The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: glamour and daring sexuality

a solid 8.3/10

A Netflix movie for The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is in the works, and this book absolutely deserves to be made into a bombshell of a movie. The movie will be visual, dramatic, and stunning (in the gowns Evelyn auctions off, in her iconic eras over the decades, the allure of the silver screen, and her tumultuous love affairs). Evelyn Hugo’s skyrocket into fame is visual, herself bedazzling the camera as a paragon of glamour and daring sexuality.

Evelyn Hugo is an extraordinarily complex character, to say the least — she plunges into the double standards of a successful feminine icon, unapologetically claiming everything she desires, fully aware of her assets, knowing that she is capable of winning the game when in her court, and at moments, unkind, selfish, and manipulative.

“I was being designed to be two opposing things, a complicated image that was hard to dissect but easy to grab on to. I was supposed to be both naive and erotic. It was as if I was too wholesome to understand the unwholesome thoughts you were having about me.

It was bullshit, of course. But it was an easy act to put on. Sometimes I think the difference between an actress and a star is that the star feels comfortable being the very thing the world wants her to be. And I felt comfortable appearing both innocent and suggestive.”

She uses her sexual appeal as a strategic pawn to advance her career, and in a sense that sexual agency affords her opportunities. But she hasn’t learned this the easy way, but chooses to put all her eggs into the basket, when life twists her elbows and refuses to go her way. Life is cruel to Evelyn in many ways, and she decides to play some cruel cards back. She understands that kindness is never guaranteed, and that in many cases, people and actions are merely means to ends.

Evelyn also grapples with the societal expectation of motherhood imposed on her as a public figure but refuses to sacrifice her ambition, her figure, or her independence in the midst of a failing marriage. She crafts a public persona that embodied femininity and glamour, all while concealing her true identity and the one true love of her life.

“So I’m a pawn.”

“Everyone’s a pawn. Don’t go around taking things personally now when you never have before.”

“Nobody deserves anything,” Evelyn says. “It’s simply a matter of who’s willing to go and take it for themselves. And you, Monique, are a person who has proven to be willing to go out there and take who has proven to be willing to go out there and take what you want. So be honest about that. No one is just a victim or a victor. Everyone is somewhere in between. People who go around casting themselves as one or the other are not only kidding themselves, but they’re also painfully unoriginal.”

Her philosophy is clear.

I like reading Taylor Jenkins Reid. I like how she bases these very complex, interesting, emotionally dynamic characters off of real people, with the band Daisy Jones and the Six inspired by Fleetwood Mac, and Evelyn Hugo inspired by the legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor.

Reid always writes frame narratives, stories within stories, or a screenplay or a perspective-based story, and it contextualizes dynamics so much more richly. Monique (the fictional author of this memoir) has such an interesting and dynamic relationship with Evelyn, in the final pages trusting her with grave decisions, viscerally hating her, respecting her legacy, moved by her vulnerability, sympathizing with her, morally repulsed by her, yet encapsulated by her charisma, and knowing that someday, Monique will forgive her, although presently, she does not hold space for that. A lot of complicated feelings that cannot be described except through stepping through and experiencing the sequence of events laid out in this book. Reid very much excels at writing these very complicated, very contradicting emotions.

just as end notes, i think it’s stunning how reid shows us that there are different types of beauty. and just like that, how each love is different, no one less than the rest.

• Evelyn: “I was the sort of beautiful that women knew they could never truly emulate. Men knew they would never even get close to a woman like me.
• Ruby was the elegant, aloof sort of beauty. Ruby was cool. Ruby was chic.
• But Celia was the sort of beautiful that felt as if you could hold it in your hands, like if you played your cards right, you might just get to marry a girl like Celia St. James.
• Ruby and I both were aware of what kind of power that is, accessibility.”

When you dig just the tiniest bit beneath the surface, everyone’s love life is original and interesting and nuanced and defies any easy definition.

And maybe one day I’ll find someone I love the way Evelyn loved [the love of her life]. Or maybe I might just find someone I love the way my parents loved each other. Knowing to look for it, knowing there are all different types of great loves out there, is enough for me for now.

i also think it’s really interesting, how there are independent factors that can break two people apart — in this case the two star-crossed lovers. evelyn’s lover never felt loved enough, because evelyn could not be had. she was public, and she provided so much to the public, to her art, to her career, and that her lover suffered, needing vulnerability, that constant wanting, can make a person mean. evelyn was loved for her individuality, and that individuality was so strong that she could never give it up without losing herself, and it would be the tragedy of her life that she could not be loved enough to become anyone’s. but it was clear as day to everyone, that evelyn had one true love, and she always did, and she always will. they belong with each other in a way that cannot be dampened.

and life is so short. we waste so many years with excessive pride, not knowing when to soften, or that when trajectories collide again, it may as well be with a ticking clock, and we’re all made of stardust and our time together would be temporary anyways. this was crafted, again, so stunningly.