The Seven Problems With Evelyn Hugo

a review

This week, late to the game, I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (I’ll be referring to it as Seven Husbands most of the essay). Be forewarned: there will be spoilers. Also, I will not be organizing this essay into seven problems - I just couldn’t resist the wordplay.

About halfway through reading this book, I envisioned myself writing a somewhat critical review. It is incredibly well-written and really sucks you in as a reader, but there is more glorification of LGBTQ relationships than I am generally comfortable reading.

Then I finished the book. Let me begin by saying that I don’t find this book as offensive as Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, though perhaps I should. Both - here’s that spoiler alert again - deal with physician assisted suicide. Seven Husbands enrages me more, but I don’t think that it is as promotional of assisted suicide as Me Before You is. I also have to admit that I haven’t read or watched Me Before You because of my convictions. I may have made the same choice regarding Seven Husbands, if I had known.

Photo by Gabriel Tovar on Unsplash

That being said, I - like the narrator of the novel, Monique - was completely blindsided by the moral issues that appeared at the end of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I fully expected my take to be that I found it inappropriate for teens who may be interested in it because of Reid’s BookTok popularity, but that well-formed adults may find it a very engaging and interesting read despite its moral shortcomings. Now, on the other side of the novel, I am angry. I’ll admit that a lot of my anger has to do with my personal experiences, but I think that my experiences make my understanding of and frustrations with the novel richer.

Here’s what you need to know before we discuss what I’ve found so repugnant about this novel:

Monique is a young journalist living in New York trying to prove herself. We know that she is getting a divorce, but other than that we hardly know anything else about her.

Evelyn Hugo is a movie star far past the end of her career. Despite her retirement nearly 30 years previously, she still has a vice grip on the popular imagination. She, in the novel, was the one who pushed the envelope when it came to risque scenes and every man in America and in Hollywood especially was in love with her. Hence her seven husbands. But, she has a secret. The love of her life was really a woman, fellow actress Celia St. James, with whom she carried a relationship outside of many of her marriages. At least two of her marriages, in fact, were cover-ups for their relationship.

Harry is Evelyn’s best friend and producer. He is gay, but as they are up-and-coming in the 50s, he must keep his sexual identity close to his chest. He and Evelyn stick by each other through lovers and husbands, awards and scandals, and eventually decide to marry because both feel the yearning for a family. Together they have a biological daughter, Connor.