I started and stopped and came back to this book multiple times over a series of months, but I just couldn't get into it enough to keep reading--or remember where I stopped reading from last time so I wouldn't have to read chapters over again. I never got more than a third of the way into it before I gave up. Life's too short and this book was too long to keep hacking away at when it didn't grab my attention immediately. I'll pass, thanks.

The 19th Wife, a novel by David Ebershoff, is loosely based on the story of Ann Eliza Young, one of the wives of Brigham Young, the preeminent prophet and leader of the Mormon Church in the nineteenth century. Ann Eliza left Brigham, and began a crusade to end polygamy. Her story is interspersed with that of a fictional modern 19th wife, BeckyLyn Scott. BeckyLyn is accused of murdering her husband.

The modern story is told through the viewpoint of BeckyLyn's adult son Jordan, whom she was forced to abandon when he was a teenager. The Scott family is part of the fictional community of Mesadale, Utah. This community calls itself the "Firsts"; they are faithful to the original Mormon belief in Celestial Marriage (polygamy).

When Ann Eliza left Brigham, she began a lecture tour of the country, ending in Washington D.C. and meeting with members of Congress and President Grant. Her voice was instrumental to the passage of the Poland Act, which helped to end polygamy in Utah.

Jordan returns to Utah to visit BeckyLyn in prison. He becomes convinced that his mother is innocent. As Jordan tries to unravel the mystery, we learn more about modern day fundamentalist Mormonism. From Ann Eliza's story, we learn about the roots of the Mesadale community.

One of my favorite non-fiction books is Jon Krakauer's fascinating investigation into fundamentalist Mormonism, Under the Banner of Heaven. And of course I never miss an episode of HBO's Big Love. So when I first head about The 19th Wife, I knew I had to read it. I really enjoyed it, and am glad I actually bought it (even though I am now generally against purchasing books). ( )

I really like it. told from the point of view of a "lost boy" one of the boys ejected from a polygamous sect. girls are valued as commodities and eventual useful tools [sex, having babies, "selling" to acquire more power] whereas boys are liabilities - threat to take power, and so are often thrown out of the sect in early teen-age years.

The history of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, and Brigham Young was interesting. The mystery of the modern-day 19th wife was slightly suspenseful. Overall, I thought this book was a little slow. It didn't really pull me in and grab my attention at any point. ( )

I picked up this book as a "back up" only because so many people had been talking about it. Perhaps because I had no preconcieved ideas or opinions on the topic I was able to read it with an open mind and for the sole purpose of being entertained by a new story.
It took me a while to get through but not in a bad way. I absorbed the details and questioned "is this for real?" and "how could this EVER be?" knowing that there is truth in the tale.
I enjoyed this story simply because it opened a whole new world of interest to me, something I had never really thought about or cared about before picking up the 19th Wife.

Murder? Check. Famous historical characters? Check. Unbiased examination of religious church-and-state themes? Check. Ripped-from-the-headlines polygamous cult? Check. Good writing and sympathetic characters? Check and check.

The 19th Wife was hard to put down. I'm usually not a fan of books that don't stick to one narrative but Ebershoff deftly weaves together two stories: a modern-day murder on a polygamous ranch in Utah and a historical narrative based on the real-life story of Ann Eliza Young, one of Brigham Young's wives who in 1875 attempted to divorce him and began the crusade to end polygamy in the United States.

The historical part uses tons of different sources to tell the story: Ann Eliza's first-person narrative (based on a book she actually wrote called Wife No. 19), fictional correspondence between a BYU grad student and current-day Mormon church leaders, historical accounts from Ann Eliza's family members and contemporaries, fictional newspaper articles and a Wikipedia entry, to name a few. I've read that many people preferred the historical narrative to the modern-day murder mystery, but I liked them both.

