Getting around to reading a book (other than a textbook) can be tough in college, we know this. When you’re cramming in between classes, Her Campus Lasell’s got you covered.
Introducing Cristina Reads Too Much, a weekly segment where we break down and spill the tea about the best books RN and give our honest reviews and ratings.
The Rundown:
From the much-beloved author, Taylor Jenkins Reid comes a story about classic Hollywood, vices, triumphs, and self-reflection. The story is told through the eyes of Monique Grant, a magazine journalist who feels as though she’s hit a wall in her life: her marriage is collapsing after only a year, and she’s convinced she’s about to be fired from her job. So when she’s selected to interview retired Hollywood icon Evelyn Hugo about an auction she’s holding, Monique is equal parts surprised and anxious. She meets with Evelyn, who she finds to be a personable elderly woman, and the interview goes off without a hitch. It isn’t long, however, before Monique learns that Evelyn had a different role for her in mind: as her personal biographer. She requests to meet with Monique long after the interview for the magazine article is completed to recall her life story. They meet over coffee and lunch, and soon Monique begins to see a different side of the glamour queen she watched in old movies and the easy-to-talk-to woman standing before her. As she takes notes, Evelyn tells all: of growing up as the daughter of Cuban immigrants in Hell’s Kitchen, of how she broke into the movie industry, of her pain over losing her daughter to breast cancer. Of particular interest to Monique, as well as the audience whom Evelyn expects will read her biography once it’s published, is the story of her seven marriages. Evelyn tells Monique of her seven husbands and how they all had an impact on her life, and along the way spills secrets that could easily ruin her reputation. Monique debates including these scandalous details in the biography, but Evelyn is adamant that the world receives an honest account of her life following her inevitable death.
My thoughts:
Entertaining, thought-provoking, and altogether original, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo provides for a unique reading experience that I could not put down. I love all things classic Hollywood, so I enjoyed reading about Evelyn’s experience as an actress in the 1950s and 1960s and loved how realistic her character was. She wasn’t perfect and had made some mistakes in her life, but lived with few regrets nonetheless. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a girl-power story that anybody could enjoy.
My rating:
5 out of 5 stars
Favorite quote:
“Evelyn Hugo doesn’t care if everyone forgets her name. Evelyn Hugo doesn’t care if everyone forgets she was ever alive…Evelyn Hugo just wants to go home”.