By Elizabeth Kalaj, Web Editor
“Smash the patriarchy, sweetheart” is the dedication of the novel “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo”. These words alone and the fact that the novel shares an author with “Daisy Jones and the Six” inspired me to read the book. This book is a standalone read, which also made it appealing to me. Taylor Jenkins Reid is notorious for creating complex female characters that can be received in various ways throughout their novels.
The book has two major timelines going on at once. There is a writer named Monique who gets randomly recruited for a job to ultimately write Evelyn Hugo’s memoir. During this process, we are introduced to her life as well, recently separating from her partner and struggling to make ends meet. The story will flip between Monique’s life and Evelyn’s, with the story being written as the vessel for flashbacks and memories shared. Additionally, the novel was organized into seven parts: each one being named in chronological order of Hugo’s husbands.
From the time she was fourteen years old, Hugo had the sense of a cruel work and started using her body and her womaness to get what she wanted. Due to her experiences in the world, she saw men as a means to an end, and her first husband was. From there, she had met people that had given her connections to acting in Hollywood. That was when she met her second husband, “Goddamn” Don Adler.
“I melted underneath him. In the right moment, for him, I’d have done anything he wanted. He had flipped a switch on me. A switch that changed me from a woman who saw making love as a tool into a woman who knew that making love was a need. I needed him. I needed to be seen. I came alive under his gaze. Being married to Don had shown me another side of myself, a side I was just getting to know. A side I liked,” the novel reads.
This was how Hugo spoke about her husband about six weeks into marriage at the age of 18. Two weeks later, he started hitting her.
Hugo had been used to believing that she was the person in power, even though she was so young. After this experience, she finally found a way to divorce Don without squandering his reputation. Then, Hugo received allegations regarding her sexual identity when hanging around best friend, Celia St. James too often for Hollywood’s desire. To combat these allegations, Hugo manipulated a singer into marrying her for a night and divorcing her the day after. She got what she wanted and was then able to hang out with St. James stress free. However, Hugo and St. James then came to terms that they were in love, but Hugo refused to give up her career for a love filled with threats from the world. And so, they both moved on. Hugo married another for equal publicity for their movies, then married longtime friend Harry Cameron. Both Hugo and Cameron had monogamous relationships with St. James and her husband, John Braverman. This was a way to ensure they can all be safe and in love, without fear of ruining their reputations.
“I even heard rumors that the four of us were swingers, which wasn’t that crazy for that period of time. It really makes you think, doesn’t it? That people were so eager to believe we were swapping spouses but would have been scandalized to know we were monogamous and queer?” the book reads.
Jenkins Reid did an amazing job at portraying a woman’s tribulations in a man’s world, while also removing her need for male validation because she is in love with a woman. Hugo was used to portraying that even if a woman does not love men, she still has to work to appease them. Additionally, Hugo is a beautifully written example of how being a lesbian not only jeopardizes her career, but her overall safety in the world. The need to fight against everything one loves as if it is a tradeoff for safety and security is a major theme in this book.
After seven years with Harry and Celia, Evelyn started putting her career before her romantic relationship during the filming of another movie. Celia had left her.
“She always made sure the bad was outweighed by so much good. I . . . well, I didn’t do that for her. I made it fifty-fifty. Which is about the cruelest thing you can do to someone you love, give them just enough good to make them stick through a hell of a lot of bad,” Hugo says in the book.
The way Hugo portrays her own story to Monique who is representing her is essential in understanding who she is as a person. She is older and more understanding of her own life, having much time to reflect over every decision. With this memoir, she wanted to show the public that she was both softer than she was portrayed but that she should also be held to a regular standard instead of a “perfect” one.
More marriages pass, landing at her final one, “agreeable” Robert Jamison. This was Celia’s older brother who had agreed to marry due to Celia being ill. In this case, Hugo and St. James were able to live out the rest of their days without any external issues.
“Me, I’ve always gone after what I wanted with everything in me. Others fall into happiness. Sometimes I wish I was like them. I’m sure sometimes they wish they were like me,” the book reads.
Hugo reflected on how happy she was once she was able to officially be with Celia. She later faced regret for “wasting” time she could have had prior to Celia’s death, but she always admitted that no matter what she did, she always tried her hardest.
I fell in love with this book because of how complex Evelyn Hugo was written. She was strong, manipulative, hard working, desirable, full of love and a simple woman all at the same time. She showed that having a kind heart and making many mistakes can all be true. She also showed many different ways to approach a world that can be extremely cruel to people.
Overall, this book keeps people guessing, pulls on heartstrings and always brings in a new aspect to be excited about. If you are a woman or have love for one, I highly recommend this book. If you are just trying to figure yourself out, this could be the read for you.