South Africa, like many countries, is currently under a national lockdown. Only essential services are allowed out while the rest of us are home, staying safe and being eternally grateful to those who are keeping our society going during these uncertain times.

I am still working from home, so I don’t have as much free time as YouTube assumes I do – my entire feed is littered with things to do in doors during this global pandemic. I haven’t managed to do any of these things because like I said I am still working my normal hours. One thing I have been doing however is getting in a lot of reading and making promises to myself about writing nook reviews. In 2020 so far I have read 13 books and written 1 book review so it is safe to assume that I am not doing so well. I am currently on book 14, 15 and 16.

Book 16 happens to be Anna Karenina which two pages into reading I decided I needed a break so here I am. Avoiding reading my book. Without making this introduction any longer than it already is, let us go on ahead and review The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

I picked out this book after watching too many reviews about it on YouTube and decided that I needed to see what the big fuss was all about. The book was a hard one for me to envision myself reading because the tag line is that “it’s a great book to read if you are interested in that sort of old Hollywood life” and I am not really interested in that old Hollywood life. I don’t watch old movies, I don’t read old books and I don’t really spend time fantasizing about any aspect of old Hollywood. I mean yeah, sure the outfits back in the 1960’s were beautiful but that’s as far as I can go as far as thinking that far back goes. This book however opened me up to a whole new world and I relished every single word and every single husband.

The book is based on the life of Evelyn Hugo, a Hollywood actress who became popular in the 1960’s and who also happened to be incredibly beautiful and also as the book reveals very driven and calculating. As the title of the book suggests Evelyn has had seven husbands in her lifetime and the book is set against the backdrop of her retelling her life story against her husbands. The story is told to an up and coming journalist Monique Grant, who upon starting the interview asks Evelyn who her one true love was.

With this one question we are taken through Evelyn’s life from aspiring actress, to sort of famous actress to Oscar winning actress in the most wonderfully detailed way possible. The book is packed with a lot of little tit bits and lessons and Taylor Jenkins Reid takes us through what power is when you’re a woman and how even when one has everything there are still limitations to what that power can do for you.

I really enjoyed this wonderful trip down Evelyn’s memory lane. I found myself on the edge of my seat with excitement, frowning and annoyed at Evelyn’s sometimes selfishness and celebrating when she finally won her Oscar. Every husband came with a different kind of truth that I think was expressed throughout the book, a necessary truth. I really enjoyed how unapologetic the writer was in making Evelyn what some would think was a calculating and self-centered bitch. I think sometimes when stories are told of women such as Evelyn, women who chose their own lives and who were deliberate about doing that there is always an aura of regret that sort of coats the backdrop of the story and I didn’t feel this at all with Evelyn Hugo. I found her to be honest, as though to say “I lived an imperfect life on my terms and the fact that it was on my terms made it fuller and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

I struggled to find parts of this book that I thought were unnecessary distractions. I think the book was long enough that the detail mattered and was used well by the author in setting and telling the story.

I think this is a book worth picking up and reading – the book won’t change your life but it will keep you entertained and at the end of it you will spend sometime trying to decide whether Evelyn was the good guy or the bad guy in the story of her life and in the story of Monique’s life.

Thanks for reading another book review, here’s to hoping I do more of these.