The 19th Wife: A Novel
by David Ebershoff
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Book Reviews of The 19th Wife: A Novel
Book Review: Good literature provokes thought
Summary: 4 Stars
A good story evokes emotion from the reader. If the story is based on historical fact, and the premise is unfair, the emotion may be anger. Separating fiction from truth presents challenges to the reader, especially in instances of history. We expect accuracy when presented with historical fact. The difficulty comes when so much of the story is factually based. David Ebershoff's novel The 19th Wife is based partially on Ann Eliza Young's memoir Wife #19. Ann Eliza Young was married to Brigham Young. Her story really happened. Much of what we learn of him in the novel is also historically accurate. However, the picture Ann Eliza paints of him is much more human than godly. While history has shown us his many achievements, no one can know what really went through his head. The reader will decide whether or not Ann Eliza is a reliable narrator.
But there's more; we have two related stories that become intertwined in the end, the other a modern day murder mystery. The novel is so fast-paced I could barely put it down, completing my reading of 525 pages in four days. The best and most believable character by far is the young, current day narrator, Jordan Scott. His voice is as incredibly genuine as he is lovable. I would have preferred more of the story told from his perspective, but, alas, at least twice as many pages are devoted to the birth, development and tenets of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saints, some a bit dry and tedious. This is fascinating stuff to read though, considering the mystery that shrouds this faith. Really.
Although the book is a murder mystery with a plot, several serious themes emerge. "You can't do whatever you want when you've got kids" (473). Jordan's thought sums up much one main theme. His thoughts echo Ann Eliza's from the previous century as she takes her stance against Brigham Young. She narrates the ways children vied for attention from a father of sometimes dozens who had little if any time for the individual. Jordan relates incidents of runaways as well as of boys who are evicted from the community, left by the highway at the age of fourteen because of some minor infraction, but in reality to eliminate the competition for the pretty young girls who will become plural wives. Ebershoff cites us one example after another of the ways children of plural marriage are neglected, sometimes to the point of abuse.
Another issue arises from Brigham Young's Prison Diary, "the problem of balancing the Truth, as I know it, with the rights of man, in which I believe" (446). Within the larger passage from which this quote is taken, an issue is discussed that plagues us every day in our national and even global society. People, like Brigham Young, as well as other religious leaders, some quite charismatic, others not quite as zealous, believe in their hearts to possess the truth about Faith. The problem arises when they attempt to force their beliefs on those who believe differently or not at all. Brigham asks the question, "Am I failing God?" when he tells his followers to respect other religions, for he believes other religions are lies and it is his mission to bring all to the Truth. We see this today in the benign but controversial topic of prayer in school. More devastating, we see it in the face of religious wars around the globe. Most Americans are abhorred by the violation of women's rights in some Middle Eastern countries, particularly Afghanistan. Yet the practices of the Taliban are an instance of people imposing their religious beliefs on others to the degree of violence. The conflict emerges: the Truth (or the Truth as I see it) versus the rights of others.
Along similar lines comes the issue of freedom. Both plots involve freedom and the question to what extent may one individual's freedom infringe upon another's? Ann Eliza says, "... I shall never want my freedom to restrict to restrict the freedom of another. In that case I am not truly free, and none of us is truly free" (428). Enveloping all is the overriding theme of polygamy, its place in Mormonism and effects on those involved, then and now.
Finally, Ebershoff's style offers subtle encouragement to the reader who also aspires to write. A writer can identify with a quote to Ann Eliza from Harriet Beecher Stowe, "I become quite simply the vessel for the Muse" (405) and figures of speech like the "... ghost thought - an idea proven unreal yet present even so" (422). Read the novel as fiction because it is. Allow the ghost thought to linger and grow. But like all good fiction, consider the reality and implications of the facts. It will make you mad.
Andrea Walker ~ freelance writer, book reviewer
Book Review: Book Review: The 19th Wife
Summary: 4 Stars
The Review
I am a really big fan of the show "Big Love" on HBO. In case you're not familiar... it's a drama about modern-day polygamists. I am totally addicted! When I heard about The 19th Wife, I was intrigued and I looked forward to cracking open its pages.
David Ebershoff is a talented writer and the writing of this book reflects how much time and effort he put into it. He has taught creative writing classes at New York University and Princeton and is currently an adjunct assistant professor in the graduate writing program at Columbia University. In addition to his teaching experience, he is an editor-at-large for Random House. All of this experience is demonstrated in the clean, precise writing of this book. Ebershoff writes from the viewpoints of several different characters, both male and female.
