumultuous life together. He is passionate and unpredictable, involved in many illegal activities and has a temper. But Dora says of him, "Yes, for me he was a god: he came as a god, lived like a god, and would die a god; and when he left it was the end of the world for me.” This willingness of hers to live under his thumb is a bit jarring for modern readers but it is the way their relationship works. And through this, and commentary on other marriages and women, we can get a glimpse of the social norms at that time. 

Dora comes full circle to return to the fazenda after both her mother, then her husband, die. She finds her life ending where it began, although the book itself ends rather abruptly. Dora's exciting life in the outside world ends, and so does this story. 

I found this novel a little slow moving at the start, but got into it as the story progressed. The portrait of this woman bucking expectations and living her own way was a compelling one. As noted, I did find the conclusion choppy and abrupt, but overall this was a memorable story.