Customer Reviews

Hell Hath No Fury: Women's Letters from the End of the Affair

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book contains, as described, letters from women to their partners at the end of the relationships. Some of the letters are laugh-out-loud funny, some poignant, some sad, some cruel, some pathetic and desperate. Some of the letters were written hundreds of years ago, and if you like classic literature, you will really enjoy the writing that comes directly from the hearts of women such as Anais Nin, Charlotte Bronte and Simone de Beauvoir. The letters are divided into categories such as "The Tell-Off", "The 'Just Friends'" and "The Divorce Letter". In each chapter, the letters are arranged chronologically, so if you are looking for a light, amusing read, you can flip to the middle of each chapter and read the more contemporary letters. Not all of the letter-writers are famous women. In fact, one of the leters was found lying on a sidewalk, its author never positively identified. I would recommend this book to someone who really enjoys reading, and enjoys the voyeurism of the peek into what is often the most interesting part of a relationship- its end.

Being, like the reviewer called Kim, interested in the epistolary genre, I eagerly purchased "Hell Hath No Fury". Like her, I found it extremely rewarding in some aspects, disappointing in others. The editor is an amateur (she admits that she knew nothing about the history of women's letters before undertaking this project), which may account for some of the flaws in this otherwise engaging book. Some of the letters could certainly have been dispensed with. Tanya's letter, with its tiresome stream of abuse (come on! do we really need to read about her boyfriend performing oral sex on her right after she had finished having sex with another man?) was gratuitous obscenity, but Leigh L.'s was something even worse, revealing racism and a nastiness which I personally found disgusting ("I guess that's what comes with being a good Jewish girl in bed with a Mexican", "thanks for letting me take your Panamanian virginity away" - you get the style; however, for a "good girl", she does seem to have been sleeping around a bit, and anyway, what exactly is a "Panamanian virginity" like?).

If you can overlook this sort of trash, and those letters that simply are not interesting enough, you may find some worthwhile - and occasionally moving - pieces. I deeply identified with Kate Christensen's frustration at her relationship with John, having felt exactly the same impotence and wretchedness when faced with my then-boyfriend's utter lack of understanding or respect for my beliefs and feelings. I also enjoyed the 63-year-old woman's letter to the man she had met on the internet - although I'm much younger, I could identify with what she felt. And the historical as well as some of the literary letters are a delight.

Another drawback that I found was the unusual, extremely high number of typographical errors, which made me wonder if I might not have been reading an uncorrected copy. But the good quality of the paper and altogether nice edition sort of made up for that :)

All in all, it's an enjoyable book (even if it's so uneven as to make you wonder why some of the letters are featured at all) and I read it through in only a few days because of its historical and emotional interest. I suggest you get a used copy - even though it'll probably make a fun read, I don't think it's worth buying new.

While some of the letters in this book are disturbing and intense, I disagree with the reviewer who says that the book is sickening. There are many loving letters as well as cruel ones, and the loving ones WAY outnumber the cruel ones. And the arrangement of the letters in the book is proof that we all react to breakups differently...some more maturely than others.

Not that I am a bitter person :) but this book is so refreshing to read when a relationship has gone badly. Everyone can relate to a relationship that has ended. This book is so enlightening as it places many different letters from healthy and the not so healthy relationships in one place. This book is refreshing in the sense that you can see the bad points in your relationship and move on. Giving you a wide range of author's this book gives you a large canvas to view relationships and their demise from. Some letters are from famous ladies, and the others are not so famous. I think the value of this is walking away with the knowledge that life goes on without that particular person in your life. All in all a book that evokes sympathy, laughter, and a tear or two.

I loved this book! It is funny, sad, heart-wrenching, depressing, disturbing, uplifting, and causes you to re-think all of your relationships, spouse/partner-wise and others. No matter what personal relationship hell you have been through, it will make you realize that you are not alone, others have been through it as well, and it will leave you some great templates for expressing your feelings.

For anyone who has been betrayed and looking for the resource book on just how to cope - this will help.

This isn't classic literature. It isn't even good literature. If that is what you are looking for, this isn't for you. But if you have been betrayed, dumped, or just plain used, you will love hearing how these folks have expressed their rage in similar instances.

