The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Week 2: Husband #1 — Ernie Diaz & the Escape from Hell's Kitchen
Read the chapters covering Evelyn's early life in Hell's Kitchen and her first marriage to Ernie Diaz in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
Previewing Week 2 of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Read 3 of 7 discussion questions below. Unlock the complete 11-week guide when you’re ready.
Evelyn's origin story is one of survival and reinvention — this week we follow a teenage girl who decides, with fierce clarity, that beauty is a currency she intends to spend.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Evelyn grows up in a Cuban-American household in Hell's Kitchen in the 1950s, a world Reid renders with specific sensory and social detail. How does her environment — its poverty, its warmth, its limitations — shape the ambition that will define her entire life?
2.Evelyn's decision to marry Ernie Diaz is openly strategic: he is her ticket out of New York and into Hollywood. How does Reid frame this transaction? Is Evelyn presented as cold, pragmatic, both, or something more complicated?
3.From the very beginning, Evelyn is aware that her Cuban heritage is something Hollywood will ask her to minimize or disguise. How does she navigate this pressure in these early chapters, and what does it cost her emotionally?