Evelyn Hugo, the Hollywood icon who has withdrawn into her middle age, finally decides to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses Monique Grant, an unknown journalist, no one is more surprised than Monique herself. Because she? Because right now?
Monique is not exactly in her prime. Her husband left her, and her professional life does not advance. Even ignoring why Evelyn has chosen her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to boost her career.
Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From her arrival in Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to abandon her show business career in the 1980s – and, of course, the seven husbands she had at the time – Evelyn tells a story of relentless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary actress, but as Evelyn’s tale draws to a close to the end of it, it becomes apparent that her life intersects with Monique’s in a tragic and irreversible way.
Monique is a journalist who works for a magazine in which she feels that the quality of her writing is not valued enough, that her professional life has not advanced much since she started in that world. Her life changes overnight when famous actress Evelyn Hugo asks her to write a book chronicling her entire life from her early days in Hollywood to the present. Despite not being going through the best moment of hers, her Monique realizes that the opportunity that she is presented with is unique and that she cannot refuse. Evelyn Hugo insists that Monique be the one to carry out this task, only her and no one else, what is behind this decision?
Evelyn Hugo is one of the best characters I have read and that is a very strong and risky statement but I really feel that it is so. She is the type of protagonist that leaves no one indifferent, that you adore and hate at the same time because as she herself well says, she is not exactly a good person. She did terrible and quite questionable things in her past to achieve her goals, but the author presents her to you in such a way that you cannot help but understand her and become fond of her to the point of loving her despite her mistakes and decisions. she. She is not perfect by any means, I think the word that best defines her is human because like all of us she has a good side to her but also a not so good one. Evelyn Hugo loved, she was loved, she broke hearts in the same way that they also broke her, she hurt many people and was also hurt by others.
Within the life of Evelyn Hugo, we are presented with a whole series of secondary characters that marked her life and that influenced her that I think give that special touch to the novel. Each of them is very different and brings something different. Above all I found it very entertaining to see the contrasts between the seven husbands.
This novel is divided into seven parts, each one dedicated to one of the seven husbands Evelyn Hugo lived with throughout her life to take us on a journey through the years in this way. The very narration of Evelyn Hugo’s life in the first person is interspersed with some scenes from the present time in which Monique talks with the actress. The latter are much scarcer than the rest of the content but, in my opinion, they are very necessary as it helps us understand Evelyn Hugo’s intentions to want to tell her story at this precise moment and also to develop a little the relationship between them. two women. In addition to this, some newspaper and magazine snippets related to what is being told at the time are included to show a little the opinion of the world about Evelyn Hugo and her husbands.
What struck me the most and I found curious about this book is that it is presented in a specific way and ends up being something totally different. Of course, much better. I at least had an idea in my head of more or less what I expected to find among its pages and the truth is that it was very different from everything that I had considered and I think that there is its charm. The author knows how to surprise the reader, how to leave him open-mouthed, with a succession of plot twists that destroy your heart and hopelessly hook you. The book is full of surprises, small at the beginning and much more powerful towards the end that I did not expect at all.
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster
- ISBN: 9781982147662
- Number of pages: 400
- Dimensions: 210 x 135 x 610 mm
The Seven Husbands Of Evelin Hugo is available at WHSmith, Book Depository, Amazon
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