Rating:
English difficulty 4 / 5
English Level: C1 +
Overview:
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid has been all over social media and has hit the top of several bestseller lists around the world. It’s a story about an ageing Hollywood actress who, unsurprisingly, has been married 7 times! But, is it an enjoyable read if English is your second language?
What English level do I need to read this book?
Realistically you need to be at a strong C1 level to read, fully understand and appreciate this book. Sure, it is possible for anyone with a B2 level of English to follow the main events and the overall story but it’s going to be a struggle to continue to read it because of the nature of the language used by the author.
So what makes this book difficult to read?
Advanced level vocabulary - The book is full of long, detailed descriptions of hairstyles, make-up, jewellery and clothing which make the story quite difficult to follow because you are always looking up new words.
Meaning hidden in context - Throughout the story, the author relies on the reader understanding the link between events in the book through the context of the wider story; this is very difficult to do if you encounter many words you don’t know.
Advanced grammar structures - The premise of the book is that Evelyn Hugo is telling her life story to a reporter. This means she uses a lot of complex grammar structures including; past perfect, 3rd & mixed conditionals, and inversion.
Culturally specific topics - Some parts of this story reference things which might be well-known to any American but for the rest of us we need to rely on the context to derive meaning. Due to the level of the language, this is again difficult if you are not at least a C1 level student.
What makes this book easy to read?
Story structure - The story is laid out chronologically (following her life from the start to the end) and the book is divided into her 7 husbands. This means that the wider context of each part of the story is fairly easy to follow.
Familiar story - The story of Evelyn Hugo is essentially a romantic one. Many of her conversations, feelings and thoughts are typical of romantic stories and therefore fairly familiar to most readers.
Conclusion:
To enjoy this book you need to be at C1 level. The book requires quite a bit of focus at certain points so that you don’t lose the meaning of the main narrative in the detailed descriptions provided by the author.
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