The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

Jump to Comments

The 19th Wife tells two stories: one is a historical novel about Ann Eliza Young, the 19th wife (probably more like the 50th++ wife) of the Mormon leader Brigham Young, who decided to leave him and speak against polygamy; the other is about a young gay ex-fundamentalist Mormon trying to get his mother, also a 19th wife (give or take a few) exonerated of his father’s murder. The second, contemporary story is fun. It reads like a mystery, with an entertaining and believable hero (and his sidekick and boyfriend, a non-fundamentalist Mormon also banished from the church but because of his homosexuality rather than to combat the surplus of young men in polygamist sects), shadowy twists and turns, and the exotic background of the fundamentalist church.

In contrast I found the historical novel boring, longish, trying to be too clever (for instance including fake “historical” documents in the text when a strong narrative would be just fine) — and perhaps overly concerned with painting a dreadful picture of  the Mormon church. The author properly highlights how polygamy stems from and is nurtured by the (men!) leaders’ hunger for power and control. He carefully describes the destructive consequences of polygamy for the women, of course, but also the children and the men themselves, since some would rather not have many wives and the surplus ones are kicked out without consideration for their future. But he doesn’t seem to be able to stay with a simple narrative and uses some of the characters to hector the readers about the evils of polygamy. We’re already convinced, thank you very much.

Perhaps a good read if you stick with the mystery…

Leave a Comment

Filed under New fiction

Tags: marriage, religion