January 20, 2023
episode description
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid has been recommended to me a million times. And now that I’ve finally picked up my own copy of the famed book, I talk about if this book is worth reading, what excited me about this book, and what made me pause as I read.
transcript
I finally finished The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This book has been getting a lot of hype on Tik Tok. So I bought it in paperback, maybe six months ago, it was published in 2017. But it's gotten this slight resurgence lately of popularity. And I tried to read it during the semester. But let me tell you, the first couple pages of this book did not pull me in, like I read the first paragraph. And I was like, no, I don't plan on reading this right now. And I did that a couple times. Until like, I'm just now finally reading this book. And boy, do I regret waiting this long to read it. Well, I wouldn't say that. I regret waiting this long to read it. I kind of felt like, there was some reason why I didn't read that book at that time. And I'm kind of glad that I did read at the time that I did, because it feels like it was just like perfect timing in a way.
So in this episode, there are going to be some spoilers. But first, I'm going to give a non spoiler review for anyone who is on the fence about whether they should read this book or not. It is a historical fiction. And there is a character named Evelyn Hugo that is, seems like anyway, loosely inspired by Marilyn Monroe. And it reminds me a lot of the blonde Netflix movie, which I did some research on. And it turns out like that's not a biographical movie. It's based on a novel that was published in 2000. That's a biographical fiction which is genre I didn't even know existed, that you could like make up stuff about people's lives and then call it like fiction, but also use like real names and real people. So I mean, that movie in itself is pretty shocking. It is based on a 2000s biographical fiction by Joyce Carol Oates. And I think it's strange to have a fictional take on the life of American actress Marilyn Monroe. And the author insists the novel is a work of fiction and should not be regarded as a biography, which is really interesting, because when I when I watched that movie, I thought it was like, I don't know, I thought it was the truth. I feel like it wasn't—maybe I just didn't take the time to look into it. But I feel like it wasn't clear that it was a fictionalized take on Marilyn Monroe's life. So I know that probably a lot of other people also had the same thought that there was like, Oh, this is just one of those movies they make where they tell you like, what really happened. Yeah, so it surprised me.
But anyway, I got sidetracked. So this book is historical fiction. It is based around the time that Marilyn Monroe was alive and that version of Hollywood.
There is a lot of representation in this book representation of the LGBTQ community that doesn't feel forced, and even representation of a lot of people of color from different backgrounds. And this book, kind of shocks me, like it didn't shock me, but I was reading it and tell me why I was stunned when the author like simply stated, what race a character was when she was describing how they looked physically. I was shocked. I was like, Why didn't I think about that? Like, why didn't I think about like just saying that? Oh, yeah, this character is Asian American, when I'm describing a character. Like, it just felt kind of taboo. I was like, what you can do that? You can just say what race a person is in their description? Like, that's really crazy. I thought you had to like allude to it, which I have no idea why I thought that. But it did give me another take on how to include characters of color, and how to make sure your reader knows that they're a character of color.
Some key themes in this book, I would say is using the world's exploitation of your body as a female to your advantage. So being aware that the world is exploiting your body and instead of running away from that, leaning into it to get what you want, and also demanding that the world gives you the thing that you desire. Those are two main concepts that I saw reoccurring over and over within the plot of this book. And then some questions that the book grapples with is basically like how far will you go to get what you want? How far are you willing to go to achieve your goals? Like, will you sacrifice pieces of yourself until you run out of pieces or the pieces are unrecognizable, even to you? Until you can't even recognize who you've become? That's what it kind of makes you think about as you read about the characters.
And to end this non spoiler review section, I wanted to read a quote that I feel like really encapsulates one of the characters in the book. So she's talking to another character. And she says, "But I don't regret it. Because I know I had my reasons. And I did the best I could with every thought and feeling that led up to it."
So yeah, I feel like that quote, is kind of the crux of it. I think what was really profound, I was like, oh, it's kind of about like giving yourself grace, like, okay, hindsight is 2020, and all of that. But with the knowledge you had, and with the emotions you were experiencing, you made the best decision that you could. So in the end, is it worth reading?
I would definitely say 110% yes, this book is worth reading. I generally think that a good book should make you feel something even if those emotions are negative. Even if the book made you angry, or whatever, if this book has made you feel some type of emotion then I think it's a good book.
Obviously, that's a generalization, it doesn't apply to everything. But that's kind of the the metric that I use when deciding if a book is worth reading. I also am kind of aware that this book is kind of like the right book at the right time for me, it made me reflect on a lot of the choices that I want to make in my own life. A lot of the concepts that I grapple with in earlier episodes, about what I want to be when I grow up and encapsulating my blackness as a black woman, this book really made me think about different aspects of my life. And it also in some ways, kind of reframed how I think about them, by prompting me to give myself more grace.
