The 7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo centers around Monique Grant, a writer working for a magazine called Vivant, getting assigned to interview a world-famous movie star, Evelyn Hugo, for a special piece about Evelyn's life. At that moment in time Monique is an average writer, and her boss, Frankie, didn't plan on giving her the interview until Evelyn asked for Monique specifically or she wouldn’t be doing the interview. Upon meeting Evelyn Hugo, Monique is stunned and careless with her words, but soon realizes she has to gather herself and appear up to the task, so that Evelyn can really count on her to tell her life’s story. What Hugo actually wants is for Monique to write a book – a completely honest and uncensored biography. Why Evelyn chose Monique is a mystery that slowly unravels while Evelyn tells the story of her rise to fame and how she ended up marrying 7 times. It is a missing puzzle that irrevocably connects the two of them. 

For the duration of that interview, which spanned days and days, Monique was sitting at the table in Evelyn’s office recording the conversation and taking notes. She spent hours and hours listening to Evelyn talk and only at night went back to her empty apartment. Having been recently divorced Monique found solace in working overtime and not having to think of her ex-husband, David, or the fact that he started texting her again. I was annoyed with Monique in the beginning because she seemed reckless with her words and a bit too eager to fill the gaps in Evelyn’s story with her own assumptions. Eventually, Monique started seeing Evelyn as a real person, not just the caricature Evelyn Hugo, which also lead to M. paying closer attention to what E. had to say and even getting some advice for herself out of that. When at home, M. would ponder her life and career and eventually come to the conclusions on how she wants to proceed in both aspects of her life. 

Evelyn is portrayed as an incredibly complex character and I’m here for it. It is important for Evelyn’s identity to state that she is Cuban and bisexual. Just like most other characters in the book, E. is written as a nuanced character. Her family wasn’t well off; her father was an abusive alcoholic, probably even molested her (that was a bit vague in the book so I’m not sure if it happened or was E. scared that it was going to happen); her mother died when she was young. All that led to her desperate need to get out of her hometown. E.’s first encounter with Ernie Diaz, her first husband, was a crucial moment in her life. That is when she realized how men see her and sexualize her, but also, she learned how to sexualize herself, which led to her using sex as a way of getting what she wanted. E. has always been stubborn and worked her ass off to get the life she wanted, and never let anyone take away that from her. She tells M. to portray her as a bad person, who was fame hungry, always put her self first, used others for her benefit, but I don’t see it as an entirely bad person. Nothing is ever black & white in life. One of her husbands is her long-time friend Harry Cameron, who worked as a producer on her films. She married him out of love, but also out of need to help him. Harry was a gay man in a time where that was a scary thing to be. E. understood what it means to hide your true self for your own good. They had a daughter together and that is a beautiful thing because it came from true and unconditional love. Their daughter Cameron was something that kept them glued together for 15 years. That was my favourite part of the book, and also, a favourite marriage. 

Another beautiful, heartwarming and heartbreaking thing is Evelyn and Celia’s relationship. They met on the set of filming Little Women. E. was being jealous and petty because Celia is more beautiful than her, but to her surprise Celia insisted on them becoming friends. That friendship slowly blossomed into a tumultuous relationship that lasted until Celia’s death. They had many fights and quarrels over the years, one of them finally leading to years long separation. I couldn’t get enough of them. They both are very hot-headed people. It wasn’t only E.’s fault; Celia could be incredibly harsh when she felt threatened or upset. Another thing that put a massive strain on their relationship is the raging homophobia in the times when they lived. They had to evade any suspicion from bystanders because their careers could be ruined or they could end up in a mental hospital. During those difficult times, most of their disputes were about that exact thing.

 

This book truly surprised me. I didn’t expect to be so captivated by it even though I heard many positive reviews. The writing is good, the pacing is good, it is an exciting and emotional read. The characters are lovely and realistic. The atmosphere was rich (literally). I usually don’t like reading about rich people, but I had no problems with this book. The representation of bisexuality made me really happy. Evelyn’s erasure of Cuban identity is something to consider when doing an in-depth analysis of her character. I’m sure I will reread this book many times in life. Taylor Jenkins Reid, thank you.