Polygamy Week Book Review: The 19th Wife

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

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.

I didn’t do a page count but by my estimation this book is about two-thirds Ann Eliza Young’s story and just one-third of it is the modern murder mystery. That was fine with me; I found myself much more interested in the historical part of the story. The modern-day murder mystery plot was a little thin. The characters didn’t have the depth that the ones in the historical part of the book did. However, it’s clear that Ebershoff thoroughly researched the FLDS church. The modern-day polygamist sect in this book is almost exactly like the FLDS run by Warren Jeffs.

The historical section of the book starts with Ann Eliza as a small child and goes up through her marriage and separation from Brigham Young. Ann Eliza was a great character – a very strong, opinionated woman, especially for the time in which she lived. I found myself wondering how much of her personality was a product of Ebershoff’s imagination. I’d like to read Ann Eliza’s autobiography at some point to see how the real Ann Eliza compares to the one in this book.

I think fans of historical fiction and/or polygamy books will enjoy this book.

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