The premise of the book centres around the bittersweet love story, between two Old Hollywood actresses, the titular Evelyn Hugo and Celia St. Throughout the course of the novel, Evelyn easily and comfortably passes for a white woman and reaps the benefits of this ability without question, until Reid decides that her Cuban heritage is of relevance to a point she would like to make on being biracial. Critics argue that Reid creates “complex, likeable characters” but few instances within the book offered its characters deeper complexity than what we were presented with from the outset.Įvelyn Hugo is presented as a predominantly white woman, with a certain “best of both worlds” quality, as it is the idealised image of the biracial woman from an imperialist lens. We navigate this story with the author keeping a tight hold on our hand, in what we are to understand of, or feel from, these characters and the events that unfold.

Perhaps, Reid’s matter-of-fact prose was not my cup of tea, but The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is ultimately a collection of 80’s Hollywood aesthetics and landscapes that run through a simplistic YA formula until it is no longer discernible from any of its counterparts within the genre, regardless of the potential that the original idea and subject matter held. James, is awarded as the Best Actress Oscar in 1982 in place of real life queer actress, Katharine Hepburn.

It is almost insulting when you’re reminded that among the fictitious revisions made, a fictional lesbian, Celia St.

In this way, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo ambitiously sounds as a queer revisionist take on Old Hollywood within a fictionalised setting.

The 7 wives of hugo