I’ve been staring at this page for the past ten minutes trying to find the words to express my love for this book. I guess that’s a good indication of the forthcoming review and the onset of post-read tears I’ll have when writing this.
“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” is another masterpiece by author Taylor Jenkins Reid, who also wrote the popular novels “Malibu Rising” and “Daisy Jones & The Six.” It follows Monique Grant, a journalist in New York City, as she interviews the old Hollywood icon Evelyn Hugo for a biography of her life. The perspectives switch between Monique and Evelyn, intertwining in ways one could never imagine when reading. Evelyn is determined to leave the world with nothing but the truth attached to her name, the truth she had refused to tell publicly until all those involved had passed away.
Evelyn is the most unlikable character I’ve had the pleasure of reading, yet you still wish her the best throughout the novel. As a queer woman, the thought of taking on all these husbands but really only wanting to be with the woman I love is a tragedy, which is where I empathized with Evelyn’s decisions the most. She made mistakes, she rarely apologized, but all her actions (or at least most of them) are understandable looking through the lens of a queer woman in the public eye.
Even more so, Evelyn’s use of her sexuality to get her what she wants is a perfect example of the likable characteristics of an unlikable character. She demonstrated that sexuality is not to be feared, is not something women should shy away from enjoying. Rather, she embraced the “sexpot” symbol old Hollywood gave her and stuck by it. Even after she became a mother, she refused to downplay her sexuality, more just to prove everyone wrong.
The hunger, the greed, the overbearing need for more than she had is what caused Evelyn’s downfall. Technically, she never had a traditional “downfall” as we see in much of popular culture today. But her fall from grace was so specific, so specialized to the idea of a woman in the spotlight running away from her happiness because of her need to keep that light on her. This is demonstrated in the resolution where Evelyn finally finds peace in her later years, out of the spotlight in Spain with her daughter and her lover.
Even with all the other factors that play into Evelyn’s character, there is nothing more tragic, more realistically cruel, than her being a bisexual woman and how those around her treated this part of her. In Evelyn’s youth and even into her middle-age, the world was incredibly unkind to queer folks. But even so, those in queer spaces were unfamiliar with any sort of sexuality spectrum, so the whole world believed in either straight or gay. This is shown in Celia’s treatment of Evelyn, where Evelyn says, “I was a lesbian when she loved me and a straight woman when she hated me.” Celia used Evelyn’s sexuality to her advantage, no matter the point she was trying to make, and it goes to show how misunderstood bisexual women are in society. To this day, people view bisexuality as either a stepping stone towards being gay or a phase until you find a nice, straight husband to settle down with. Evelyn knew this, she understood this, but she stayed true to herself through it all, even though her lover did not.
This review is reading a little more serious than my previous ones, but that’s how I feel about this book. I loved it, and, more importantly, I felt seen by it. I understood Evelyn’s pain, I felt the heartbreak in my soul, and I think it’s important to take the messages behind Evelyn’s story seriously. It’s hard to make light of something so personal, so meaningful to me.
All together, Reid shines a light on the impacts of greed and the heartbreaks of forbidden love in “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” in beautiful ways, infusing meaning in every word and truth in every sentence. I highly encourage reading this book, no matter your background.
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