Now, let's get started on their real review, where we talk about everything and anything, nothing held back. So if you're still listening, you haven't read the book and you don't want spoilers, I would definitely leave the episode now and come back when you finish reading so we can talk about it together, because it was a crazy book.
One of the things that I think this book does amazingly well is the development of morally great characters, especially Evelyn Hugo, she's just so multifaceted and complex, in a way that makes you want to hate her, but also you inevitably admire her in the same way that Monique ends up doing in the book.
I think it's not even just Evelyn, it's all of the seven husbands. And the love interest of the book, it just really makes you think about people or human beings, not being just good or just bad. But being not even an even mixture of good and bad, you can be more bad than good or more good than bad. But it's a mixture nonetheless. Like it's not, it's not something you can separate. It's a homogenous substance, so to speak.
Yeah, and I also really appreciated that this book delved into identity crises that people of color have like Monique as a mixed person, and Evelyn as a Cuban woman. So Monique as the mixed person, struggled to find a place in a community where she felt like she belonged where she fit into because she was mixed, especially being born in the 80s to a white mother and a black father, during a time when the her mother and her father had to fight to be together because it wasn't really socially accepted. And just like, forging her own sense of identity not categorically perfectly belonging to either as a white person or as a black person. And then Evelyn's relationship to her own race was also really interesting to me. Her original name, her name she's born with was Evelyn Herrera. And she changed her name to Evelyn Hugo, at least that was her stage name. Because in the 50s You know, they didn't care about diversity. That was like the worst thing ever.
So she had to pass as a white person. And it just talks about how she slowly abandoned her culture and her language, which is Spanish, Spanish as a part of her identity. But it just talks about the way that her culture her identity as a Cuban woman slowly seeps out of her life until she realizes that she is somewhere strange between being a Cuban woman and a white woman.
Like she's not a Cuban woman or a white woman all the way. And this is especially interesting to pick Cuban as this character's ethnic background because of the tensions between America and Cuba during the time period that this book covers, which it also mentions, but it's just, it's just very, I really liked how it delved into the identity crises that you can have its person of color.
And I think that the parallels between these two characters are set up really well.
At its heart, this book is really just a deep dive into the costs of fame and how far you'll go to achieve it. But there were times when I felt like, I wondered if the fame was really worth all of this. And if Evelyn even really wanted that fame, or she was just so used to wanting that fame and doing things to get that fame, that she felt like she still wanted it, but didn't really in the end. I don't know. I just feel like Evelyn is such a complex, confusing character, like, no matter if she was real, no matter how well you knew her, you would never truly know her all the way which I feel like this something that the love interest Celia struggled with, she felt like she would never truly know Evelyn because Evelyn was always hiding pieces of herself.
I also really liked the structure of the book with the seven husbands and then the twist being that she didn't love any of the seven husbands in the way that you love, like the love of your life. I thought it was really well done. I was a little bit shocked, though, not only shocked, like jarred, in the first section with the first husband just beginning. It goes straight into I. And I'm like, wait a minute, who's this I and the I is not Monique. Instead, it's Evelyn. So in these portions where the book is section by each husband, the I in this instance, is Evelyn. And I feel like it was a it was the right choice because it made you feel closer to Evelyn and made it easier to empathize with her choices and actions. But it was a little bit confusing at first, and it was something that I had to get used to. But I think it was worth it. I think it was worth getting used to that to, to evoke the emotions that was able to be evoked using that first person perspective.
I also really liked the story of each seven husbands and why they married her and why it didn't work out. I thought it was really dynamic. And just, I don't know, like I
wanted more for some of them. I wondered what happened after. And I really I know it doesn't matter what happened to the husband's, the story's about Evelyn, like the husbands are just side pieces. Nobody cares what happened to the husbands, we care about Evelyn. But I couldn't help but wonder like how they ended up, I think the first husband Ernie Diaz, they talked about a little bit like what happened to him. But for the most part, most of the husbands except for Ernie. And maybe Harry. I wondered where life had taken them after that. I mean, I guess Don too, we saw a little bit about what happened to him. And two things that I really, really loved about this book is its ability to portray the importance of loving someone unapologetically. Now, this was a really important theme of this book, especially because the characters in this book were from the LGBTQ community.
And they were unable to love unapologetically and openly. But even within like romantic love aside, even loving your child unapologetically and loving your friends, unapologetically. Just taking the time to analyze how you are showing your love for someone and looking within yourself to say, like, am I restraining myself within my love for that? If that makes sense? I'm not really sure if that makes sense. It feels like it makes sense. But reading this book made me want to love people more unapologetically. Because there's going to be a day when you're no longer given that privilege. There's going to be a last time for everything.
A last smile, last laugh, last look.
