Another book plucked from my shelves that must have been sitting there for at least 20 years. Alvarez was the poetry editor and critic for the Observer newspaper for a ten year period 1956-66 and editor of the well received [The New poetry] in 1962. A poet himself he has also a noted essayist and it is perhaps a little strange that his novels appear to be overlooked. There are 12 people listed on LibraryThing as owning a copy of "Hers"; a novel from 1974 and there are no reviews.

"Hers" tells the story of Julie and the men in her life. She spent her childhood in war torn Germany but at the start of the novel we find her married to Charles a professor at a University somewhere in the Midlands of England. Although Julie is thirty and has two children she looks much younger and is an attraction to many of the students who attend her husbands summer school. She has always resisted her husbands students advances, until she falls for Sam and the affair leads to a crisis in her own marriage and she becomes unwell. She travels back to Germany to a clinic/retreat near where she spent her childhood to undertake a cure and perhaps to exorcise the ghosts from her past. Sam follows her to Germany………..

A Alvarez writes clearly and intelligently and is on home ground when describing Charles and his attempts to make his way in the academic world, having come from a working class background. He is also very good in capturing the character of Julie a woman caught between two worlds and a lost childhood. His descriptive writing is also very fine and he is excellent when writing about sex, never overplaying his hand but giving readers enough detail to imagine the scenes taking place. The story is a decent one and although not page turning material it did lead this reader to care about the characters and to wonder how it would end. Themes explored are: differences in the age of married partners, mid life crisis, alienation, the rapid urbanisation of the nineteen seventies and challenges from a new feckless class of young people.

This is a good novel that does not break any new ground, but errs on the right side of literature with its intelligence and thoughtfulness. Unjustly overlooked in my opinion although the front cover seems to be an attempt to lure the less discerning reader (me for instance). Merits a good 3.5 stars. ( )