The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a 2017 novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The same author would go on to release Daisy Jones and the Six, which is the basis for the ongoing Amazon Prime series of the same name. Evelyn Hugo itself is primed for a Netflix adaptation, with Anya Taylor-Joy rumored to be in the lead. Both novels feature a strong woman navigating celebrity culture throughout different points in history, a signature of Reid’s latter works (other entries being Malibu Rising and Carrie Soto is Back). Aside from the strong feminist undertone, all four novels offer an in-depth look into the cutthroat world of celebrities and the price of fame and are set in the same universe, with characters intersecting across books. Still, Evelyn Hugo remains the brightest star among them all.
The novel finds the eponymous character – an actress from Hollywood’s Golden Age – as an aging screen legend looking to release her first-ever autobiography. At 79, Evelyn is known equally for her Oscar-winning career as for her seven marriages. It is pretty easy to guess that her character is based on real-life Hollywood legend and serial marrier Elizabeth Taylor, with a dash of Rita Hayworth thrown in.
To everyone’s surprise, Evelyn picks Monica Grant, an unknown reporter, to write her memoir. Though reticent at first, Monica eventually seizes the opportunity of a lifetime. Through their interviews, we get transported into Evelyn’s life during the studio system’s heyday, her turbulent love life, and everything in between. It’s a lot of glam but also a lot of Hollywood seediness. Evelyn’s gone through every high and low, and we’re in it for the entire ride.
In her own way, Reid is a master storyteller with a keen understanding of her characters, big or small. To start off, Reid’s writing doesn’t have the most flowery prose or quotable moments. Instead, she writes really efficiently, with just enough detail to establish settings and characters. She also infuses the story with well-researched tidbits from Old Hollywood, giving Evelyn’s journey more dimension and readers more juicy revelations to relish.
We follow Evelyn from her humble beginning as a poor immigrant woman, the first marriage she used to escape her abusive father, having to hide her Latina roots to work as an actress, her ascendancy to film stardom, and the revolving door of love in her life. Throughout the entire thing, a question hangs in the air: who is the true love of her life? The answer is, at once, complex and yet startlingly simple.
The book chapters are broken down into each of her marriages, all the way until near the present timeline of the interviews. The longer we go, the clearer we get a portrait of Evelyn with all her contradictions. She’s no angel and never pretends to be. That makes her a fascinating albeit flawed figure whose life story you won’t be able to put down until the very end.
