CHARACTERS
Evelyn Hugo
The novel’s protagonist and a Hollywood legend. Beautiful, ambitious, and savvy, Evelyn spends her life presenting a false persona to the public. She hides her bisexual identity to protect her career and engages in seven marriages of convenience. At the end of her life, Evelyn looks back on her nearly six decades in Hollywood and tells the true story of her love affair with fellow actress Celia St. James.
Celia St. James
A talented actress and the love of Evelyn’s life. Young and emotional, Celia quickly falls for Evelyn. Throughout their decades-long relationship, Celia struggles with the choices Evelyn makes to keep her sexuality a secret and protect their careers. The couple finds peace together at the end of Celia’s life.
Monique Grant
A struggling writer and Evelyn’s interviewer. Lacking confidence and looking to level up in her career, Monique seizes the opportunity to interview Evelyn. Through listening to Evelyn’s story, Monique evolves, gaining more confidence, a better sense of what she wants romantically and professionally, and the truth about her father’s death.
Harry Cameron
Evelyn’s producer and best friend and Connor’s father. Harry discovers Evelyn and the two develop a close friendship that evolves into a platonic, loving marriage. Harry is hiding his sexuality and is the only person that Evelyn comes out to. He is protective, loving, and rational. He guides and supports Evelyn throughout her life.
Don Adler
An actor and Evelyn’s first love and second husband. Charming and forceful, Don falls for Evelyn but starts abusing her early in their marriage. Jealous of Evelyn’s success and gripped by traditional gender expectations, Don pushes Evelyn to quit acting and start a family. Years after Evelyn divorces Don for his infidelity and abuse, the two make peace and star in a film together.
Connor Cameron
Harry and Evelyn’s daughter. Connor is cherished by both her parents. During her teen years, she struggles with her father’s death and her relationship with her mother. Connor dies of breast cancer at age 41.
Max Girard
A French director and Evelyn’s sixth husband. Passionate, insistent, and creative, Max and Evelyn have a creative partnership before they marry. Max directs Evelyn in her comeback and in the film that she wins her only Oscar for. Evelyn is relieved to fall for Max, but she soon finds he is more in love with the idea of her than who she actually is.
John Braverman
A football player, Harry’s lover, and Celia’s husband. Kind, generous, and loving, John is an integral part of Evelyn’s unconventional family. Harry serves as Celia’s beard.
Rex North
An actor and Evelyn’s fourth husband. Savvy, inscrutable, and unflappable, Rex marries Evelyn to promote their film, Anna Karenina. Though Rex does flirt with Evelyn, their marriage remains a platonic business relationship.
James Grant
Harry’s lover and Monique’s father. James hid his sexuality and his family didn’t know that he had relationships with men. Evelyn frames James for the car accident that ended his and Harry’s lives, though it was Harry’s fault. James adored his daughter and had a loving, companionable marriage with Monique’s mother.
Ernie Diaz
Evelyn’s first husband. Evelyn seduces and marries Ernie to get a ride to Hollywood and divorces him when the studio asks her to.
Robert Jamison
Celia’s brother and Evelyn’s seventh and final husband. They marry so that Evelyn can inherit Celia’s estate after she dies. He plays a fatherly role with Connor, who adores him.
Mick Riva
A rockstar and Evelyn’s third husband. Evelyn pursues, seduces, marries, and divorces Mick in one whirlwind day in order to bury any rumors of her relationship with Celia. Rash and self-involved, Mick proposes to Evelyn before they even meet.
Monique’s Mom
Monique’s mother. Loving, enthusiastic, and caring, Monique’s mother is avidly curious about Monique’s interview with Evelyn. She loved Monique’s father very much.
David
Monique’s estranged husband. David left Monique to move to San Francisco but when he comes to ask Monique back, she realizes their marriage has been over for some time.
Grace
Evelyn’s assistant. Calm, gracious, and unflappable, Grace supports Evelyn and keeps her company. Evelyn dotes on her and treats her like a daughter.
Luisa
Evelyn’s maid. Evelyn and Luisa get off to a rocky start when Luisa calls Evelyn crazy in Spanish, thinking Evelyn won’t understand. Evelyn comes to cherish Luisa.
