Review: The 19th Wife

The 19th Wife
by David Ebershoff
Published by Random House
Released August 2008
Purchased at Used Book Store

From Goodreads:

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 her family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how both she and her mother became plural wives. Yet 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, family, and faith.

My Thoughts: 

This book has been on my shelf for a while. It was my turn to pick the book club read so I picked the 19th Wife. Somehow I was expecting the book to be much different, but I really loved this book. To start the content is intriguing. It combines a modern-day crime mystery with a historical memoir and also includes letters and papers to shed light on the social history of this particular sect of the Mormon Church.

I don't pretend to know much about the church of LDS, but this novel had a lot of information regarding the history of the church and the evolution and subsequent devolution of polygamy as a part of the faith.

The sections of the novel written as part of Ann Eliza Young's Memoir were very interesting. They had enough "story-telling" to keep them interesting, but enough "fact-giving" to appear as a memoir might.

The modern day drama involving Jordan Scott and his mother was very interesting, and the connection of the "19th" wife, was a fascinating one.

I definitely enjoyed this read and I would recommend it general fiction and historical fiction lovers alike.