The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, pt. 1: the Purview

By Taylor Jenkins Reid (linked to her website)

This is unlike any review I have ever written. Because this book is unlike any I have ever read. I want to do it justice. It is truly magnificent and rich in detail and heart. That is why I am writing one review to encourage you to read it and a second for you to read afterward. You know, once you finish crying.

Here’s the story...

Evelyn Hugo was a star and she knew it. She decided what she wanted and did whatever was necessary to get it. She escaped her abusive father when she was 14 by marrying her ticket out of town. She went to Hollywood to make it big, knowing it wouldn’t be easy, not having any idea just how difficult it would be.

Evelyn Hugo was a star. She started making movies in the 1950s and stayed center stage for decades. She made herself into an icon. In doing this, she became known for something in addition to her her beauty and her acting: her many husbands.

The book starts with an auction. Evelyn is auctioning off some of her most adored dresses to raise money for charity and might let Vivant magazine interview about her. Maybe. If they send Monique Grant.

But, who is Monique Grant? No one, as far as Monique knows. She’s a writer who hopes to become someone, but she doesn’t think she’s there, yet. She isn’t known. Certainly not by superstars. Certainly not known and requested by superstars.

Her boss doesn’t understand. She calls her new hire, Monique, and tells her about the email she received (suspiciously). Essentially: Evelyn Hugo wants you. Why? Why would she want you?

This isn’t because she doesn’t like Monique or doesn’t think she is a good writer. She simply isn’t very experienced and there are many writers at the magazine who are. Big names! So she wonders. The first chapter ends with the following conversation between them:

“I’m just saying that you’re talented. It might be that,” [her boss says.]

“It’s probably not though.”

“No,” she says. “It’s probably not. But write this story well and next time it will be.”

Evelyn Hugo was a star with a life everyone knew about and now, at 86, she wants to tell everyone how very wrong they were.

On one condition.

Her story would either be written by Monique Grant or it would die with her.

And she wasn’t going to tell anyone why.

“All right,” [Monique] says. “Show me the real you, then. And I’ll make sure the world understands” (ch. 5, p. 38).

Content warnings for the book: child abuse, domestic abuse, homophobia and biphobia, mention of abortion, alcoholism, terminal illness, the controversy of the "right-to-life" and suicide.

My Expectations

I thought I was reading a murder mystery. I saw "seven husbands" and thought, well, she had to get rid of them somehow.

I have never judged a book so poorly.

This story was so vivid, so bold, so real I couldn’t think of anything by Evelyn Hugo for days. I can’t stop thinking about her character and how she must have felt. There is a moment in which Evelyn talks about movies and she puts into words how I feel about books, “In general, we can almost never shake what we see with our eyes” (ch. 34, p. 219, pp. 2).

Reid dunks your head into the water of Evelyn’s story, icy with secrets, before pulling you back up for a breath. Monique’s perspective is a breath. And then it’s back to the cold water.

Evelyn tells Monique every dirty detail of her life. She tells her story without making it pretty. She doesn’t want to make herself sound good because she wasn’t always good. She made mistakes. She hurt people. Even icons are human.

You will hate her, at times. She did unforgivable things. She is ruthless. She is also loving and passionate and scarred and broken and beautiful and you will understand.

What to listen to while reading

I highly recommend listening to Taylor Swift’s albums folklore and evermore while reading this book. Take care, you're at risk for putting “the last great american dynasty” on repeat and somehow ending on on "champagne problems."

See more music I've connect to the book in “Evelyn Hugo, Part 3: Reading Playlist."

Related media

In this video, The New York Times follows Dr. Nadia Tremonti, a pediatric palliative care physician. In “This Doctor Wants to Humanize Death | Op-Docs” Dr. Tremonti talks about the control we have over death (deciding to stay at home, for example) and all that we cannot control, as well what things make life meaningful. I won't lie, it’s hard to watch. It feels fitting as it came up on my "reccomended" Youtube page right when I started this book.

On a much lighter note, “The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Mirrors” serves as further proof we are all just crows with anxiety.

I quote "Ways of Seeing" in part 2. It is a "1972 BBC four-part television series of 30-minute films created chiefly by writer John Berger and producer Mike Dibb" that I plan to look into. "Berger's scripts were adapted into a book of the same name. The series and book criticize traditional Western cultural aesthetics by raising questions about hidden ideologies," ("Ways of Seeing," Wikipedia).