The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Chapters 5-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary

On Monday morning, Monique meets Evelyn in her study. Evelyn is ready—everyone she loved is dead and the truth can’t harm them any longer.

Chapter 6 Summary

Evelyn grew up in Hell’s Kitchen with her Cuban mother and father. At 11, Evelyn lost her mother and was left with her abusive father. She quickly began to go through puberty that summer, and men watched her every move. At 13, the teenage cashier at the corner store kisses Evelyn. She tries to fight him off, but he holds her tightly. She learns then that she “could do it for free” or for “free candy” (43). Over the next few months, Evelyn takes everything she wants from the store, and she sees the cashier once a week. Her greatest dream is to escape Hell’s Kitchen, so she decides to use her sexuality to accomplish that.

At 14, she meets Ernie Diaz who is rumored to know someone at MGM. She seduces him, trading her virginity for “a ride to Hollywood” (44). They get married soon afterward, despite Evelyn being only 15, and move to Los Angeles. Evelyn spends her days waitressing at a restaurant for “movie people” (45). Four months later, she meets Harry. Two weeks after that, she has a contract with Sunset Studios.

In 1954, Evelyn makes her first cameo in a movie but struggles to land the starring role she desires. When she asks Harry for the leading role in an upcoming film, he turns her down: She’s Cuban, dark-haired, and bronze-skinned; the studio won’t cast a woman of color. Resolved to “win the war,” Evelyn meets with 48-year-old executive Ari, who enjoys “orally pleasing underage girls” (49). Soon after that, Evelyn’s career begins to take off; Harry promises her the role of Jo in Little Women, they dye her hair blonde, and they remake her into Evelyn Hugo. She divorces Ernie. In the present, she has no regrets; though she broke Ernie’s heart, she would have done anything to escape Hell’s Kitchen.

Chapter 7 Summary

Their session for the day is cut short by Evelyn’s dinner plans. When Monique gets home, she answers a call from her mother who surprises Monique with the news that she’s coming to visit in two weeks, right when she should be done with Evelyn’s interview. Though the visit doesn’t excite Monique, she looks forward to seeing her mother, who can’t keep from asking about Evelyn. Monique doesn’t offer much besides expressing her suspicions about her subject. She detects “another layer” to Evelyn’s motivations.

Chapter 8 Summary

Though Little Women is continually pushed off, Evelyn lands a few hit comedies. To build upon her momentum, Harry arranges public dates with popular actors for her. She is unenthusiastic about them until Don Adler. They hit it off immediately, both equally enamored by the other, and begin dating. Hindsight teaches Evelyn that Don’s infatuation with her diminished once they were married.

Chapter 9 Summary

Evelyn is “absolutely smitten” with Don (65). She annoys Harry by talking about him too much, and he only gets her to stop bringing up Don by discussing her career. He doesn’t think that Little Women would be right for her career just now. Harry emphasizes that Evelyn should “make a real go of it with Don” because it would boost both of their careers (68). Soon after that, Don arrives to pick up Evelyn on the way to his premier. He has an engagement ring with him: He plans to propose on the red carpet and wants to make sure that she will say yes. An hour later, Evelyn accepts his proposal. After pulling away from Don’s embrace, she sees Harry wink at her.

Chapters 5-9 Analysis

Chapters 5 and 6 establish Evelyn’s motivations to escape the life she had before Hollywood and demonstrate just how far she’s been willing to go to achieve her goals. Before beginning her interview, Evelyn’s allusion to the truth behind her interview is foreshadowed: “No one left to lie for but me” (38). Evelyn presents her life as a series of complicated decisions in which all amoral—or outright immoral—choices were made for the sake of others. This positions Evelyn’s public image as entirely false, heightening the mystery that surrounds the starlet. Chapter 6 portrays Evelyn’s early over-sexualization and how it affects her decisions for the rest of her life; still a child at 13, grown men gape at her, her father begins watching her too closely, and older boys feel entitled to her body.

This treatment not only motivates Evelyn to escape Hell’s Kitchen but also influences every interaction she has with men for the rest of her life; because of The Oversexualization and Commodification of Women’s Bodies, she sees her sexuality as transactional. After many encounters with the corner store employee, she knows that men will take what they want from her, so she endeavors to take what she wants from them. The chapter introduces the novel’s study of The Cost of Fame for women; for Evelyn, it is her virginity, which she gladly trades to escape. These chapters also demonstrate how Evelyn’s cleverness and ambition enable her to navigate Hollywood easier than most; she deduces what sort of image makes her popular and hatches plans to achieve it. As she rises in fame, she again learns that her greatest weapon is her sexuality.

Chapter 7 reveals more about Monique’s life, working to position her as Evelyn’s parallel. Before meeting Evelyn, Monique is unsure of her abilities and afraid to take what she wants; after a single meeting with her, she assures Evelyn that she “can do anything” (54). This small but significant statement marks Evelyn’s early influence on Monique and suggests that the more they interact, the more Monique will mirror her subject. Furthermore, the chapter increases the sense that Evelyn is hiding something from Monique as Monique describes her suspicions to her mother: “[T]here’s another layer here” (57) that she can’t see yet but knows is momentous.

In Chapters 8 and 9, Evelyn introduces her first real love: Don Adler. This is important to Evelyn’s story because this is the first time she chooses to be with someone—the first time she actually feels lust and love. This revelation emphasizes how commodified Evelyn was her entire life because Don Adler was the first person who treated her “like a person” (63) rather than an object to be owned. These chapters emphasize just how isolating fame is for Evelyn, particularly because she is forced to maintain an image of a sex icon who is paradoxically sexless.

Harry, her boss, becomes her only friend. This isolation is one of the driving factors of Evelyn’s immense infatuation with Don; she finds a companion in him as much as a romantic partner. However, as Chapter 9 ends, the authenticity of their relationship is destabilized as Don opts for proposing on the red carpet and Harry shares a wink with his two clients; despite Evelyn’s real feelings, the book alludes to the manufacturing of this relationship. Evelyn admits, “Sunset owned me” (67), and the throwaway comment is indicative of the overall arch of the novel; so much of Evelyn’s life is not her own because she is forced into relationships and situations without even realizing it.