The 19th Wife: A Novel
by David Ebershoff
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Book Reviews of The 19th Wife: A Novel
Book Review: Some Good Insight Into the Reality of Polygamy
Summary: 4 Stars
Similar to Sarah's Key, The 19th Wife was an airport grab - this time in Orlando. The similarities don't end there - The 19th Wife is a historical novel, with some basis in truth. The 19th Wife also follows the same style of Sarah's Key, where a story taking place now is woven into a related story that took place in the past, this time about 120 years ago. Overall, I liked this book a little more than Sarah's Key and The 19th Wife does a little bit better job with the modern-day story than Sarah's Key did, but like the first one, I don't know that the modern-day story added a whole lot to the overall quality of the book. (Full confession: I actually read Sarah's Key in April, but just posted the review now, because I thought the similarities between it and The 19th Wife were pretty apparent.)
The theme tying The 19th Wife's two different stories together is polygamy. The historical part of the book focuses on the story of Ann Eliza Young, the infamous real life "19th Wife" (really more like 50th) of Brigham Young, the second Prophet of the Mormon church. Eliza Ann left and divorced Brigham very publicly, exposing the Mormon church's polygamy practices and ultimately leading to its banning. This banning of polygamy within the Mormon church forced a group of pro-polygamists to splinter off. This splinter group, The Firsts, are the focus of the modern-day story. Jordan grew up as a First, but was banished as a teenager for holding his half-sister's hand. Jordan's mom was his father's 19th wife and she is accused of killing his father. Jordan is reluctantly drawn back into the world of the Firsts because he doesn't believe his mother murdered his father. He spends the book trying to figure what really happened.
Ann Eliza's part of the book provides the background for Jordan's story. Through Ann Eliza, the reader better understands how The Firsts broke off and what Jordan's childhood was like. The book switches between two different voices - Jordan's piece is told from the first person, but Ann Eliza's piece is told through her fictionalized autobiography, newspaper articles, letters, and other period documents. This flip flopping between styles was a little confusing at first - I had to think about who's story I was reading for the first 100 pages or so - but once I got used to it, I felt like it was appropriate for the book.
In a nutshell: I liked this one. It was an interesting story and a decent read. Three and a half stars.
Book Review: Better than Big Love
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the story of two women who could be called "The 19th Wife."
The first, Ann Eliza, whose parents were at the origin of the Latter-Day Saints, and who married Brigham Young, one of the founding prophets. She tells the story of what it was like for her mother, father, brothers and sistes, and herself to live in a society that demanded plural marriages as the way to salvation. We learn how these women were treated, how their husbands probably felt about plural marriages, and how the children were victims of them.
Ann Eiza eventually escapes her marriage to Brigham Young and travels across the nation speaking out against plural marriage. Eventually, partially through her own efforts, plural marriages are condemned by the government of the United States.
The second "19th Wife" is a woman in present day America, who is part of "The Firsts", a sect of Latter-Day Saints that still believe and practice plural marriage. She lives in a town like those that we hear of on the news these days. They are governed by a prophet with too many wives to count, some less than legal.
This woman, Becky Lyn, is in jail for allegedly killing her husband. Her son Jordan is a Lost Boy. Lost Boys have been cast off from their families, usually on the side of the road, because they are considered competition for the young girls in the sect. When his mother is put in jail he has to decide whether he can forgive her for abandoning him long enough to help her prover her innocence.
Ann Eliza's and Becky Lyn's stories are woven together throughout the book with the past echoing the present in almost every passage. It is a haunting story. An intriguing mystery set in a place and time that most of us cannot comprehend.
I thought this was a ver good book. The author clearly showed the protagonist but did so well in making them human, not perfect, and subject to criticism. He also helped me understand the though processes behind the followers of this practice. When that is all you know, when your father and his father have practiced plural marriage and believe that it is the only way to salvation, it is hard to believe anything else.
This book taught me a lot about the history of the Mormon religion and it's founders. Although it is fiction, it is based on historical documentation and personal accounts. I highly recommend it if you are curious about any of it.
Book Review: Engrossing "historic" fiction
Summary: 4 Stars
I love reading historic fiction. It's so satisfying to learn while being entertained. Literary perfection for the multi-tasker
So when a friend passed along The 19th Wife: A Novel, by David Ebershoff, I eagerly snapped it up. I'm happy to report, the novel delivered an amazing story wrapped in an intimate picture of lives of both the early day Latter Day Saints and those who currently live in the aftermath of polygamy.
