Reviews for Hers

The average rating for Hers based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-10-03 00:00:00 Frank Kolbasowski Two and a half stars really. Alvarez can write well. He had a solid pedigree as a poet since the mid 50's with quite a few publications to his name. This was his first novel and his attempt to describe a marriage slowly disintegrating, struggles to maintain focus as he touches on class, mid-life crisis, drugs, the Nazi heritage, ethnic slurs, juvenile delinquency and more. Doesn't really do justice to any of these topics in a barely over 200 page novel. He's surprisingly forthright in his discussion of sexual relations between his characters but as one reviewer noted there's an overarching male-gazey atmosphere which is off-putting. The female protagonist is actually raped twice by her husband and lover and we are told that it somehow fulfills her fantasies so to speak. Well from the 2020's this doesn't hold up. (Surely it didn't even hold up in the 70's!) There's a backstory from the Russian invasion in WW2 which apparently informs her reactions. In addition she somehow indulges in cocaine at a sanatorium where she is taking a break from her mental and physical problems. This comes out of nowhere and doesn't seem to have any relation to her story as it unfolded. So flawed in many ways, this novel was ultimately disappointing although at times thought provoking.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-02-13 00:00:00 Matthew Dempsey I appreciated the writing style and Judy as a character but it was a tad male gazey