Book Review: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo — Taylor Jenkins Reid
I am a movie buff and a theatre fanatic, so gossips and scandals just amp up my drama experience with ruffles. If ruffles are your thing, then get ready to enter into the world of glitzy, glamorous and scandalous Hollywood through 5 decades.
Plot
At 79, Hollywood's former starlet Evelyn Hugo who outlived all her husbands is ready to tell her true story of her life as an actress, the secrets behind her seven marriages and more. She chooses an unknown journalist Monique Grant for this lucrative task. Initially baffled by this sudden road to success, Monique reluctantly walks into the glamorous mansion of Evelyn not knowing what to expect. As elusive as her persona, Evelyn keeps her mystery about who her true love was and why she chose Monique unanswered for most of her narrative. Only towards the end of the story, do we find out how Evelyn's life crosses with Monique’s heartbreakingly.
The most compelling thing about the writing style is how real the characterization of the main character Evelyn is. She is complex and flawed, putting her somewhere in between a protagonist and an antagonist. Evelyn fulfilled both roles deftly. She appears to be more human than the picture-perfect version painted by the tabloids. Almost all characters in the book are flawed, and they are unapologetically thrown together.
Evelyn Hugo is a force to reckon with, sharing several traits of Hollywood icons like the blond Marlyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor who married 8 times and evergreen Audrey Hepburn, to name a few. It is so fascinating to see how adeptly Evelyn manipulates the tabloids with the timings of her stories and scandals to favour her popularity and boost her movie sales.
While I was getting mesmerized by the complex and captivating diva and her complicated relationships, I almost forgot the other narrator of the story Monique who appears like a shadow behind Evelyn. She does have a backstory (as a biracial, soon-to-be divorcee) which could have been given more attention, but it was left unfinished.
The presence of sexual exploitation in Hollywood for career advancement and racism and sexism does not come as a surprise to the backstory of Evelyn's life. The book openly explores the life of the LGBTQ community in Hollywood at that time.
Some profound lines from Evelyn-
“People think that intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth"
"Relationships are complex. People are messy, and love can be ugly. I’m inclined to always err on the side of compassion."
"Sometimes pain is something stronger than the need to keep appearances"
There are several plot twists which make this a very enthralling read and the book has a befitting ending for the unforgettable Evelyn Hugo.
-Preethi