Synopsis -
Evelyn Hugo is world-renowned and the face of Hollywood. In her seventies, she realizes the clocks are ticking, so she hires Monique Grant to tell the world her story. However, her story is different from what the media may think. Evelyn Hugo has a secret, one which no now knows that she is willing to expose. As Evelyn’s story reaches its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s in tragic and irreversible ways. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is about the price you pay for fame but most importantly the price you pay for love.
'' No one is just a victim or a victor. Everyone is somewhere in between.''
''People think Intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth.''
Analysis:-
( Very Minor spoilers) I have no idea where to start. This book first crossed my path when I saw it being hyped up all over the media, I tried to shrug it off as it didn't appeal to me. However later I gave in, and I am so glad I did.
The ideological significance of this novel is the price you pay for fame and love. We see Evelyn abused by her father and using her body and her beauty to climb the ladder of fame. For me, this was significant at portraying the patriarchal influences that come with a capitalist society as for Evelyn the only way she felt she could grow was by giving her body to men she had no interest in to create a career. The Fact the title itself is called ' The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo' displays that although she was a successful movie star her legacy relies on the number of men she married. A quote that stands out to me in regards to this is ' you wonder what it must be like to be a man, to be so confident that the final say is yours'. This quote made me aware of the dominance of the patriarchy in the sixties, but also today. Themes touched on such as Domestic abuse are still prevalent in modern-day society and seem to isolate the most strong of woman. This theme woven into the text made me read this novel from a feminist perspective and made me enlightened to what it means to be a woman, in a male-dominated world.
Perhaps the thing that broke me the most as a reader was finding out who Evelyns love of her life was ,as we are exposed to the unattainability of it. You presume it's one of the 7 husbands however you begin to see the real person she loves is Cecila St James. Most of her marriages were completely fake as she used them as a cover-up to stay with Cecilia. The influence of society is seen again heavily here as she has to hide her love for a woman in fear of her child and career being taken away from her. This was significant at displaying the price of fame and made me aware of how lucky we are in the modern West to be free to love who we want when in the past and in other countries today many are living alike Cecila and Evelyn. As a heterosexual woman, this book exposed me to the problems others face due to the de facto and legal segregation against homosexuality.
The relationship between Monique and Evelyn is something to analyze when reviewing the book as a whole. The way Evelyn intrinsically affects Monique's story is destructive but also beautiful. This is because we see the somewhat friendship begin to bloom between two powerful women. In terms of structure Reid perfectly plants a twist in the novel from the very beginning. It's hard to pick up on and keeps the reader intrigued as although we want to know Evelyns story we want to know why she picked Monique to tell her story. An underground journalist in New York who has never gotten close to fame. When we find out why you realize this book gives you everything a fiction book should.
The characterization of the characters was detailed and memorizing. You are left not knowing who to love or who to hate, who to forgive, and who to despise. That's something that is made clear from the beginning of the book as Evelyn states she is not a good person.
The Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo is about love and loss, the price for fame, and the navigation of life under a restrictive era of history in which to love freely was a crime. I left this book overwhelmed with the lesson that you are not a bad person for doing bad things for the people you love.
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