Bébé Book Review: Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones

With her two most recent books, author Taylor Jenkins Reid has managed to nail storytelling set in two of my favorite American cultural periods. Modern feminism walks the red carpet in retro Hollywood with The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Sex, drugs and rock n’roll meet matters of the heart on the tour buses and stages of the freewheelin’ 1970s in Daisy Jones & The Six.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Evelyn Hugo will hook you in two pages or less. She’s introduced as an ambitious teenager hellbent on escaping Hell’s Kitchen. She’s a conniving teenage bride who dyes her hair, whitewashes her Cuban name and dumps her husband (“Poor Ernie Diaz”) the second she gets to Los Angeles.

What follows is Evelyn’s scandalous narrative, which recounts six decades of  Oscar drama, a secret romance, and six(!) more marriages. Each chapter is named for a husband. Not surprisingly, some of these marriages are shorter than a film intermission.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Taylor Jenkins Reid (@tjenkinsreid) on Jul 20, 2017 at 11:21am PDT

Evelyn is a survivor whose self-preservation is her ultimate motive. She uses people mercilessly to achieve this until she has a change of heart and comes to understand that a Hollywood career is not the pinnacle of existence on earth. There are moments where her own actions lead her into depths of isolation that are almost hard to imagine.

As the reader, we don’t exactly feel bad for her, but boy, are we curious about how her story ends. I couldn’t race through to find out fast enough the first time I read this book.

Daisy Jones & The Six

Daisy Jones is relatably tragic from the first pages of this novel. She’s the hottest of messes (she probably would have been besties with Amy Winehouse if their paths had crossed) with the best of intentions.

The opening description about Daisy’s childhood really pulled at my heartstrings. Daisy grows up the daughter of a wealthy painter and model. Her parents pay zero attention to her, so she offers to walk dogs for the neighbors and bake a cake for the mailman because she’s so desperate for human connection. Tack on unlimited access to drugs, then throw her into an up-and-coming rock band to set the stage for this story.

Daisy and the band’s lead singer, Billy Dunne, instantly form an oil-and-water kind of relationship. They can’t stand each other until it becomes obvious that they’re completely in love. The catch: Billy is married with three children.

The story is told through an unconventional format of an interview with various band members, managers, producers, friends and family members. It reads like a documentary. There’s a funny ongoing gag where characters will have completely different anecdotes about the same incident.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Reese Witherspoon (@reesewitherspoon) on Mar 1, 2019 at 9:23am PST

As with Evelyn Hugo, TJR chooses to keep the narrator’s connection to the main character a secret until the end.

 

TJR (Taylor Jenkins Reid) shines in her ability to create leading ladies who are laden with flaws, yet likable enough to carry her story to the last page. They never feel like stereotypes, which is a tough balancing act when your characters borrow so much from real-life figures. Evelyn Hugo is obviously a composite of Rita Hayworth, Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner. TJR talks more about that here.

Daisy Jones would seem like a manic pixie dream girl if we as the reader were not clued to her lonely childhood early in the novel. Her character seems inspired by the likes of Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks and Janis Joplin. While we’re dealing in character comparisons, there are moments when she seems like Penny Lane.

This would make Billy Dunne her Russell Hammond (certainly not the other way around). I’ve always thought that if I could pick a movie to live in, it would be Almost Famous. So,if you’re a fan of that movie definitely put Daisy Jones & The Six on your reading list.

Ultimately, Evelyn Hugo is the juicier read. It spans a greater period of time and keeps the drama coming and going. With Daisy Jones, you get the feeling that the story was cut as short as the main character’s music career. It’s still a great read, and a sentimental time capsule of a time many of us would have loved to spend a summer in.

Coincidentally, Daisy Jones & The Six is being adapted into a miniseries by Amazon. Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine is taking the lead, with Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough cast in the lead. I look forward to seeing it and hearing the novel’s songs brought to life with TJR’s lyrics.

I read Maybe in Another Life, also by Taylor Jenkins Reid and found it mediocre. It reminded me of something a Sweet Valley High ghostwriter would have churned out. These past two novels have been stunning improvements. As this New York Times review points out, TJR seems to have found her literary sweet spot. I hope she keeps up these fictional interpretations of modern pop legend. They’ve been a blast to read.

Have you read either book? What did you think? Leave a comment!