THE 19TH WIFE by David Ebershoff

ISBN: 9780552774987 (UK)

"It's funny, they call us the lost boys when we get kicked out, but really, we were lost the day we were born."

Another of the books I got for Christmas, David Ebershoff's The 19th Wife is the story of lost boy Jordan Scott, who at 14 is kicked out of the polygamous Mormon sect in which he was raised; left along a desert highway with only a few dollars and a knapsack containing his sacred underwear. Six years later Jordan is eking out a living in California when his father's murder draws him back to the remote desert town where he spent his childhood. Accused of the crime, imprisoned, and possibly facing execution is Jordan's mother -- his father's 19th wife. 

Intertwined with Jordan's narrative is that of Ann Eliza Young, an actual historical figure who was the 19th wife of the Mormon church's second prophet, Brigham Young. Set over a hundred years before Jordan's story, Ann Eliza's story is (somewhat confusingly) a fictionalized version of a book she actually wrote, Wife No. 19, which was published in 1876. The book deals largely with her rejection of plural marriage, and her campaign against it after her divorce from Brigham in 1875.

While Ann Eliza's story, called "The 19th Wife" in Ebershoff's novel, gives a lot of historical information about polygamy and the Mormon religion, which is interesting, I felt that at times the book was too heavily historical, and to me this took away from the more interesting plot line of the murder mystery. There seemed to be several chapters of Ann Eliza's life story for every one or two chapters of Jordan's narrative, which broke the tension of the latter plot line. It felt like Jordan's story wasn't quite enough to make up a full novel on its own, so the historical stuff was padding to prop it up.

There are also many short documents scattered throughout the book: excerpts from fictional websites, instant messages, online discussion forums, church archive records, letters, and Wikipedia entries. These are brief and I think they add to the story in a realistic way, creating layers in the mystery of Jordan's father's murder. However, there is one chapter in particular that is meant to be a graduate-level research paper, written by a minor character who is studying at the Women's Research Institute at Brigham Young University. The paper, far from being graduate level, is a straightforward summary without a thesis statement or adequate citations. It's also written in a horribly informal tone, which would never be acceptable for an academic paper. I found this break in realism very distracting, and it took away from my enjoyment of the novel. I think it's a cool idea to include different sources and points of view in a historical novel, but I don't think the author executed it well in this instance.

That being said, the book was otherwise very well written, well researched, and provocative. I could sympathize with all of the main characters, especially Jordan and Johnny, a lost boy he meets on the road and tries to help. And it was interesting to look into the world of the polygamous enclave of Mesadale (based on the actual town of Hildale, Utah) the "Firsts" (a fictional name that refers to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), and their doctrine of celestial marriage. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of the Mormon church and/or polygamy.