Ruby Reilly
An actress and Evelyn’s co-star in Little Women. Jealous and striving, Ruby is threatened by Celia and outs her to Evelyn. Ruby marries Don and later reveals he abused her, just as he did Evelyn.
Evelyn’s Mother
A chorus girl and an aspiring actor. Evelyn’s loving mother died when Evelyn was eleven, and Evelyn sought out acting to achieve the dream her mother couldn’t.
Evelyn’s Father
Evelyn’s father. Evelyn’s father abuses her, and she leaves him as soon as she possibly can.
Frankie
Monique’s editor at Vivant. Driven and no-nonsense, Frankie is eager to get the interview with Evelyn.
Ari Sullivan
A producer who sleeps with underage girls. Evelyn sleeps with Ari to get her first big roles.
TOPICS
Throughout the novel, Evelyn uses her sex appeal and physical attractiveness to gain power that’s otherwise denied to her by a patriarchal society. Growing up as a poor child of color with an abusive father, Evelyn has many disadvantages that could prevent her from succeeding. At a young age, she realizes that her beauty is a kind of currency, and though she often doesn’t have agency over how she spends that currency—several times, men coerce her into sexual acts she doesn’t want—she uses sex to her advantage as much as possible. She trades her virginity for a ride to Hollywood and trades a sexual act with a much older producer for her first film roles. Evelyn is too young and powerless to consent to these acts, and she describes the negative impact that unwanted sexual acts have had on her. However, as Evelyn grows older and savvier, she gains more control over her own sexuality. She learns to wield her sexual power not only to gain success but also to gain the kind of autonomy that prevents unwanted sexual advances and coercion. Evelyn also gains control over how her sexual image is perceived by her audience, creating the scandalous stories that mask the truth of her romantic life in the press, editing the iconic scene in Boute-en-Train, and eventually defining when and how her true sexual identity will be released to the public.
Throughout Evelyn’s life, her ambition comes into conflict with her morality. Early in their conversation, Evelyn instructs Monique to go for what’s best for her career without regard for what is right. Evelyn acknowledges that she did something morally questionable in using and discarding Ernie, but she is unapologetic due to success she acheived as a result. During their first conversation, Celia tells Evelyn that she is a terrible person for using people and for doing whatever it takes to get ahead. Simultaneously, Celia excuses Evelyn’s behavior, saying she admires how honest Evelyn is about her ambition. Though Evelyn’s ruthlessness is acknowledged from the beginning, Celia is repeatedly heartbroken over Evelyn’s choices after they fall in love. She perceives many of these choices to be cruel and unfaithful such as sleeping with Mick and filming the risqué sex scene in Three A.M. Ultimately, it’s Evelyn’s inability to choose love over ambition that repeatedly drives the her and Celia apart. Moreso, hiding the truth about Monique’s father’s death is both an act of self-preservation and a fierce move to protect her family. As she grows older, Evelyn becomes less ambitious both because her priorities change and because Hollywood becomes less interested in her. As her drive to succeed lessens, she becomes more guided by her morals and sheds the trappings of fame to be with the people she loves. She aims to care for Celia in her final years and to provide financially for Grace and Monique.
Throughout the novel, several characters must hide the truth of who they love and who they are in order to survive and thrive in a homophobic society. Harry is so deeply closeted that he’s hesitant to say out loud to Evelyn that he is gay, though he trusts her and knows that she already knows about his sexuality. When Ruby tells Evelyn that Celia is a lesbian, she does it in the hopes of ending Celia’s promising career. This underscores how much Evelyn, Celia, and Harry have at stake and just how crucial it is to their success that they stay in the closet. As a result, Evelyn and Celia go to great lengths to hide their romance from the public. They hide in each other’s homes while refusing to be seen in public together, and they take on beards, or false heterosexual spouses. Evelyn goes through the traumatizing experience of seducing, sleeping with, marrying, and divorcing Mick all while dealing with the resulting pregnancy and abortion. She does so in a concerted effort to prevent rumors about her romantic relationship with Celia. These efforts ultimately lead to the women’s first break up, which suggests how corrosive and heartbreaking it can be to hide one's sexuality. The whole process harms the very love Evelyn that is trying to protect. It is only when Evelyn has given up her fame that she can relax more into being "out" with her partner. However, the pressure to hide never fully eases. Even when Harry and Evelyn grieve the loss of their true spouses, the sinister eye of the media is present. It misperceives them both and reminds them of the true threat of exposure. At the end of her life, Evelyn struggles to say aloud that she is bisexual. This suggests that though she and the society she lives in may be freer in the present, the threat of alienation and oppression is still alive and well.
