The 19th Wife: A Novel

I listened to this book on my Ipod. The characters are all multidimensional. Their stories are well developed and very interesting. The narration is well performed. I highly recommend this book for either a read or a listen.

While the book was ok, it was nothing beyond that. I am usually the type who picks up a book and finishes it in a couple days.... but this one took me MUCH longer because it just did not engage me.

This was one of those books I couldn't wait to be done with, as I had to read it for my book club. The writing is just okay, nothing overly literary, and at times the narrative is so cliche, or at least doesn't feel real, like the author is stretching a limited imagination. It tells two stories in two separate narratives that the author is trying to somehow relate to one another.

One is a historical fiction about Brigham Young's 19th wife, who divorces him and sets about on a crusade to end polygamy in the late-19th Century. That part of the book I really liked. It's fairly well researched and feels authentic. The other is a modern sort of murder mystery about a 19th wife in a cult-like sect that split of from the Mormons after 1890 who is accused of killing her husband. Her estranged gay son returns to the small town and proceeds to investigate the case, and I don't want to ruin it for you, but the author would like us to believe that the mother's innocent, and her son, the hero is trying to prove it.

But I had some real problems with that part of the book. First of all, the solving of the murder comes abruptly and totally from left field. There's no building of the clues, only a bit of meandering around them. The explanation of the murder is less than a page, and the motive isn't fully believable, especially given that the climax is the first we've heard of it. Also, the confession comes after a totally contrived scene where the main character is captured and seems to be threatened, but again, it doesn't feel as real as the author had been hoping to make it.

My biggest problem was with the main character, Jordan, who as I mentioned, is gay. Why? Because I guess that would make the story more interesting? The author tells us that Jordan spent a little time selling his bod, and on more than one occasion mentions that he was paid by a dude to let him put his "arm in a place where no arm should go." Ew. Ultimately though, I didn't get the feeling that the author knew thing one about being homosexual, that he was basically working with stock stereotypes, and overusing them at that.

And then, about 2/3 through the book, Jordan meets a guy, Tom, who falls in love with Jordan and wants him to stay, make a commitment after ONE NIGHT TOGETHER,. The author tries to kind of make a case that it's hard for Jordan to do that because of how he was raised in the polygamist sect. He can't love, you see. But I felt like -- well, he did just meet the guy. Frankly, the love interest comes off more like a creepy stalker than a sincere life partner. (I pictured him as Kenneth Parcells from 30 Rock, only you know, as a creepy stalker. If they ever make a movie of this book, Jack McBrayer should totally play the character of Tom.)

But I kept turning those pages, because I wanted to find out what happened to Ann Eliza Young, Bringham's 19th wife. Sadly, I was disappointed in that there was no resolution, nor was there any more mention of the son she had left behind but lamented over on several occasions.

The worst part of the book was the last paragraph, where Jordan, Tom, their precocious ward, and even their dogs are sitting on a bed contemplating the future. One man puts his arm around the other, and Jordan imagines his mother where he had left her, and again, I don't want to ruin it for you, but the writing here was particularly cheesey. I could almost here a swell of violins in the background.

I must admit I bought this novel under a misapprehension. Based on a quick reading of the cover blurb, I was expecting two fictional narrative strands, one set in the early days of Mormonism, and the other set in modern times, both of which would be mysteries. What I got was a novel set in modern times interwoven with a real (and fascinating) memoir by the estranged polygamous wife of Brigham Young. There is a mystery in both parts of the story, but the mystery of Ann Eliza Young is a real one that has never been solved. And while I cannot deny the compelling nature of Ann Eliza Young's memoir and the other historical narratives (some real, some fictional) which make up the historical strand of this book, I can't help but feel that Ebershoff was padding out his book by relying so heavily on the writings of others. The modern strand is a lively amateur sleuth story that begins well but ends unconvincingly. Even so, I would rather have had more of the latter and a little less of the historical material, simply because I was expecting to read a novel, not a memoir or a history, and instead I got a rather slim novel woven around a rather fat history. In the end, though, the book is worth the trouble because of how much it reveals about the history of Mormonism and some of its more troubling consequences, as well as about some of the positive aspects of its modern form. This book is perceptive and touching on many levels.

It was not what I thought it would be. To much switching back and forth.