The Husbands

The Husbands

Holly Gramazio

Enjoyment: 2.0Quality: 3.5Characters: 2.0Plot: 2.5
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5 ratings • 1 reviews

An exuberant debut, The Husbands delights in how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options? When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years. As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actually living?


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  • Enjoyment: 2.0Quality: 3.5Characters: 2.0Plot: 2.5
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    The premise is amazing - you get a husband from the attic, and anytime you want you can send him back up and get a brand new one. This was ripe for philosophical discourse on love and toughing it out and discovering what "the one" really means. In practice we got literally hundreds of husbands with zero investment in the vast majority of them. Each husband was named and dedicated a few sentences to a few paragraphs - and I couldn't bring myself to care. I knew he would get sent back up the attic in a page or two! I was also disappointed that Lauren's reasoning behind sending the men back into the attic wasn't explored; she didn't like someone's nose or his shirt was weird and she just sent him back up. This would have been fine for a few husbands, but the lack of depth became ridiculous after a while. I ended up skimming the last quarter of the book and didn't miss much.

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