The media in the novel serves to create and uphold appearances, whether or not they reflect reality. Throughout Evelyn’s life, media coverage focuses on her appearance. The first article written about her in 1957 describes her only as “beautiful” and “a sparkling blonde.” Sixty years later, the 2017 press clippings still focus primarily on Evelyn’s physical beauty. The blog post in particular contains breathless descriptions of Evelyn’s blonde hair, eyebrows, skin, and breasts. These articles illustrate that the press has not matured in the six decades they’ve been writing about Evelyn and that, when it comes to the media’s representation of Evelyn, appearance takes precedence over character. Evelyn learns to use this to her advantage by manipulating appearances to control how the press both perceives and represents her. For example, to distract the media from rumors of Celia and Evelyn’s relationship, Evelyn fakes a tryst with Mick, resulting in a flurry of articles and speculation. To boost ticket sales, Evelyn marries again, this time wedding her costar, and the media takes her bait, providing rapt coverage about Evelyn and Rex’s chemistry on and off-screen. Just as Evelyn dyes her hair blonde to cover up her Cuban identity and wears pancake makeup to hide the bruises Don gives her, she shifts, manipulates, and covers up what her life looks like in order to build a sellable story in the papers that will boost her career. By manipulating appearances, she’s able to hide her secrets and her true identity from the public eye.
SYMBOLS
The gowns represent both Evelyn’s achievements throughout her career and the false selves that she has presented to the world. The gowns appearing in the 2017 auction show up throughout the novel during pivotal and complex moments in Evelyn’s life. Notably, she wears the emerald green gown to the 1959 Academy Awards. This is an event where she both celebrates being nominated for her performance in One More Day and hides the fact that Don has begun to physically abuse her. She wears the violet soufflé gown to celebrate the release of Anna Karenina in 1962 while simultaneously hiding the fact that she married Rex for publicity and was heartbroken over losing Celia. She wears the navy-blue silk Michael Maddax gown in while receiving her first Oscar in 1982. Here, she sends a secret message of love and devotion to Celia in her acceptance speech. By giving the gowns away before she dies, Evelyn sheds the false selves that she wore throughout her life.
Names play an important role in both signifying and masking characters’ true identities. When Evelyn introduces herself to Monique, Monique remarks through narration that doing so when everyone in the room already knows your name is uniquely powerful. But in reality, most people don’t know Evelyn’s true name. Only Harry, Celia, and Monique know the name her mother gave her, Evelyn Herrera. To become famous, Evelyn sets aside her given name just as she set aside her Cuban identity. Monique also changes her name. She goes from her birth name, Elizabeth, to the name her father chose for her, Monique, after her father’s death. In this way, Monique illustrates how proud she is to be her father’s daughter. She wants to succeed in telling Evelyn’s story and see the name her father chose for her in big print all over the article. Unlike Evelyn, Monique honors her family and claims her true identity when striving for success.
The color green represents the light and dark sides of Evelyn’s beauty and sexuality. Evelyn first wears a green dress when she loses her virginity to Ernie to get a ride to Hollywood, the hue emphasizing both her innocence and her ambition. Evelyn also wears an emerald green dress to the premier of Little Women where she kisses Celia for the first time at the afterparty. Kissing a woman is another sexual first for Evelyn, and it leads her to discover both her greatest love and her own bisexuality. She later wears emerald green as Don hits her and when she discovers that Don is cheating on her. The color holds for Evelyn both the bright hope of new romance and the dark threat of toxic love. When she is accused of being jealous of Celia’s success in the press, the article is notably titled “Evelyn, Green’s Not Your Color.” But the press is mistaken in painting Evelyn as green with envy. It is instead the green of new romance which forces Evelyn to avoid being seen in public with Celia. As her beauty and sexuality in many ways define her throughout her career, green has become Evelyn’s signature color.
SOURCE: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/evelyn-hugo/character/evelyn-hugo/