A quiet weekend indoors with a novel of Old Hollywood

When the garden is put to bed, the kitchen is tidy and a free weekend opens up, a long novel with a strong voice can fill it well. This one, a 400 page paperback from Atria Books, sets an aging film star and a young reporter in one apartment, and lets the star finally tell the truth about her whole glamorous life.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, published by Atria Books on May 29, 2018. This is the reprint edition in paperback, 400 pages, in English. The setup is simple. Evelyn Hugo, a Hollywood movie icon who is now aging and reclusive, decides she is ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. She chooses a magazine reporter named Monique Grant, who is unknown and as surprised as anyone to be picked. Monique’s own life is unsettled: her husband has left and her career is going nowhere. She accepts the job as a chance to restart it.

Monique is summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, and most of the book follows from there as Evelyn tells her story. It begins with her arrival in Los Angeles in the 1950s and runs to her decision to leave show business in the 1980s, with the seven marriages marking the way. The description names ruthless ambition, an unexpected friendship and a great forbidden love. The interview frame lets the author move between a long past and a present in which two women ask what the truth costs. The reviews point to loyalty, betrayal, friendship and love as the themes, and some mention real hurt along the way, including infidelity and domestic abuse. That is worth knowing beforehand.

This suits a reader who likes a story told by a strong talker and has the time to settle in. It tends to land in a season of change, when someone is between jobs, between households or simply tired of tidy plots, since both women stand at a turning point. It also suits readers curious about Old Hollywood who care more about the people than the trivia. People magazine called it gossipy and poignant at once. If you prefer spare, quiet writing with little drama, it may feel showy, and that is a matter of taste rather than measurement.

As a read, it is a 400 page paperback, long enough for a weekend or a week of evenings. The reviews describe a fast pace, and the Associated Press found it emotional. The interview format makes it easy to stop at a break and pick it up again. Several reviewers say it moves readers to tears, so plan accordingly for where you read it.

What stays with a reader, going by the description, is the question the book puts to both women: what it means to face the truth, and what that costs. Evelyn’s reasons for choosing Monique are left open at the start, and the description says their lives meet in ways that are tragic and cannot be undone. It is a book to take slowly if you can, with tea within reach, and to close thinking about the stories people keep private for decades.