New Book Club Dives Into the Untold Story of Evelyn Hugo

Pull up a chair and get involved in the discussion because Sasha Jackson, retention coordinator, is hosting Books and Banter, a new campus book club, starting with Taylor Reid Jenkin’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. 

This is Jackson’s first ever-book club, both participating in and hosting. With her love of reading, she wants to host her own book club here on campus, something fun and interactive, where students and faculty can share their diverse perspectives on the chosen novel in a casual space. 

“I think reading expands your knowledge and allows you to take your mind elsewhere,” said Jackson. “I try to get my kids to read. I really feel like people don’t read as much as they used to, and it’s really sad.”

This book club also considers the workload of students and therefore each discussion focuses on a third of the book, making reading an entire book more manageable. The first meeting, for instance, discussed the prologue and the first two husbands.

“[Students] are here; they’re taking classes,” said Jackson. “So, outside of their classes, they need time to study and prepare for exams. I instinctively thought that no one is going to be able to read a book in a month. So, let me break it up so they don’t feel pressured, obligated, or deterred from joining just because they have to read a book in 30 days… I just wanted to be considerate of the students’ time.”

And The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is perfect for this set up, because the novel is split into seven sections, chronologically telling the story of each husband. 

Jackson recalled weekly memories from college of going to Barnes and Noble every Friday night for coffee and “[perusing] the aisles.” Picking up several new books and bookmarks was always the most exciting part of the experience. “It’s comfortable. It’s warm. And, even though that’s my way of decompressing,” said Jackson, “I want other people to feel that.”

“This is my little baby that I’m hatching, and I want everyone else to be just as excited,” said Jackson. 

“I want to have really thought-provoking, inspiring conversations. I don’t want anyone to feel they can’t speak or be judged. I want people to be comfortable asking questions, even if they think it’s a dumb question. I want to create a safe environment where people can be themselves and ask questions… There’s a lot of things people may not be comfortable with or shy to talk about, and I want the book club to be a safe place to discuss these things. ”

And where better to start than with The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, which chronicles the life of fictional movie star Evelyn Hugo through journalistic flair, drama, and the ugly truth behind these beloved celebrity marriage fans label as “epic love stories.” 

Monique Grant, a 35-year-old underappreciated, underutilized New York City magazine journalist with a gift for writing incredible pieces, is called upon by Evelyn, now 79, for what she believes is a feature on Hugo’s recent dress auction. And Vivant, the magazine Monique writes for, jumps at the opportunity. 

“Preternaturally beautiful and a paragon of glamour and daring sexuality, Hugo has long been a source of fascination to moviegoers the world over,” reads the ending of an article written by Priya Amrit, a journalist for the New York Tribune, a newspaper that exists solely in the universe in which the book was written.  

Evelyn, however, does not want a simple feature and to make the cover of a magazine. She wants  Monique– and Monique, only– to write the never before told biography of Evelyn Hugo, to be published posthumously, which she knows will bring millions to the author. Their meeting brings Monique into a web of secrets as she discovers her own worth and power as both a journalist and a person. 

In an elegant and brutally honest fashion, Evelyn details the struggles of being a teenage Cuban-American actress in the 1950s, the pressure to conform, as she follows her dreams, moving from New York to California, and the marriages that followed. 

Her seven husbands from “Poor Ernie Diaz” to “Agreeable Robert Jamison” each play roles in the progression of her career and the internal conflict between the life she has and the one she wants. 

And, as Monique and audiences alike wonder, who was the love of Evelyn’s life? Was it the long-term marriage to best friend Harry Cameron, which resulted in a daughter, Connor? Was it her first love and second husband, Don Adler? Was it her co-star, Rex North? Was it Max Girard, her former director and close friend? Was it Robert Jamison, the brother to Evelyn’s life-long friend and co-star, Celia St. James?

There is a right answer, and it may surprise you. 

Evelyn’s revelations and deep dives into the truth behind her life, a story so twisted by unethical journalists and paparazzi looking to make a quick buck. After a roller coaster of a story, it brings a twist ending no one saw coming, answering the question: why did she insist on a lowly writer the world has never heard of, that she’d never met, to write her incredibly spell-bounding, gripping, personal, heart-breaking life story, giving her the chance to become a millionaire?

Pick up the book in Taylor Memorial Library to find out and join Books and Banter, a new on-campus book club to be a part of the riveting discussion of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. 

And this discussion isn’t over. On the first Wednesday of the next two months, Jackson will be hosting the book club, continuing conversations of the next sections of the book, in the children’s room at Taylor Memorial Library. Join us on October 15 at 3 p.m. for husbands three through five (pages 150-291). The meeting date for husbands six and seven, plus the epilogue (pages 294-385), is TBD. 

You won’t want to miss it.