Books Set in North America; United States, Hollywood, California and New York, New York

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2017)

 

Seventy-nine-year-old Evelyn Hugo, a former Hollywood star, is determined to tell the world her life story only if young-and-coming writer Monique Grant writes the book.  Monique is a relatively unknown magazine writer and her boss reluctantly agrees to allow Monique to work with Hugo for an exclusive in the magazine.  Monique agrees to meet daily with Evelyn as Evelyn recounts her true life story.

 

Evelyn Hugo grew up as Evelyn Herrera in Hell’s Kitchen but was determined to become an actress.  Her first husband, Ernie Diaz, whom she married as a young teen, was her vehicle out of Hell’s Kitchen.  Ernie was a former neighbor with dreams of Hollywood, so Evelyn hitched a ride with him to realize her dreams.  The marriage was short-lived, but Evelyn quickly learned to trade her sexuality to climb the ladder into the movies.  Her life becomes a fabric of lies.  Her next husband is her co-star, Don Adler, who soon becomes physically abusive.  When he leaves her, he takes steps to ruin her career.  After a couple of years, Evelyn remakes herself making avant-garde films in Europe.  Her star rises again along with another marriage, and another, and another.

 

As Evelyn marries and divorces, it is apparent that her marriages are all shams.  She marries because the studio wants her to, she marries to cover-up her true feelings and sexuality, she marries for show.  Early in her career, Evelyn met a young starlet, Celia St. James, whom she mentors, then falls in love with.  As I read this novel, I couldn’t help thinking of some of the movie stars from this era who had multiple marriages and wonder how much of this novel rings true to the causes behind their marriages.

 

We know very little about Monique other than she is of mixed race – her father, who died when she was 7, was black and her mother is white.  Spoiler: near the end of the book, we learn just why Evelyn selected Monique to write her life story.  Monique’s father was the love of one of Evelyn’s husband.

This novel portrays a very jaundiced view of Hollywood in the 1950s and ‘60s.  It kept my interest, however.

 

Read: November 9, 2021

 

4 Stars