Review: The 19th Wife

The 19th Wife, by David Ebershoff. (New York: Random House, c2008.)

Ebershoff explores the impact of polygamy on women and children in this complex novel of interwoven narratives. He tells the story of Ann Eliza Young, apostate ex-wife of Brigham Young, alongside the story of Jordan Scott, an excommunicated member of the "Firsts," a modern-day offshoot of the Latter Day Saints whose adherents continue to practice plural marriage.

Ann Eliza's story is historical fiction, finding its basis in her actual lectures and writings from the late 1800's. At that time, the Saints had settled in Salt Lake City and, under the leadership of Prophet Brigham Young, had developed a thriving, if insulated, society. Women were instructed, according to the vision of First Prophet Joseph Smith, that polygamy, or "celestial marriage," was a divine requirement for their salvation.

The author effectively portrays the contrast between the official picture of Mormon "sister wives," contentedly sharing housework and raising their children together, and Ann Eliza's experience of plural marriage, which she finds to be degrading to women, as well as to their children. Her lectures in theaters and auditoriums across the country, and her testimony before Congress, helped lead to legislation outlawing polygamy. Ironically, her very public apostasy may also have helped the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints survive into the present, owing to their denunciation of plural marriage at the end of the 19th century.

The author weaves a separate contemporary story into the historical one. In this story, a gay teenager, Jordan Scott, is expelled from the polygamist group known as "The Firsts." The Firsts live in Mesadale in the Utah desert, far from the scrutiny of the federal government. (Ironically, Jordan is expelled not for being gay, but for holding hands with a teenaged girl.)

This part of the story begins when Jordan's father is shot to death, and his mother, the 19th wife of his father, is jailed for the murder. Jordan, who had been abandoned by his mother by order of the Prophet, returns to Mesadale to help her win her freedom from prison.

This book is very well written and it works beautifully as a novel, but it also provides a fascinating account of the practice and politics of polygamy. Highly recommended.

Review: All We Ever Wanted Was Everything (Audio)

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, by Janelle Brown. (Spiegel & Grau, 2008. ISBN: 0385524013)

On the surface, Janice’s life is great. She has the beautiful home, the successful husband, two smart and lovely daughters. Although she paints a beautiful picture of her family when she talks to her friends, she’s never really satisfied.

Her husband, who stands to make billions from the launch of an IPO for his pharmaceutical company, is never home. Her older daughter, Margaret – incredibly smart, an Ivy League grad – ran off to LA with an actor, no less, and started up a weird feminist magazine. Her younger daughter, Lizzie, her miracle baby, born after several miscarriages, is a sweet, but rather plump, 14-year-old. Janice knows that Lizzie would be much happier and more popular, if only she’d drop a few pounds.

On the day of the IPO, everything falls apart. Over the course of a summer, Janice and her daughters find themselves dealing with issues they’d never dreamed of discovering in their own lives: drug addiction, debt collectors, infidelity, teen pregnancy, and divorce papers.

The author’s satirical look at the good life in California is sometimes funny, often bitter, and always apt. She does a good job of distinguishing her characters with unique and believable voices.

I listened to this book on OverDrive’s downloadable audio from the Lackawanna County Library System’s digital collection. Recommended for book clubs.

Michael Beschloss

Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss paid a visit to Scranton this week, as a speaker in the Lackawanna County Library Lecture Series. He spoke for the better part of an hour, telling stories of the presidents he has written about in his books. He was charming, intelligent, and funny. If you ever have a chance to attend one of his lectures, be sure to go!

It was his first visit to what he called "the epicenter" of the 2008 presidential campaign, and he spent some time trading jokes with former Scranton Mayor Jim Connors about whether Scranton or Chicago had the worse reputation for political shenanigans. (In my opinion, Mayor Connors got off the best line, when he described someone who wants to be buried in Scranton when he dies, so he can remain active in politics.)

In the meantime, you may want to read his newest book, Presidential Courage, in which he describes moments in the lives of nine American Presidents when they had to choose between the right thing to do and the possibility of losing reelection. The vignettes are necessarily brief, but they provide insight into such events as Theodore Roosevelt's antitrust attack on the Northern Securities Company, Harry Truman's actions in the creation of the nation of Israel, and John F. Kennedy's support for the Civil Rights Act.

National Book Awards Finalists

The National Book Foundation has announced the finalists for the 2008 National Book Awards. The fiction list is:

Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project (Riverhead)
Rachel Kushner, Telex from Cuba (Scribner)
Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country (Modern Library)
Marilynne Robinson, Home (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Salvatore Scibona, The End (Graywolf Press)

To see the nominees in Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature, go to the 2008 Awards page.

Man Booker Prize Winner Announced

The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga, has won the 2oo8 Man Booker Prize. For more information, see the announcement on the official website.

Review: Home

Home, by Marilynne Robinson. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008. ISBN: 0374299102)


Too much is left unsaid in this beautifully written book. Two of Reverend Boughton's eight adult children -- Jack, the black sheep, and Glory, the youngest -- have returned to the family homestead, due to difficult circumstances in their lives. They are all very careful of one another's privacy, and they tiptoe around discussing the events that have brought them home to Gilead.

Ultimately, caution and taciturnity become frustrating, both for the characters and for the reader. The stingy hints that Jack and Glory share about their lives initially provide some dramatic tension, but the habits of concealment become almost annoying in the end. The book closes with some elucidation of the reasons for Jack's angst, but we never really learn much about the details of Glory's troubles.

Nonetheless, it is a pleasure to read the words that Pulitzer Prize winner Robinson puts together to deliver this somewhat unsatisfying story. Her sentences are simple, but they are crammed with thought and analytical insights. She is not just a great writer; she is also a great thinker.

If you enjoyed Gilead, the author's previous work, you will recognize the Boughton family. In this story, it is Reverend Ames and his family who are the secondary characters. Enjoy this book for its writing, but don't expect too much from the story.

Review: A Voyage Long and Strange (Audio)

A Voyage Long and Strange, by Tony Horwitz. (Digital Audiobook read by John H. Mayer)

Horwitz challenges traditional American teaching on the discovery of America and America’s first European settlements. Using a combination of primary research (e. g., the writings of Columbus) and interviews with modern-day descendants of European settlers and Native Americans, he pokes holes in what we think we know about such touchstones as Plymouth Rock and the first Thanksgiving.

Realizing that he, like most Americans, had little understanding of what happened between Columbus’s “discovery” of America in 1492 and the Pilgrims’ arrival at Plymouth in 1620, he sets out to fill in the blanks. Along the way, he travels from Newfoundland and the early Viking settlements of A.D. 1000; to the earliest (1565) permanent European settlement in the continental U.S. (St. Augustine, Florida); and he follows the trails of the Spanish conquistadors through the American Southwest. He spends a good bit of time focusing on John Smith and the Jamestown settlement, which predates Plymouth and the Pilgrims.

While Horwitz’s writing is wry and filled with amusing stories about the odd characters he meets in his travels, his history of early U.S. settlement is filled with violence, devastating illnesses, disasters, and greed. Horwitz concludes that the inaccurate and whitewashed version of American settlement that we learn about in school is more myth than history, but that we can expect the myths to prevail.

I listened to this title using the downloadable audio service powered by OverDrive, available online at my library, Lackawanna County Library System.