Join the Brickyard Ladies on Tuesday, March 26 at 5:30pm to discuss
“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Over the course of the novel, film legend Evelyn Hugo tells her life story to reporter Monique Grant. At the age of 79, with all her close family and ex-spouses dead, Evelyn is ready to reveal the true story of her life, which she has hidden from the public for decades. Monique is a struggling writer who has been trying to find success for over a decade. She’s in the middle of a separation from her husband, and wanting a distraction, wholeheartedly throws herself into researching Evelyn’s life for the interview.
Evelyn offers Monique exclusive rights to Evelyn’s very valuable biography, and Monique has no idea why. The book is organized into chronological sections that follow Evelyn’s relationships with each of her seven husbands, punctuated by conversations between Monique and Evelyn during the interview for the biography. Evelyn grows up in a poor Cuban family in Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan. Her mother dies when Evelyn is young, leaving her alone with her abusive father. Sharing her mother’s dream of becoming an actress, Evelyn uses her sex appeal to seduce and eventually marry Ernie Diaz, a neighbor boy who is heading to Hollywood.
Evelyn quickly succeeds in connecting with Hollywood producers, including Harry Cameron at Sunset Studios, who becomes her lifelong best friend. She sleeps with a much-older producer to get her first role. For some time, she’s rel-egated to smaller parts because, as a Cuban woman, she does not fit the Hollywood mold of blonde leading ladies. To start starring in films, Evelyn dyes her hair blonde, loses her New York accent, stops speaking Spanish, and tells a false story about her past to the press. When Sunset advises her to start publicly dating other actors, she divorces Ernie and gets her first leading role.
