The Clothes on Their Backs

This was shortlisted for the Booker Man and White Tiger won. Both books are pretty insubstantial. The Clothes on Their Backs one reveiwer described as Anita Brookner with sex. Isn't it odd how everyone pooh poohs poor Anita but she is so often a point of literary reference?
Anyway it's the story of a young woman, a daughter of a couple of very timid and sheltered Hungarian Jewish refugees in London (tres Brookner!). She gets to know her uncle who was a rather terrible vicious slumlord when he was younger. Her parents had always refused to tell her any of her family history and the uncle is anxious to tell her the stories of the atrocities he saw in Hungary. The sex is with a young punk who lives downstairs from the uncle.
The main storyline takes place at the time of the National Front movement in Britain with all the skinheads. At the same time the punks are evolving and there is one rather interesting bit where she sees some skinheads approaching and she breaks down the subtle dress code language for both skinheads and punks...drainpipe jeans for punks, the same for skinheads but rolled up to the ankle, safety pins- punks, no jewelry-skinheads etc etc.
It was just OK.