Readers Club Guide: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

This read­ing group guide for The Sev­en Hus­bands of Eve­lyn Hugo includes an intro­duc­tion, dis­cus­sion ques­tions, and ideas for enhanc­ing your book club. The sug­gest­ed ques­tions are intend­ed to help your read­ing group find new and inter­est­ing angles and top­ics for your dis­cus­sion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your con­ver­sa­tion and increase your enjoy­ment of the book.

Introduction

Aging and reclu­sive Hol­ly­wood movie icon Eve­lyn Hugo is final­ly ready to tell the truth about her glam­orous and scan­dalous life. But when she choos­es unknown mag­a­zine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one in the jour­nal­ism com­mu­ni­ty is more astound­ed than Monique her­self. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exact­ly on top of the world. Her hus­band, David, has left her, and her career has stag­nat­ed. Regard­less of why Eve­lyn has cho­sen her to write her biog­ra­phy, Monique is deter­mined to use this oppor­tu­ni­ty to jump-start her career.

Sum­moned to Evelyn’s Upper East Side apart­ment, Monique lis­tens as Eve­lyn unfurls her sto­ry: from mak­ing her way to Los Ange­les in the 1950s to her deci­sion to leave show busi­ness in the late ’80s, and, of course, the sev­en hus­bands along the way. As Evelyn’s life unfolds—revealing a ruth­less ambi­tion, an unex­pect­ed friend­ship, and a great for­bid­den love—Monique begins to feel a very real con­nec­tion to the actress. But as Evelyn’s sto­ry catch­es up with the present, it becomes clear that her life inter­sects with Monique’s own in trag­ic and irre­versible ways.

Topics & Questions for Discussion

1. Each husband’s sec­tion opens with an illus­tra­tive moniker (for exam­ple, “Poor Ernie Diaz,” “God­damn Don Adler,” “Agree­able Robert Jami­son”). Dis­cuss the mean­ing and sig­nif­i­cance of some of these descrip­tions. How do they set the tone for the sec­tion that fol­lows? Did you read these char­ac­ter­i­za­tions as com­ing from Eve­lyn, Monique, an omni­scient nar­ra­tor, or some­one else?

2. Of the sev­en hus­bands, who was your favorite, and why? Who sur­prised you the most?

3. Monique notes that hear­ing Eve­lyn Hugo’s life sto­ry has inspired her to car­ry her­self dif­fer­ent­ly than she would have before. In what ways does Monique grow over the course of the nov­el? Dis­cuss whether Eve­lyn also changes by the end of her time with Monique, and if so, what spurs this evo­lu­tion.

4. On page 147, Monique says, “I have to ‘Eve­lyn Hugo’ Eve­lyn Hugo.” What does it mean to “Eve­lyn Hugo”? Can you think of a time when you might be tempt­ed to “Eve­lyn Hugo”?

5. Did you trust Eve­lyn to be a reli­able nar­ra­tor as you were read­ing? Why, or why not? Did your opin­ion on this change at all by the con­clu­sion, and if so, why?

6. What role do the news, tabloid, and blog arti­cles inter­spersed through­out the book serve in the nar­ra­tive? What, if any­thing, do we learn about Evelyn’s rela­tion­ship to the out­side world from them?

7. At sev­er­al points in the nov­el, such as pages 82–83 and 175–82, Eve­lyn tells her sto­ry through the sec­ond per­son, “you.” How does this kind of nar­ra­tion affect the read­ing expe­ri­ence? Why do you think she choos­es these mem­o­ries to recount in this way?

8. How do you think Evelyn’s under­stand­ing and aware­ness of sex­u­al­i­ty were shaped by her rela­tion­ship with Billy—the boy who works at the five-and-dime store? How does her sen­si­bil­i­ty evolve from this ini­tial encounter? As she grows old­er, to what extent is Evelyn’s atti­tude toward sex influ­enced by those around her?

9. On page 54, Eve­lyn uses the say­ing “all’s well that ends well” as part of her expla­na­tion for not regret­ting her actions. Do you think Eve­lyn tru­ly believes this? Using exam­ples from lat­er in her life, dis­cuss why or why not. How do you think this idea relates to the sim­i­lar but more neg­a­tive­ly asso­ci­at­ed phrase “the ends jus­ti­fy the means”?

10. Eve­lyn offers some firm words of wis­dom through­out her recount­ing of her life, such as “Be wary of men with some­thing to prove” (p. 77), “Nev­er let any­one make you feel ordi­nary” (p. 208), and “It is OK to grov­el for some­thing you real­ly want” (p. 192). What is your favorite piece of advice from Eve­lyn? Were there any asser­tions you strong­ly dis­agreed with?

11. Sev­er­al times, Eve­lyn men­tions hav­ing cos­met­ic surgery. What was your reac­tion to this? How do these deci­sions jibe with the val­ue sys­tem and eth­i­cal code that she seems to live by? Why do you think Eve­lyn con­tin­ues to dye her hair at the end of her life?

12. Review the scenes on pages 199 and 348, in which Eve­lyn relays mem­o­ries of con­vers­ing in Span­ish after years with­out speak­ing it. Dis­cuss the role lan­guage plays in her under­stand­ing of who she is. In what ways does her rela­tion­ship to her Cuban iden­ti­ty par­al­lel her expe­ri­ences with her sex­u­al­i­ty, and in what ways does it dif­fer?

13. If you could meet and inter­view one celebri­ty at the end of their…