This book was insightful and inspiring! If you've ever been disappointed in love, take heart! You are not alone. These letters, notes and emails impart an eloquent understanding of the "break-up" phenomenon. From past to present, the entries are poignant, funny and emotional - all are affirming to anyone who has been in a similar situation.

This book is simply a lot of fun to flip through. It's a neat way to see a different side of famous figures, ranging from Lady Mary Wortley Montagu to George Sand to Dorothy Sayers to Anne Boleyn, Mary Wollstonecraft, Charlotte Bronte... I was impressed with the sheer range of figures represented. It's an addictive read.

Hell Hath No Fury is a collection of letters written by women and the end of a relationship. The letters are grouped by themes starting with the fantastically gritty "tell-off" letter, some of these got very nasty. Two categories I thought stood out were the autopsy letter (the letter where we dissect everything that went wrong with the relationship) as well as the unsent letter.

There are MANY letters in this book and at least half of them are snoozers or too desperate-sounding to be enjoyable reading.

There are some absolute gems, though, especially some of the historical figures including a letter from Anne Boleyn (in the tower awaiting trial) to King Henry VIII. I also enjoyed the letters from Zelda, Sylvia Plath, and Sandra Bernhardt. The book is practical for subway commuting since most letters are at most a few pages long.

Being interested in the epistolatory writing genre for several years now (e.g. Ovid's Heroides, the Heloise and Abelard letters), I thought this book might be an interesting read - shedding light on not only the emotions at the 'end of the affair', but on the lives of the many women - Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth I to name a few - whose missives are included here. The chapters are divided according to the type of letter written - Refusal of Marriage letter, the Autopsy letter, the Divorce letter, etc. While many of the letters could fall into several catagories, it's an effective organizational device. Many of the letters by famous women were unfamiliar to me, so that was a nice bonus. I didn't realize when I purchased the book, however, that many of the letters included are from modern day, ordinary women. Now, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with this concept at all - mixing 'historical' letters with contemporary letters (and emails). Provided the emotional and literary quality is on par - which might be wishful thinking, but wish it I did. Unfortunately, I found that many of the contemporary letters are amateurish and immature, often ineffectively vulgar, and poorly written. I'm sure the emotions are sincere, but that is not a justification for publication. While reading some of these modern letters might cause the reader to think "I'm not alone, other women have gone through this too" - which I am sure is the aim of the book - I just ended up thinking that I could outwrite and better express myself and my emotions more than most of the contemporary women included in this book. Not to say that all the contemporary letters are horribly bad - the 63 year old administrative assistant in North Carolina wrote an interesting letter about the end of her affair with a man who appeared not to know what he wanted - she's no Sylvia Plath, but her letter was not filled with variations of the F word, and did not involved the immature, unclever put downs and vengeful-ness of some of the 20 year olds featured in this book. Perhaps that's the key -age brings with it maturity - or perhaps real talent does, as the letter from a 16 year old Anne Sexton or the letter from a 19-20 year old Sylvia Plath reads as more mature than some recent letters from women in their late 20's, 30's and older. Or perhaps the difference is that society has changed - it seems more acceptable today to express yourself like a foul mouthed harridan than in yesteryear. Please don't mistake my criticism of these letters for the notion that women should not express their anger and their feelings. They most certainly should. I would just prefer they express it in a mature, creative, clever way, if I am going to pay money to read about it. Since there seem to be more 'historical' letters than 'contemporary' letters, I still recommend this book to women who want to read how others coped with the end of their affairs. And I would caution readers that if they are reading this book for ideas to use in their own letters, they might want to follow better examples than Tanya of the Methadone Clinic.

Get over it.
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This inability to do so may go far in explaining the recent studies and the curiously overlooked criminal justice statistics that report men are killed twice as often as women due to family violence and the number one motive reported for female on female and female on male violence? Jealousy.

In a world in which we turn our backs on Black males[who are at 8 times greater risk of being the *victim* of a violent crime than they're White female counterparts], we seem compelled to "rescue" and creatively excuse nearly every act of female aggression and violence, even towards each other, perhaps it's neither "Hell" we should worry about facing nor even the wrath of the jilted and hopelessly insecure, petty, delusional, and dependent women overwhelmingly featured in this sophomoric collection of impulsivity, resentment, and misandry; it is ourselves. But then again, culpability is something these women never seem to grasp. If only they could, maybe, just maybe, they could just move on and somehow manage to do so without harming others in the process.


AX~