All of that. And so loving unapologetically while you still can was something that this book
have encouraged me to do made me want to do more. Something like that.
And I also, the second theme in this book that I really, that really hit home for me is refusing to regret, refusing to regret choices that you've made in life. And showing yourself grace, like I said earlier and refusing to regret where your life took you. Because you only get one life. So I really liked that about the book.
Now let's talk about some parts of the book that made me pause a little bit. They're not necessarily bad parts, but it just made me be like, Hmm, I don't know about this kind of
took me for a loop there are just you know, you just don't know about it. Now, I thought it was an interesting choice for this book to be largely narrated by Evelyn instead of Monique, because you're introducing the story with Monique in from the very first sentence, the very first page and you're like, okay, this is our main character. But then you also know that the book is named after Evelyn Hugo. But you're like, well, then maybe Evelyn Hugo just had like a really important role in this story. But the real character arc is about Monique and but even after reading this book, I still am like, who is really the main character of this book, like I guess, Evelyn, and Monique are the main characters of the book. But who, who is the main character of this book, like I can see this book without Monique but I couldn't see it without Evelyn so then it makes me feel like Evelyn is the main character of the book. And I feel like this is because we are not truly able to understand or empathize with Monique for most of the novel, were only given glimpses of her pain and personality throughout the entire book until the very end when we are given a more holistic look at who Monique is as a person. So that kind of confused me.
I was like, Who's the main character and I guess it's not that important because the book was like dynamite either way, but it was something that like made me stumble a little bit. I was also kind of confused about Evelyn's feelings towards the public's view of her sexuality. Because she talks about, Evelyn does, the picture that was taken of her where she was sitting at the grave of Harry and like crying and how the public thought or at least the media spun a story where she is like a wife that's really sad at her husband's passing or misses her husband and stuff like that, when really she was sad, because the love of her life Celia had died. And she went to Harry's grave, her best friend, the love of her life platonically to truly show her emotions, but she seeing the way she spoke that she was frustrated when people misconstrued her grief, as grief for Harry instead of grief for Celia. But I, it made me pause because I was thinking like, why was she mad or irritated that people thought about it this way, when she, throughout her entire life leaned into and encouraged these misunderstandings about her love life. So that would benefit her in the long run. And I understand wanting to be completely honest and true to yourself. And that, you know, the world always assumes that the relationship, that love is heterosexual, you know, the heteronormative narrative and I understand where her feeling, in that regard, are coming from that people are always going to assume that you're straight rather than assuming that you're gay, which is the reasoning, the the history behind the idea of coming out, right.
But I just felt like not that you didn't have a right to be mad she definitely did. It's just that. I just wondered if she was really thinking about the fact that this narrative is being portrayed by the media because she, she fueled it. She wanted more people to—she wanted to utilize, to weaponize her marriages in a way that would improve the quality of her life and progress her career. So in the end, of course, people are going to view her as someone who aligns with the heteronormative narrative, which is my isn't necessarily right, you know, but that I just think her actions, her actions contributed to this misunderstanding of her one her few rare emotional displays that the public was able to witness.
And then another thing that gave me a pause is the twist in this book. Now from literally maybe chapter one I wanted to know, why was Evelyn, why did she choose Monique to write her story? Like what? Who? Why did she choose Monique? And I was like dying to know every chapter that we bring it up again. And Monique would ask like, why did you choose me? Why did you choose me and I'd be like, yeah, why did you choose her? Like, tell me too, you know, and she'd be like, you'll know in due time or whatever. And I'd be like, No, tell me now, let me know, why did you choose her? And I think like that was really well done. To make the reader always want to be like, when are you going to tell me? And like, it's like you knew that you weren't going to find out to the end but you still like hoped that
you would find out a little bit early, but you found at the very end. And the reveal felt
unexpected, and I was surprised as a good twist should do. But the more I thought about it, the more it also felt inevitable.
Especially when I thought about like Monique's father, his his job as a photographer on famous sets, like that was the only real connection she could possibly have Evelyn Hugo. And I think where both Monique and the reader would never figure out why what the connection is without Evelyn helping are telling you is that you assume that the connection will be directly to Evelyn and not like Harry like it was someone that Evelyn cared about.
That was I mean, I just was like, wow.
It was good twist. But I did question in the beginning when I first read that twist, Evelyn's motivation behind choosing to tell Monique about her father's secret love life in this way.
And it does say, the book does address that later on. The book does say like Evelyn does say that she thought about a different a bunch of different ways that she could tell Monique. But she, in the end chose to do it this way because she recognized Monique's talent in her writing, and her other pieces.
But despite all of these things, this book left me wanting more. So I think it was a good book in that way. Like even as I turned the last page, and it was blank. On next page, I was still like looking for more words. And it's not to say that the story felt incomplete or that the ending didn't satisfy me, it definitely did. And I definitely felt like I didn't need anymore. But I still wanted more.
