The first question I wanted answers to from this book is how do you have time to have seven husbands? But of course, if you are a film star from the late 50s onwards in America then there are plenty of stories and memoirs that make it abundantly clear that you marry at the behest of the film studio to make more money for the studio and for yourself. And so it is in this book.
Evelyn was a young girl from Cuba who hustled her way into films. She was beautiful and that was her entry along with her unapologetic ambition. As she says, ‘there is no point in denying it’. In those days, a woman was often powerless, ruled by the men who owned the studio, often having to marry them, directed by men and produced by men with men as their agents. That is an awful lot of men, so maybe you do need to get married seven times. What Hugo had as her tools of power were sex and beauty and she used them along with her fame when it came.
Her ambition often came at the expense of morality: in order to distract people she got married or at the very least was seen out and about on the town with a male star, she stepped over other women for parts, she had often stopped loving her husbands fairly soon into the marriage and had a child with her gay best friend. This last one was not immoral because they both wanted it but it is a sign of the immorality of the times that this was really the only way either of them could be a parent.
Towards the end of the book, Hugo decides that she wants to tell her story, to set the truth, which she has kept hidden, free and chooses Monique who works at the magazine Vivant to be the person to write her biography. Monique is not sure why she is chosen, and is herself heartbroken because her marriage has just ended. If there is one thing Evelyn can give her lessons in it is how to deal with marriages when they end.
Monique spends some time wondering why she was the person chosen and at the end it all becomes clear although you do have to wait quite a long time for it. This is a romance, just not the one that you might expect.
Each of the husbands has a section in the book devoted to their marriage and is prefaced with a word or phrase. Do you remember the phrase for King Henry VIII and his wives – Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived, well she has something a little similar. Poor Ernie, Goddamn Don, Gullible Mick, Clever Rex, Brilliant, kind-hearted, tortured Harry, Disappointing Max and Agreeable Robert. Not so much of a rhyme but does give us as the reader a very brief summary of her attitude towards each one.
When I read a bit about the book it seems that TJR was inspired by an article about Ava Gardner who had seven husbands and was often at the mercy of men who made decisions for her.