Adrian Buck’s Reviews > The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo > Status Update

"It was almost as if when I met him, I met this other side of myself. Someone who understood me and made me feel safe. It wasn't passionate, really...We just knew we could be happy together. We knew we could raise a child."

"Because the truth is at the age of thirty-five, I have yet to love somebody enough to sacrifice for them" - so the frame and the story are united in a religious view of sexual relations.

"Women have sex for intimacy. Men for pleasure. That's what culture tells us" - this is becoming something of a theme.

"to imply that she has not adequately threaded the needle that is 'being sexually satisfying' without ever appearing to 'desire sexual satisfaction'" - italics not withstanding, not even Roger Scruton thought this about desirable female sexuality. The patriarch wants his women to look sexually unavailable, not sexually unreachable.

"A white woman and a black man in the early eighties" - my first reaction was, surely it would have easier then? But then I realised that's a British perspective. Now I'm more aware how much more prominent race is in America.

"I'm too old, Celia. But thank you for that." - there really was a time when when teenage roles were played by teenage actors. These days it seems every teen role is embarrassingly miscast. Liquorice Pizza was spot on though.

"But the truth is, praise is just like an addiction. The more you get it, the more of it you need just to stay even" - praise, or fame, which is the praise of strangers? Or is it unethical to praise my students?

Monique: "I hope you can give me the benefit of the doubt, going forward, that we're on the same page..."
Evelyn: "...a journalist who will...say exactly what I mean and...mean what I say" - Monique speaks in clichés, almost bizspeak. Hopefully, TJR will exploit that.

Time to find out what my students are reading. Last time it was 'Twilight', lets hope for a better result!