So in that aspect, I think it was an absolutely phenomenal story. Took me on a roller coaster every two seconds, had me on the edge of my seat wanting to know what had happened in this woman's life, and why she did the things that she did. But there were a few quotes in this book that actually took my breath away. And not really because they're like super profound or anything. But because they resonated with me, for someone who is at the point that I'm at in life, or just people in general, I just think it resonated with me. And it was more of that right book a right time type of thing, where I needed to hear these words. And somehow this book ended up in my hands at the perfect time for me.
So I'm going to read some of these quotes out loud, because they were just so poignant, and deserve to be given their own spotlight. And most of them are things that Evelyn says, by the way, but not all of them. I think actually all of them are except for the last one. So let's get started.
"You can be sorry about something and not regret it."
"Do yourself a favor and learn how to grab life by the balls dear. Don't be so tied up trying to do the right thing when the smart thing is so painfully clear."
"I'm under absolutely no obligation to make sense to you."
"You have to find a job that makes your heart feel big instead of one that makes it feel small."
"The root of most of my problems is that I need to be secure enough in who I am to tell anyone who doesn't like it to go fuck themselves."
"Why have I spent so long settling for less when I know damn well that the world expects more."
"Be wary of men with something to prove."
"It's okay to grovel for something that you really want."
"Never let anyone make you feel ordinary."
"I think that being yourself, your true entire self is always going to feel like you're swimming upstream."
Yeah, um, for sure it's swimming upstream right now. I don't know where I'm going, but it's rough, we in some rough waters. But hopefully, when I finish swimming upstream, it'll be a beautiful oasis and not a horrifying waterfall with jagged rocks waiting at the bottom. Only time will tell won't it?
Hmm, there was a question in the book. And it was like in the back of the book for like discussion. This question stood out to me. It asks, Who was your favorite husband of Evelyn's?
And I mean, I feel like the obvious choice is to say none of them and to say her wife, but let's think about the seven husbands. Definitely not Ernie, though the whole thing could not have happened without that first poor Ernie Diaz. Right.
Definitely not Don, like, I mean, I guess he had his little redemption arc at the end. So I can't I can't rail on him too hard. I guess.
I actually can. And I will.
They were all so flawed. I feel like Robert Jamison is probably my favorite as a person as a character and as a husband to Evelyn. But who was the husband that interested me the most? I think that would be Max Girard. Because the idea of being in love with a concept, that persona is so interesting to me. And I feel like it happens over and over and over again. And I honestly, I also feel like Evelyn had a role in contributing to that. Because when you constantly only show people what you want them to see, they're going to start believing that that's all there is to see. So when she got upset that and realized that he didn't truly love her, Evelyn Herrera as a person and was only in love with the, the movie star Evelyn Hugo and that persona of her. It was really interesting to me, because at some point, I wondered, Is there even a such thing as Evelyn Herrera anymore?
Or did she get rid of that version of herself and is just Evelyn Hugo now? So in that case, maybe Max really was in love with her.
Obviously, his version of loving her was flawed because he didn't love her with her flaws as a person when she became too realistic, too authentic maybe that's not the word like not as glamorous, not as I don't know, like when the when the the starstruck, newness wore off when the the the status symbol of having Evelyn Hugo on his arm wasn't what he thought it would be. He fell out of love, I guess, or realized he was never in love in the first place. I don't know. I just think that story to me, it wasn't even the longest one. But that was the one that really intrigued me of the seven husbands.
But yeah, I think I'll end the episode there. That was a phenomenal book, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, I definitely recommend it. I'm planning on reading A Little Life next and reviewing that book as well. I've had it on my shelf forever. I haven't read it yet. I have heard some controversy around it, which I'll also discuss in the episode.
But for now, make sure to follow the podcast on Instagram @jumblepodcast to stay up to date with all of the new episodes and all the new topics. If you have any books that you'd recommend me to read, definitely DM me on Instagram, or email me at jumblepodcastinquiries@gmail.com Because I would l love, love, love to get book recommendations to review. I need them. This book was amazing. If you guys have any other amazing books you want me to read, I would be so down.
So with that, I hope you guys have a better day tomorrow than you did today. I hope that tomorrow being yourself your true entire self doesn't feel like swimming upstream. I hope it feels like swimming in a lazy river, like you're being pushed along. Guided along is probably a better word. Where being your true entire self is easy. And you don't have to fight to be who you truly are and to feel comfortable being who you truly are.
I hope that's true for me as well tomorrow because sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's hard to be your true, authentic self. Totally unfiltered and raw, because it's uncomfortable. But still, let's be vulnerable together.
Splendid write up