New Mormon Books

Among my many weird fascinations is polygamy. I have watched and read many books about polygamy. Frontline produces a series of shows on the Mormon Church that was really, really interesting and well done. Political feelings aside, I find the idea intriguing. Why would anyone want to share your husband and, on the other hand, why would a man want to be married to more than one woman?

Book Review: The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
By Tracie Yule
Yule Time Reading, June 26th, 2009.
http://www.yuletimereading.com/2009/06/book-review-the-19th-wife-by-david-ebershoff/

David Ebershoff takes two distinct narratives, adds faux-historical documents, letters, and Wikipedia entries, and comes up with a completely engrossing look at the history of polygamy in America. This is a case of a hugely ambitious idea - multiple narrators, different time periods, the blending of history and fiction - that absolutely gets it right. I was grabbed by the first page, and by the end of the 500+ page novel didn’t want it to end.

Review & Blog Tour - The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
By Elizabeth
As Usual, I Need More Bookshelves, June 10, 2009
http://needmoreshelves.blogspot.com/2009/06/review-blog-tour-19th-wife-by-david.html

Read more…

The book is part historical fiction, part “ripped from the headlines” contemporary novel, and alternates back and forth between time periods and the different characters. Now, I know some people don’t like this tactic; I’ve had people say to me that they find it confusing. Personally, I quite enjoy layering a story in this manner, and seeing the parallels and connections between the two. There are actually two 19th wives in this novel: Ann Eliza Young, one of the Mormon prophet Brigham Young’s wives, and the other is a plural wife from a polygamous sect in rural Utah, accused of murdering her husband.

A Woman Scorned
By Lesley
A Life In Books, June 4th, 2009
http://www.alifeinbooks.com/?p=592

I have been reading The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff, so I am now a bit of an expert on polygamy. While The 19th Wife is a pretty sad story - I’m not sure any fundamentalist religious sect is a heap of fun to be part of unless you are top dog.

Of policemen and polygamists
By Miranda Spary
Otago NY Daily Times, 5 Jun 2009
http://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/books/59718/of-policemen-and-polygamists

The thread of polygamy stitches together the two stories in this novel: The first is a fictionalized account of Mormon leader Brigham Young’s 19th wife. The second is a modern-day story surrounding a young man who has been cast out of a fundamentalist Mormon sect that still engages in plural marriage.

Novel mixes history, mystery
BY LISA MCLENDON
The Wichita Eagle, Jun. 07, 2009
http://www.kansas.com/entertainment/books/story/842560.html

Best-selling novelist David Ebershoff is coming to town with his new pony, a dappled wonder titled, “The 19th Wife.”

The initial inspiration for “The 19th Wife” was not a historical urge, however, but a fictional one. Ebershoff saw that Ann Eliza had what it takes to fuel a few hundred pages and a two-year effort. “She possessed a number of traits,” the author reveals in the interview at the back of the new Reader’s Circle trade paperback, “that can make a character in a novel unpredictable.’

Polygamy unveiled: Author of historical Mormon novel comes to WNC
By Rob Neufeld
Asheville NC Citizen-Times, June 7, 2009
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090607/LIVING/906070305

I loved this book. It is probably not one that I would have chosen myself. It took me a long time to read it - I think that was because I was taking in all the historical parts. While I was reading it I was conscious that it was fact interwoven with fiction.

BLOGOSPHERE BOOK CIRCLE - MAY
By Melissa
eMpTy, May 26, 2009
http://tuataragirl.blogspot.com/2009/05/blogosphere-book-circle.html