The 19th Wife

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Gracie, August 5, 2011 (view all comments by Gracie)
I really enjoyed this book. An amalgam of fact and fiction, past and present, secretive fundamentalists and broader society, The 19th Wife has a lot to offer.

Ann Eliza Young, one of Brigham Young's numerous spouses, known as #19, chooses to leave her husband and Mormon faith after years of struggling with the polygamous life takes its toll.

BeckyLyn Scott, one of Sawyer Scott's numerous spouses, also known as #19, doesn't choose to leave her husband or faith as one of the Firsts and is instead taken away in handcuffs, accused of murdering her husband.

Jordan Scott, BeckyLyn's son, excommunicated from the Firsts years ago, comes back to find out what really happened to his father and if his mother is responsible.

The history of polygamy as seen through Ann Eliza's quest to end it and the journey back into the sect that cast him off as seen through Jordan's quest for the truth parallel each other in many ways. Trying to determine what faith is, what is means and what it calls for, in any time period is a difficult thing. And the stresses seem to vary little from Ann Eliza's day to this. Jordan has long since stopped believing in the rigid, hypocritical, and corrupt rules of the life he was born into. But has his mother? Or has someone pinned the blame on #19 again?

David Ebershoff weaves the stories together beautifully. Ann Eliza makes allies in the outside world who help her escape. Jordan makes allies in the outside world who help him break back in. And each step along the way reveals a new piece to the puzzle until things all come together and the reader finds out who the #19 Sawyer Scott spoke of minutes before his death really is. It's a long book, but captivating in its complexity and its inside look into a society closed off from the world, ruled by a prophet and his desires and decrees. A fascinating book.

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Genevieve Cottraux, January 1, 2011 (view all comments by Genevieve Cottraux)
Absorbing dual stories; one a historic account of polygamy and the other a modern day mystery set in the current underground world of plural marriage. Ebershoff does a remarkable job speaking in different voices from different times and cultures. I first picked up the book because I have been watching Big Love. This book adds a lot of background I didn't have on the Mormon church and the history of polygamy in the United States, plus the 2 stories were fascinating.

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inthepastlane, September 6, 2010 (view all comments by inthepastlane)
Ann Eliza Webb became Brigham Young's "19th wife" in 1868. Although written in a fictional format, a lot of historical documents were researched to give what felt like a biographical feel to the true story of her life. The over-riding controversy addressed in the book is polygamy, or celestial marriage, and its effects on the women, children and men who practiced it in faith as directed by the prophets of the Latter Day Saints (LDS).

Ann Eliza's story is overlaid with a modern-day, second story about a young man named Jordan Scott, one of the "lost" boys of the "Firsts" of Mesadale, UT. When polygamy was outlawed late in the 1800's by the U.S. federal government, the LDS church fractured. The large majority gave up polygamy as a tenet of faith, but a smaller group left the Salt Lake City area to form a cult-like group that still practices polygamy away from the eye of the law. The young men of the Firsts are often cast out of the larger core group and abandoned because they are viewed as competition by the older men practicing celestial marriage. Jordan's story, which involves a murder in Mesadale reverberates and enriches many of the themes of Ann Eliza's life as a pioneer of the Mormon faith.

This is a long book, over 500 pages, but it is compelling and well written addressing the diverse viewpoints of the families who experienced the devastating effects of polygamy as a requirement of faith and those who supported it devoutly. I found this book mesmerizing as it pulls you into a life that most people would have a difficult time imagining and presents it from numerous angles. I had a hard time putting it down as I felt at times like I was reading several private diaries and allowed insight into the intimate thoughts of Ann Eliza and many other Saints. A measure of the success of this book is its haunting quality. Despite having finished it, my mind wanders back often in thought about Ann Eliza's life, from the time she was a babe in arms through her divorce from Brigham Young and her fight to legally end the practice of polygamy in the United States.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780812974157

Author:

Ebershoff, David

Publisher:

Random House Trade

Subject:

General

Subject:

Mystery fiction

Subject:

Historical fiction

Subject:

General Fiction

Subject:

Literature-A to Z

Subject:

Literary

Copyright:

2009

Edition Description:

Trade paper

Publication Date:

20090631

Binding:

TRADE PAPER

Grade Level:

General/trade

Language:

English

Illustrations:

1 ILLUSTRATION

Pages:

544

Dimensions:

8.01x5.20x1.19 in. .90 lbs.