Quite simply, I could not get enough of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Every possible moment of rest I found during a busy holiday was filled with reading more of this book.
I really enjoyed the glamorous leading character, Evelyn Hugo. Although the glitz and glam is far removed from the average person's life, it was so easy to get caught up in the scandals of Golden Age Hollywood and feel as though you were a part of it yourself. Upon researching the book further, I discovered that the character was loosely based on Elizabeth Taylor (who was married eight times to seven different men). The character Evelyn Hugo was at times hard to like, but I think that was part of the charm. Much like many celebrities, she would orchestrate situations for the good of the press that would lead to car crash relationships in her private life. Sometimes I could only shake my head at the choices she made, a bit like watching a friend make terrible decisions! You can try your best to offer advice but sometimes all you can do is sit and watch - in this instance, I think that is what made the book so addictive.
I think the chapter set-up helped to make a potentially tricky-to-follow story easier to digest. I loved the descriptions of the different men in the headings, it gave you just enough of a teaser to understand what kind of revelations would be revealed over the coming pages. My personal favourite title was 'Goddamn Don Adler' because it immediately conjured up the image of a suave, heartthrob that you could just tell would be bad news.
I have always found the Golden Age of Hollywood a fascinating era of history, the mixture of strict social rules combined with a life of excess and debauchery - I think it was incredibly interesting! It always seems like Hollywood exists within a bubble - what is normal for everyone else is vastly different from the day-to-day of Hollywood. Without giving too much away, this book delves into some really interesting themes of relationships, violence and abuse - although the story is set in a much different time it does make you wonder if things have really changed?
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo allows you to be a 'fly on the wall' and a time traveller all at once. I loved it.
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