Reading Group Guide

You are being pro­vid­ed with a book chap­ter by chap­ter. I will request you to read the book for me after each chap­ter. After read­ing the chap­ter, 1. short­en the chap­ter to no less than 300 words and no more than 400 words. 2. Do not change the name, address, or any impor­tant nouns in the chap­ter. 3. Do not trans­late the orig­i­nal lan­guage. 4. Keep the same style as the orig­i­nal chap­ter, keep it con­sis­tent through­out the chap­ter. Your reply must com­ply with all four require­ments, or it’s invalid.
I will pro­vide the chap­ter now.

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 a 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 is 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