Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo-Taylor Jenkins Reid Review
The plot is quite simple to retell. Monique, a newly hired journalist is requested to do an interview by the titural Evelyn Hugo, a popular Hollywood bomb shell. At first, Monique is under the impression that Evelyn is hiring her to write an exclusive interview ahead of Evelyn's charity sale of her dresses, but the truth is different. Instead, Evelyn opens up to Monique, for the first time publicly and tells her the story of a real person, not Hollywood creation. Here, readers learn who was her love, her past before she became her famous self as well as why she was married so many times. The plot jumps between Evelyn's story and Monique's present life, with intention to show how Evelyn's life impacts Monique's. The novel is also filled with a lot of newspaper articles and often skims or flies over certain parts of Evelyn's life. That is somewhat understandable as there was a lot of ground to cover in Evelyn's eventuful life, but I wish we learned more about Monique.
The two main
characters in the novel were arguably Evelyn and Monique. Overall, I
think that Evelyn is way more developed than Monique, which is not
surprising given that for the longest time in the novel, Monique is
simply a wessel through which Evelyn tells her story. It is only
through her connection with Evelyn that we learn more about her. What
I found quite jarring is the fact that Monique's race, or the fact
she is biracial, is mentioned quite unnaturally on pretty much the
same page. I found subsequent mentions of Monique's race quite
clumsily written, mostly there to indicate that because of her race
she still feels out of place. Without spoiling too much, her father's
race and his sexuality is also relevant for the big plot twist
towards the end of the novel. On the other hand, Evelyn is Cuban, but
white passing. I think that in Evelyn's case, this discussion of race
and white passing was a lot more sucessful, as it was not uncommon
for non white actresses in Hollywood to erase any traces of something
that could mark them as the 'other'. The other big topic that was
overall discussed better in the novel is that of sexuality and (not)
accepting LBGTQ people. It is a huge part of the novel and I really
believe that way more research and attention was paid to that aspect
of the novel.
Speaking of Evelyn's identity, at first, I was
uncomfortable with how sexualized all of her descriptions of her
were. But, as the time went on, I realized that this sexuality and
the way she used it are a huge part of her character and the way she
rose to the top. The more I learned about her story and horrible
background made me respect her more. Her strong and unapologetic
narrative paints a woman who knew exactly what she wanted and how to
get it. However, it is also a story of heartbreak and search for a
family after her real one was broken. Most of Evelyn's husbands are
described in not very flattering light,and with the exception of one,
are not very complex characters. I did not care too much about this
because this is Evelyn's story that she is telling under her
conditions, not that of her ex husbands, most of which simply used
her one way or another.
With all of that being said, I still
could not find too much depth in this novel. Due to the plot of the
novel, that of a dying actress from old Hollywood retelling her
story, everything was told to us, served on a silver platter. The big
plot twist at the end and the explanations as to why Evelyn chose
Monique to tell her story, out of all journalists available, were
somewhat surprising, but not as effective as the author might have
wanted it. Every emotion by the characters is not left for the reader
to understand or think about, but was simply explained in great
detail to us. I though the writing style was was quite sappy and
filled with cliches. A lot of thoughs and one liners Evelyn utters
during the novel were already said somewhere and not a lot of this
novel was original. Still, it was not entirely unenjoyable and it was
quite easy to read. After the last book I read which was Ishiguro's
heartbreaking 'Never Let Me Go', I needed something easy.
The
ending of the novel was also not entirely surprising, but given that
there was some hints left throughout the novel to indicate this could
happen, I was not upset by it. I will not spoil for you, but I will
just say that I liked that it was not all wrapped with a pretty
little bow. Instead, it was quite realistic and logical given
Evelyn's life story and her character overall. I just wish there was
more attention placed on Monique's story, especially the effects
meeting and engaging with Evelyn had on her. There was some mentions
of it, but I felt like Monique's life and her story left largely
unused and unspoken about.
At the end, I scored this book 3/5.
As I said, I completely understand the popularity of this book and
the author overall. I enjoyed it as an easy summer read, but I am
afraid it was not completely my cup of tea. If you are looking for
something like that, then maybe you will like it more than me.
What are your thoughts on this book? Did you read anything else by
Taylor Jenkins Reid? As usual, if I had missed something important,
let me know.
source:wikiwand.com
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