The 19th Wife

I've just finished reading The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff.  It combines the story of Ann Eliza Young, the 19th wife of Brigham Young, 19th Century prophet and leader of the Mormon Church, with the story of a murder that takes place in modern day polygamous sect.

If you get past the Richard and Judy Book Club sticker on the cover it's an interesting if not entirely successful read. The story of Ann Eliza Young is the stronger one. Based on her real life memoirs of her life with and separation from Brigham Young and her campaign to end polygamy, it explores the reasons why women would accept polygamy and the impact that it had on them. The modern day tale is less gripping. Centring on a murder in a secretive polygamous sect, it is told from the point of view of the victim's son, who has been thrown out of the sect some years before and whose mother is accused of the murder. The book does need the modern day contrast but the story is not as convincing as that of the nineteenth wife and the ending feels contrived. 

A theme of the book is that history is subjective. The novel includes a fictional version of Ann Eliza Young's memoir, a young scholar's paper on her history, and memoirs and letters of other characters. In the end though I found the point about subjectivity was overlaboured. Rather than relying on the different accounts to make his point the author has several of his characters explicitly comment that Ann Eliza's account has its biases. It felt more tell than show.  The book also felt too long, it would have been more readable and focused if it had lost 100 pages.

It was still an interesting read though. Knowing virtually nothing about the Mormon church I found the history of the church and polygamy fascinating. The fact that women and children in the twenty-first century are still subject to polygamy, their lives at the whim of men, is deeply depressing.