Cover from publisher's website, Simon and Schuster
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Taylor Jenkins Read
I came across Taylor Jenkins Read probably about six months ago when I fell in love with ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’. It was the story of a music star, Daisy Jones, and was set in a historical setting. It was brilliant and it made you absolute certain it was all real. It wasn’t, that’s why it’s called fiction.
As a New York Times awarded winning writer, it make sense then that the newspaper I read on the weekend did a write-up of her most recent novel, ‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’. I read the blurb and knew I had to read this one. It followed the same premise of Daisy Jones – the fictional story of a celebrity, and an intimate look into their life. I guess as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I was hooked on the idea of giving this one a whirl.
However, as I was getting through it, I was a bit mixed. I felt it was a bit flat in places and didn’t do what I wanted. Sure, it was intimate, as an elderly Evelyn Hugo – one of the most famous Hollywood stars of the 1950s and into the 1970s. She tells her life story, and outlines her ambition and ruthlessness which led her to the top. She recognises her marriages are publicity stunts and for convenience – and they all work, as the novel is punctuated with fictional news reports speculating on the celebrity’s life.
There is a sense of progressiveness going on in the novel, and it felt a little forced at times – as Evelyn Hugo, despite having seven husbands, had a multi-decade relationship with Celia St James – and this same sex relationship caused significant tension in the narrative.
Plot Overview (Spoilers galore!).
Evelyn Hugo lived in a poor housing commission in New York when she was young, and her mother died when she was only young. Her mother had the intention to be an actress one day, and in her absence, Evelyn follows through on this. Evelyn developed a significant chest at an early age, and she used her body and sexuality to manipulate boys from an early age. This led to her first marriage, as she lied about her age to a neighbour who was headed to Hollywood to work on lighting on sets. On arriving in Hollywood, Evelyn set out to get to work in the film industry – and after being an extra in a number of films, she makes demands of one of the Hollywood executives who would become her lifelong friend, Harry.
Harry gets her to colour her hair blond, and dresses her up, building a character for her to play in her own real life. It was an image based on her ample breasts and their allure and Evelyn details how she dated many other actors, using them to boost her own profile, until she ultimately wed Hollywood hunk, Don Adler. The marriage boosted her profile, but didn’t last as she was often the victim of domestic abuse. On leaving the marriage, she was ‘blacklisted’ from Hollywood – yet she went to France and re-invented her star, returning to America as an international celebrity and ready to again work towards winning her Oscar.
She also started to develop her same-sex relationship with Celia St James, who she would call the love of her life. It was a relationship which was hidden, given the historical context of the 1950s – and to maintain her façade, Evelyn had to continue to have relationships with men. On falling pregnant, Celia left the relationship, unable to remain from being jealous of Evelyn’s other suitors.
Over time, Celia had her own false marriage to a footballer, John, who was also using the marriage to protect his own reputation. Simultaneously, Evelyn marries her close friend, Harry Martin – and they eventually have a child. In a ‘swinging’ kind of way, Harry and John have a significant relationship, and Evelyn and Celia continues theirs. But as seems to happen in this novel, relationships don’t last – and ultimately, John dies and Celia moves away when Evelyn agreed to film a sex scene with her former husband Don Adler in her newest film.
Evelyn then progresses through additional marriages, all of which continue to boost her career. However, with the death of Harry, Evelyn and Celia move to Spain with Evelyn’s daughter Connor. There, Evelyn marries her final husband, Celia’s brother! This would allow the brother to inherit her estate, and enable Evelyn to manage her legacy. In the final years in Spain, Evelyn knows that Celia will die of emphysema. It seems that both death and marriage are the only constants in this book, and I have to confess, both the death of Harry in a car accident, and Celia, were incredibly well written and I found myself brought to tears – honestly, you develop such a strong relationship with Evelyn, and you feel her grief so profoundly in these pages.
Moving back to New York following Celia’s passing, Evelyn is then confronted by the death of her daughter, as she nurses her through breast cancer. Celia’s brother also passes and Evelyn is left all alone.
But wait, there’s more!
OK – so I’ve recounted the plot in a linear fashion of Evelyn’s life, but the novel’s structure is far more complicated, as Evelyn has hired Monique Grant to write her own novel. Monique is an unknown writer and was seemingly plucked from obscurity – but Evelyn has given her this gift of the biography, and told her to sell it for no less than $12,000,000!
The novel then is Evelyn telling her story to Monique, while she is actually telling the audience. But at the conclusion of each day, Monique has to go through her own daily grind and her own divorce. There is also the revelation that Monique, like Evelyn, lost her own father at a young age. It seemed an incidental detail at the start of the novel, but at the end, it’s key.
You see, Evelyn makes the revelation that while her own love of her life was Celia, and her best friend was Harry – it seems Harry found love as well, with… you guessed it, Monique’s father! (Ok, it got a bit Jerry Springer at this point). Evelyn produces a letter from James Grant (Monique’s father) to Harry, telling him that while he loved him and felt no passion for his wife, that he had to stay with his family for the love of his daughter. Now – while I said that Harry died in a car accident, the truth is, he was driving the car which also killed James. Evelyn, on coming across the car outside of Harry’s home, took Harry from the car to the hospital, and placed the unknown passenger, James, into the driver’s seat. This was done out of love for Harry, who Evelyn believed she was shielding from any accusation of manslaughter or other controversy if he happened to live.
And then, the novel moves to its final pages. It is revealed that Evelyn’s best asset – her breasts, would ultimately be her downfall, as she was in late stages of breast cancer. She remarks that she is all alone in the world, and that she has lost absolutely everyone she loves. She didn’t see the point in life, and so as the novel is finished being recorded by Monique, Evelyn overdoses on pills – of course allowing Monique to publish the biography to reap significant financial rewards.
But it does raise the question: was Evelyn just buying off Monique, for having been implicit in covering up the circumstances of the death of her father. Monique recognises her evil qualities, but then she also recognises that Evelyn kept the letter for over thirty years – and she didn’t have to, she could have let the secret die, but she had thought it important that Monique knew her father had loved her, more than his own desire for true love in a partner.
Evaluation:
I know, I know – it’s all a bit too much. And, it actually was.
This is a best-selling novel in Australia (and around the world). I think this is largely because the cover captures the idea of being quite mysterious in an art-deco kind of setting. I assumed she may have murdered the seven husbands, or the novel would have focused more on her ruthless ambition – but instead, what’s offered is all just a bit too much.
I think on this one I’m going to call the critics wrong. This isn’t a 10/10, at best, perhaps I’d give it a 5.5/10. Read it for the relationship you form with Evelyn – because that’s special, but something about this one felt a bit far fetched, largely concerning Celia.
But, each to their own.