There’s something delightfully addictive about Holly Gramazio’s fiction debut, The Husbands, a bottomless champagne flute of a novel (with no hangover) ... Your response to the ending of this exceptional novel may depend on your experience of partnered life. Or just life, full stop. Because in this world, one life is all we get. You have to stop, and start, somewhere.
The Husbands plays like a wildly entertaining variation on Groundhog Day ... One conclusion about a woman who rejects literally hundreds of spouses in her year-long round of speed marrying is that she doesn't want a husband. Gramazio allows for that possibility in Husbands, which she seems to have had a little trouble figuring out how to end.
One of the funniest debuts published in years ... What’s so clever about Gramazio’s Groundhog Day-like scenario is that it feels as if it contains infinite possibilities – that it is a much larger and looser fictional world than it really is. It’s a crafty illusion because at all times Gramazio is very much in control of the humour, however light and conversational her style appears to be.
Hilarious ... This delightful fantasy is both funny and philosophical as it asks readers to consider if a person can ever be sure if they have taken the right path or found the right spouse.
Charming ... Gramazio’s inventiveness and humor save the Groundhog Day–esque plot from tedious repetition ... Though Lauren’s drastic action near the novel’s conclusion feels a bit out of sync with the rest of the story, there’s plenty of intelligence and candor in the author’s creative spin on the conundrum of commitment.
