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| The 19th Wife: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: David Ebershoff
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  56 reviews
Sales Rank: 1250
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 514
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 6.6 x 1.4
ISBN: 1400063973
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781400063970
ASIN: 1400063973
Publication Date: August 5, 2008
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Product Description
Faith, I tell them, is a mystery, elusive to many, and never easy to explain.
Sweeping and lyrical, spellbinding and unforgettable, David Ebershoff’s The 19th Wife combines epic historical fiction with a modern murder mystery to create a brilliant novel of literary suspense.
It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. A rich account of a family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how a young woman became a plural wife.
Soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second exquisite narrative unfolds–a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah. Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to discover the truth behind his father’s death.
And as Ann Eliza’s narrative intertwines with that of Jordan’s search, readers are pulled deeper into the mysteries of love and faith.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 51 more reviews...
The 19th Wife December 2, 2008
This was a most enlightening and interesting read. Though the book is fiction, it draws on the memoirs of Anne Eliza Young who was purported to be Brigham Young's nineteenth wife(I say purported because it appears that he had quite a few and she was probably not really #19 but may have been somewhere around #25) to weave a tale that will captivate you almost from the first page. The story merges the life of Anne Eliza in the past with that of Jordan Scott in the present. Anne Eliza's fame/infamy sprang from her decision to divorce her husband in so public a manner for what she saw as his abandoment and mistreatment of her. She took him to court and wrote a book to discredit him and his polygamous practices. Obviously by so doing she became persona non grata with her former church members and their families. She fought an extensive battle with Brigham Young both in the court of law and in the court of public opinion. Her battle would prove to be instrumental in dismantling polygamy as a major belief system of the Mormon church.
The parallel and present day story that is told alongside Anne Eliza's is that of Jordan Scott whose mother is herself a 19th wife and accused of shooting her husband to death. Years before, Jordan had been abandoned on the side of the road because his father had caught him holding hands with his step sister and the prophet considered this behavior to be inappropriate(by the way he was 14 when this happened). It is important to mention that Jordan's family was considered fundamentalist and not part of the Latter Day Saints(Mormons). His community was headed by a prophet and almost every family was polygamist or soon to be. When Jordan returns to help his mother after her arrest, he is now 20 and still carries with him the scars of his earlier abandonment and ostracism.
Both stories are told side by side with Anne Eliza's story occupying most of the book. Though I found the modern day story interesting, I was not blown away by it. The real genuis is the way in which the author used Anne Eliza's two books, church documents, newspaper reports and people who may have known her to create a portrait of a woman who must be admired for her spunk. I imagine that women's rights were not what they are today and getting a divorce during those times for a woman must have been a difficult venture. With that in mind, I cannot begin to comprehend the guts it must have taken her to get such a public divorce from the leader of a powerful church. Her books, lectures and later works where all driven by what she saw as the unbridled male lust that was manifested in polygamy and the women and children held hostage to this practice.
In my opinion, this is a very well written book that gives you a look into the early history of the Mormon church. Obviously you need to do your own research to find out what is factual and what is fiction. Anne Eliza though very informative on the practices of her church at the time was also a biased author whose anger toward Brigham Young clouded some of her writing. I would highly recommend this book.
 Enjoyable and thought provoking November 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
 Just ok. November 22, 2008
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.
 It was like a Lifetime movie November 22, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
An Interweaving of History and Fiction November 19, 2008
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.
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