Hers

by Al Álvarez

Hers, A. Alvarez’s first novel, is a story of sexual jealousy and one woman’s icy pursuit of self-knowledge. Julie’s affair with a young student brings her face-to-face with her own sensuality, and forces her to rediscover her war-torn childhood in Nazi Germany. The ensuing drama is told with memorable force, written with all a poet’s sensitivity and visual effect.

218 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Alfred Alvarez was an English poet, novelist, essayist and critic who published under the name A. Alvarez and Al Alvarez.

Reviews

[Emily Talbot · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the writing style and Judy as a character but it was a tad male gazey

[Nicholas Beck · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Justine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just can't sympathise with rapists, no matter how much the author wants us to..

[Perry Whitford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Julie Stone is a young German woman who, losing her father in the Nazi persecutions, finds herself in post-war England, married to a successful professor and the mother of two children.

She enjoys the life of the campus, but the facts of her past and of her husband Charles's age, which is nearly twice hers, finally start to take their toll, leading her to an affair with a young student called Sam, which in turn leads all three to new thresholds in their life.

This is a very small story where you fancy that friends of Alvarez may have recognised themselves amongst the cast. There is some pathos surrounding the pompous, portly figure of Charles, but the young lovers Julie and Sam are for the most part dull and not particularly likable figures.

Julie's past is indistinct, and though the plot seems to chase it towards a personal resolution, ultimately this is superfluous to her unfaithfulness, or to the themes about generational divides.

A tepid, unsatisfying tale.

[Nedjie Joseph]

i dont understand..what is this book about?