Ebershoff delivers two entwined stories. The first is the historically -based story of Ann Eliza Young. We see how her family came to be followers of Joseph Smith and made the journey to Utah. We get to see how the message of celestial marriage was introduced to the Latter Day Saints and then how it morphed and became a dominating force in the church. Ann Eliza was a catalyst to ending polygamy after she eventually escaped her role as the 19th wife to Brigham Young. She toured the country beginning in 1875 telling her story, writing a book and fanning the flames that eventually led the Mormon church to denounce polygamy.
The second story is in present day, Mesadale, Utah. Imagine that you are the husband to 15 or even 20 wives and father to some 40 children. Now your church says, "oops, no more polygamy." What do you do with the mess you've made? Some chose to clean it up and others chose to hide out in Mesadale and keep on living what they believed to be the true doctrine of Joseph Smith. The story in Mesadale erupts with a gun shot. A 19th wife has been accused of shooting her husband and this ignites her excommunicated son to return and find out what really happened.
I was completely engrossed in both story lines. I was able to feel the power of faith in these characters and better understand what faith allows the mind to overlook. The sacrifices women (and even men) made during this period are amazing. I believe that all religions have darkness in their histories. What man has done in the name of "God" is both inspiring and horrific at times. The LDS church is no better or worse in that respect. True religious leaders need to embrace and confront those mistakes and triumphs. Don't hide them. Share them. Learn from them.
Book Review: "Speaking on behalf of Christ is a dangerous task, especially when the faith you carry forth is tainted by rumors of...
Summary: 3 Stars
...angels, miracles, and the harem."
The 19th Wife is two totally different stories bound in the same book. The modern day tale is that of a twenty-year-old First (Fundamentalist Mormon) "lost boy" named Jordan, who, after learning that his mother has (wrongly, he believes) been jailed for murdering her husband, sets out to find the real killer. Because he grew up in the town where the crime took place, and thus has kept some connections, he is able to gain information that leads to the truth. This, in spite of the fact that he's not afraid to say what he thinks about things relating to his former faith, (p 39), "Out here, if your dad says he wants to cuddle, get ready to be raped." The guy is gay, which adds something (though I'm still not really sure what) to the standard story. Worst of the plot about present-day polygamy is the anticlimactic denouement about the murder. The other, better story is that of a spirited woman named Ann Eliza who became Brigham Young's 19th wife (the real number being closer to 50) and stirred up trouble for him and his fellow participants in celestial marriage by being unafraid to air the church's dirty laundry. Worst of the plot line following this intriguing woman is its historical fiction-ness, which leaves the reader wondering which parts are true; and which not. The author's attempt to add authenticity by including legitimate-seeming sources and then informing readers that they are not, (p 510) "the newspaper articles, the letters, the Introduction by Harriet Beecher Stowe, the Wikipedia entry...I am the author of these...they are fictional representations...Many are inspired by an actual text or a kind of text," is misleading. He does include a lot of interesting information about Joseph Smith and his founding of the Mormon church, some of which I remember from a many times better book on the subject. My advice: skip this really long mixed fiction/historical fiction story for better, sometimes stranger, versions of the truth: No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith by Fawn M. Brodie, Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer, and Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall.
Book Review: Too Little for two worthy stories
Summary: 3 Stars
avid Ebershoff attempts to wind two lines together in The 19th Wife, both concerning polygamy and it's effect on those entrenched in the lifestyle. One plot line is a modern murder mystery in which a husband with many wives is found dead at his computer suposedly at the the hands of his 19th wife. One of his children, a lost boy and the son of the wife suspected of killing him, is intent on proving who is really responsible for the murder in order to set his mother free. The second story line follows Ann Eliza Young, a 19th wife herself, as she struggles against the confines of her lifestyle in the dawn of the polygamous lifestyle in America. Eliza's story line is made up of a fictionalized account of her life and actual excerpts of her book-also called The 19th Wife.
"When I tell them my father has five wives, and I was raised to believe plural marriage is the will of God, these sincere people often ask, But Mrs. Young-how could you believe such a claim?
Faith, I tell them, is a mystery, elusive to many, and never easy to explain."
I had high hopes for this book. I've read other books about the polygamist lifestyle and always found them fascinating, in a disturbing way. The story switches back and forth between the past with Eliza and the present with Jordan. At first I enjoyed the comparison of the two, but near the half way point I felt like Ebershoff really would have liked to write a book solely about Jordan, but couldn't flesh it out enough so he wound Eliza in to make up for the lack of content. Jordan's story line had possibility, but I felt that the wrapping up of his plot line was too sudden and convenient. Eliza Young is a historical character and I felt that Ebershoff remained true to her and her tale, but in the end I would have enjoyed one book about her and one book about Jordan better. The two of them both deserve an entire novel to tell their stories. This is my only complaint about the book, because Ebershoff is a talented writer, but it was a big enough complaint to make me think twice about reading it again.