Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

The Husbands (Knopf Doubleday, 2024), debut novel by Holly Gramazio, a writer and video game designer, is an interesting read. I waited for quite some time to get a copy from my local library. I read it quickly, but it’s taken me several days to decide what I want to say about it in this book review.

First of all, it is well written. I have thought a lot about how the author organized herself while writing this book. Did she have a master Excel spreadsheet? Did she have old-school 3×5 index cards? Or, as the main character Laurel and her friend Bohai do in the story, did she use post-it notes stuck all over a wall? As I study the art of writing a novel (which is a nice way of saying I’m spending more time reading about writing a novel than actually writing my novel), I have seen various writers I follow on social media utilize all of these methods. I am very curious as to what method Gramazio used because, whoo boy, did she have a lot to keep track of!

This book falls neatly into the genre of magical realism, although it is advertised as humorous fiction and contemporary romance as well. I personally don’t see it as humorous fiction. Yes, there were some funny moments, but for me the underlying theme of this book was not funny.

Maybe it’s because I was born smack dab in the middle of the Baby Boomer generation and Gramazio is a Millennial. Maybe it’s because I view things from the lens of a woman about to celebrate her 36th wedding anniversary. Maybe it’s because I forgot it was a book of fiction I was reading and started thinking of Lauren as a real live person making real live decisions. But, then, there’s the evidence that this book is well written. I had trouble separating myself from Lauren and the decisions she continued to make throughout the book.

As for genre, I also don’t get the contemporary romance label either. For me, it really was the opposite of romance. Author Gramazio has said that the concept for this novel came about while sitting with friends “swiping left or right” on dating apps. Yes or no to each photo/profile in the plethora of choices, so many fish in the sea.

While reading this book, I kept thinking about two movies that I really loved, Sliding Doors (1998) starring Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah, and Groundhog Day (1993) starring Andie MacDowell and Bill Murray. Both of these films involve magical realism and deal with the possibilities of a life having several different paths it can take.

In an interview with NBC Today when The Husbands was the April 2024 pick for the Read with Jenna Book Club, Gramazio said,

“Every decision you make is giving up on other possibilities. We often have an urge to keep as many doors open as we can, even at the cost of going through one much nicer than this hallway.” Gramazio also said that she doesn’t believe in the concept of there being a single right person for everyone. She believes in the concept of “several possibilities.”

Hmmm…

During the summer of 1987, when I had “chased” my husband-to-be long enough for him to notice me, I clearly felt that he was “the one.” Once he opened his eyes (lol) and really noticed me, he also felt this way. The rest, as they say, is history, a very good history. Yes, there have been bumps in the road, but all in all, very smooth sailing for us. Two daughters, two countries, two houses, and for me two careers, and we are still dead certain we were “the one” for each other. Even being both retired now, and together literally 24/7/365, we are (for the most part, lol) very happy in each other’s company.

Another thing that kept popping up in my mind while I read The Husbands was a book that I read in June of 2021, The Midnight Library (Canongate Books, 2020) by Matt Haig. In an interview about a difficult time in his life, Haig stated that he wished he had “more of a religious framework.” He went on to say that books are his one true faith, and the library is his church. His novel The Midnight Library centers around main character Nora who is caught between life and death, this limbo being represented by a library holding millions of books containing different paths her life could have taken had she made certain different choices along the way. She returns again and again to the library to get another book when the life she has chosen doesn’t work out as she would have liked.

Okay, I’ve thought about this before. If I had not been able to get the attention of my husband-to-be in 1987, where would I be now? Probably still living in my native Louisiana, definitely would not have had the experience of living overseas for two years, doubtful that I would have given up a legal career for a second career in education. Would I have found someone else to marry and have children with?

Here is where I differ from both Holly Gramazio’s character Lauren and Matt Haig’s character Nora. At the very core of my existence, I am a Christian, and I fully believe that my life as I have lived it has been in God’s hands. Yes, I have free will, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that I knew my future mother-in-law for years before I ever met her youngest son, and that the very first thing she gleefully told him when he said he was dating me was, “Michelle Blanchard, MY FRIEND Michelle Blanchard?” (True story.)

In The Husbands, Lauren doesn’t know what she wants; she only knows what she doesn’t want. As each husband enters her world, she makes a decision to keep him or send him back to the magic attic and get another choice. Her likes and dislikes of these men are often immature and unreasonable. As she goes through one husband after another, the only constants in her life are her sister Natalie (although Natalie’s life does change in some timelines), her friend Elena, whose life remains static, and neighbors Toby and Maryam, who stay the same throughout, even when a huge decision that upsets Lauren could potentially change in a new timeline. For a while she has Bohai to commiserate with, but even that changes. She grows weary of the decision-making and the never-ending change.

Both Haig’s novel and The Husbands remind me of the very popular Choose Your Own Adventure children’s series of books published between 1979 and 1998. My daughters loved those books. Being young and feeling as though they had no power or say in how their own lives unfolded, these books were exciting. As they grew older and matured, they grew out of those books, grew out of the never-ending possibilities given the different choices made along the way. Much like, Lauren and Nora, they didn’t need the constant change anymore.