There are two main story-lines of this book as described above: Anna Eliza's historical story of her exodus from her polygamist marriage to Brigham Young and modern-day Jordan Scott's tale of a "lost boy" from the church attempting to save his mother from false charges in prison. In addition to these two main characters, there are inserted chapters in the book from the viewpoints of reporters, students, family members and Brigham Young himself. Truthfully, with so much going on, the beginning of the book took me a while to absorb (i.e. the characters, the history, etc.) But, once I got moving along, it was easy to keep track of the different players of the stories.
Ann Eliza
What most rings true for me about reading this book is that, although it is a historical FICTION book, there is so much research behind it that I am confident that I've really learned a considerable amount of this part of our nation's history. So many questions were raised for me in reading this book... let me share a couple:
1. If the "Firsts" (first of the Latter Day Saints) believed that plural marriage was a component of their religious freedom covered under their constitutional rights, then where would be today if other groups chose practices that were unethical/immoral and hung them under the "it's our religion" hat? We talk about the separation of church and state, however at some point there has to be involvement between the two despite what our founding fathers had hoped for. Religious groups just can't mistreat or injure other people, animals, or the land and claim it to be a component of their belief system.
2. I wonder about modern-day polygamists. With or without the government's involvement, do these women really NOT know that what they are entering into is wrong? Sure, there are instances within The Bible that describe plural marriage, but it certainly doesn't condone it nor encourage it. The Bible describes marriage between one man and one woman. Are these women really that naive and sheltered from modern-times that they don't know any better? It strikes me as strange. How could you not know?
David Ebershoff has an absolutely amazing website with more resources than I have time to investigate to read further on the topic. Specifically, he has the link to the PDF version of the original "19th Wife" written by Ann Eliza herself. I did glance over a good part of this book and am considering downloading it on my hard drive to read in the near future. In addition, there are copies of the New York Times articles pertaining to the divorce between Brigham and Ann Eliza.
On Sher's "Out of Ten Scale:"
This book is excellent. In regards to my recommendations on this book, I shall be honest in saying that if this topic is one that doesn't interest you, I wouldn't recommend the book... but, only because it's a rather long read. But, if this topic is "up your alley," by all means this is a book well worth investing the time in! You will learn A TON despite the fact that it's a fictional work. Each page of this book is really full of information and there is so much to absorb. I'm a fast reader and this book still took me the better part of the week to complete. But, I would definitely consider The 19th Wife a book that I'm glad I read and I one that I would most certainly recommend.
For the genre Fiction:Historical:American, I am going to rate this book a 9 OUT OF 10.
Book Review: Early and Modern Polygamy in One Complex Story
Summary: 4 Stars
Polygamy is not an easy subject to wrap one's mind around, and I can't say that I feel any better about it now than I did before. In Ebershoff's novel, you get the sense that he is trying to not necessarily explain polygamy, but to demonstrate some of the effects of the institution on those involved or around it. Although I had read several autobiographies in college of women who had lived through polygamy, and that each of their experiences had been negative, that I knew very little about how modern-day polygamy played out. Transposed with the older version of polygamy, the modern institution seemed pretty evil. By the mere fact that young boys had been cast out of the community because they were seen as a threat to the other men, felt really destructive to families and society as a whole. With this in mind, the human stories of the novel felt dramatic, and sucked me in fairly quickly.
Although the novel feels like dense reading, I got pulled into the lives of these two families and I often found myself flipping ahead in the novel to see what was going to come up next...and I never do that! Jordan is part of the modern story, and was the son of the father that was killed, and mother that they believed killed him. As he returned to St. George and Southern Utah to find out more about the murder, I felt a lot of anxiety for him. Without too much information, you get the sense that Jordan is 100% not welcome. People in the community know who he is, and he is seen as a threat to the community at large. It's an interesting idea to consider a young man (who incidentally is gay) as a threat to the adults in the community, by the mere fact of being a male. It really stands to question on what religious standpoint does one's gender seem like an okay reason to ostracize? I know that this wanders more into the arena of social engineering, and not religion, but it seems that modern-day polygamist families have built an entire belief system around the concept of family as part of an eternal salvation. Doesn't it seem backward then to "cast out" the sons you had in that very family, for whatever reason? It just had me feeling a lot of empathy for Jordan from the very beginning.
Regardless of one's feeling towards polygamy, early or modern, Ebershoff's novel felt to me like it wasn't trying to deliver a verdict, but a dramatic story. I can't say I loved The 19th Wife, because there is a discomfort factor that had me on edge a bit, but I was thoroughly engaged in this dramatic story and mystery. The novel is, however, a really good story, definitely well written and researched, and one that I would recommend to readers who want a pretty involved novel about polygamy and the myriads it has affected.
Book Review: Intriguing Blend of History and Modern Day Headlines
Summary: 4 Stars
This book had me mesmerized from the very first page. I am a big fan of historical fiction and when I need a break from the daily grind, that is what I normally pick ... something that has historical fiction in it and escape for a few hours. This one has that element as well as the modern day story of a young outcast who decided to return home to talk to his mother, who had been arrested for the murder of his father. I loved both stories ... of Jordan Scott, the young outcast and of Ann Eliza, the young woman who had been raised in the Mormon faith since birth. I love reading the stories of how a band of people's faith evolved over the years as they flee persecution to form their own city in the wilderness.
I know nothing of the Latter Day Saints other than what has been normally shared in the media. I do know that there is a split between the Latter Day Saints and other sects that claim to be descendents of Brigham Young and in keeping of his views on polygamy. Wasn't there a case not too long ago in Texas of women "being set free" from their homes? (The only thing I can remember of that is the outrage of babies and small children being separated from their mothers during that time period.)
This is a two-part story of a young boy who was thrown out of his small community and home because of a slight infraction, only to return home to see his mother in jail. The other story is of Ann Eliza, who is one of Brigham Young's wives. Both stories show insights of the minds of the men "the Firsts," who take on numerous wives. Ann Eliza shares her story ... which I found fascinating but there is a part that did disturb me enough to ask why did she only bring one of her two sons on her travels? As a mother, that was the part I didn't understand on why she left her oldest son behind in the same community that she was fighting against when she left. Jordan Scott's story was interesting simply because it was told from a young male's perspective on why he was thrown out (later on, he was joined by another kid who was also an outcast as well). The murder-mystery did keep me enthralled even though I did figure part of it out early on (and yet was still surprised at the conclusion). The book did keep me enthralled from the very first page until the last chapter. That last chapter didn't keep my interest like the previous chapters but it was still a tidy finish to the novel.
This is a rather intriguing read and I would definitely recommend it for my book club to read. It would definitely provide lots of fodder for conversations.
4/20/10
Book Review: I rounded up
Summary: 4 Stars
I'll admit it: The 19th Wife caught my eye because it's about polygamy, a subject bound to arouse curiosity (as the characters themselves observe!). On that front, the book delivers. It comprises two narratives: one, the story of Ann Eliza Young, one of the many wives of Brigham Young and eventually an anti-polygamy crusader, and the other, a murder mystery involving a modern-day polygamist sect, as told by Jordan Scott, a young man who was expelled from the group. The two narratives coexist uneasily: while the author tries to link them (for example, through a student who writes about Ann Eliza and appears in the contemporary story), they don't quite fit together.
The historical part is told via a wide variety of documents: primarily a fictionalized version of the real Ann Eliza's memoir, supplemented by memoirs from other characters, scholarly works, letters, and so on. Together, the documents weave a compelling tale, with the drawback that we are distanced from the characters. Ann Eliza's memoir was written with a political goal (to end polygamy) and her credibility is called into question; other characters, too, have their own agendas. Those who like unreliable narrators will be thrilled, while those who want to get to know the characters as people are likely to be disappointed. Either way, this part of the book does a great job of covering the early history of the Mormon church and showing how polygamy affected people's lives.
Meanwhile, the contemporary story is much faster-paced, full of snappy dialogue and modern slang. Here the problems are reversed: Jordan is a great character and very sympathetic (and it's nice to see a gay protagonist for once), but the plot doesn't go much of anywhere. He spends most of the book driving around to talk to other characters, supposedly looking for evidence to exonerate his mother, who's been accused of killing his father; however, he never has any leads and after awhile it started to feel to me as if he was actually hunting for a plot. I didn't like the supporting characters in this section: there's an annoying kid who gets far too much page time and a love interest who comes out of nowhere (nobody gets that serious that fast. Nobody). The end is poor on all levels. But again, there's a lot of information about a sect most readers probably know little about, and I found that to be worth my time.
Ultimately, I found this to be a fun book that will pull you in and educate you, and although it disappointed in some ways, I still recommend it.