I loved the protagonist of the modern parts, a young gay man named Jordan, who was kicked out of a fundamentalist polygamist compound (the "First Latter-Day Saints," which appear similar to the fundamental and polygamist LDS sect that was in the news a year ago or so) when he was young for holding hands with his stepsister. Jordan's mother, herself a 19th wife, is arrested for the murder of Jordan's father. Jordan, reluctantly at first, determines to clear her name. His voice is compelling, and you can't help rooting for him and those he meets on his crusade to exonerate his mom. The parts that take place on the Firsts' middle-of-nowhere town are downright creepy. Ebershoff does clearly state early in the book that the funamental polygamists are not related to today's Mormons except through distant history, and that the LDS church today does not condone polygamy. Kinda sad people still have to make this distinction, but anyway.

The historical parts are a fascinating depiction of the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, focusing specifically on the origins of polygamy and how Joseph Smith and his successor, Brigham Young, forced their followers to practice it, telling them it was the only way to heaven. I'm not Mormon, so I don't know exactly how much of the historical part is pure fact and how much is narrative license. Regardless, it's just flat-out fascinating. Polygamy was a disgusting, soul-crushing practice and I caught myself shaking my head and saying "oh no he didn't" a bunch of times. The gradual corruption it wreaked on the early LDS families makes for compelling stuff.

I could go on and on about the book, but suffice to say if you like historical narratives based on actual events, you'll like this book. Also if you're fascinated by modern-day polygamists (and who wasn't, after the raid on that ranch a year or two ago?) this is a good introduction to that way of life. My only complaints are the book is a bit on the long side (the ARC is almost 600 pages) and I was constantly wondering during the historical parts what was truth and what was fiction. Maybe that's just the journalist in me. But you can read more about Ebershoff's research methods on his Web site or in the Author's Note at the back of the book.

Overall, yes! This was a good read

This review is unfinished and unedited. Something not-so-groovy happened while I was making changes and, poof, they were gone. Currently, i have no desire to fix it. Computers can be as frustrating as they are wonderful.

The beginning of the book was interesting and flowed well. Ebershoff developed a viable and creative plot, filled with counterpoint (two corresponding time-periods working with one another) and depth. However, two-third's of the way through, it all came to a screeching halt. It became painful to read. I had to beg myself to continue, hoping that the author's rich text would return with its redeeming power. It did not. The author began to repeat the same concept - theological and/or philosophical - over and over again. It came cloaked in various situations and events, but never enlightened the reader with new thoughts, points of view, or information. This book had all the makings of an epic, historical novel that, in the end, was very disappointing.

The main intent of the book was wonderful. It was to inform its readers that there is, and has been, a very difficult social problem in our country that hurts many innocent women -Polygamy through the Mormon Church. The word, "Polygamy" is housed under the term, "Celestial Marriage". The meaning is simple, but the consequences loom large. It states, men must marry many wives. Wives are the servants of their shared husband. There is an unspoken order to these wives. The first wife maintains the most power among the women in her family. The last, or youngest wife, usually maintains the sexual power over her husband, which sometimes means, power over the other wives. In this way, the Mormon culture not only degrades women, but indirectly forces the women to do the same to one another. It becomes something like the survival of the fittest. Women against women. The possibility of social control, made simple...End or expand...once more?...

Without question Ebershoff did his homework before writing this novel. As he successfully illustrated, polygamy is a problem that still exists today and needs to be put out of practice. The author dealt with these historic and current day facts extremely well. It is not my point to undermine the value of that work. If he was able to enlighten one person and/or effect a change in someone's life, I'd say his work was successful within that framework. However, that does not exonerate him from the literary configurations that make-up a great novel. He was headed in the right direction for most of the novel. In fact he was doing a good job. Its failing came when he started to wind down and work towards the books end. This is where the author fell apart. This is were many writers are undone. Ebershoff wound down, and expanded. Wound down, and expanded, wound down and expanded... It became the book that could not end. I felt this tension while working towards the novels end. Indecision and uncertainty filled the last pages. By the time it did end, I felt exhausted by the unresolved conflict. ( )

As much as I dislike beginning a review with my take on the ending, that is where I find myself. The irony is that although I did find the ending anti-climatic, it in no way tainted my praise of the novel. In fact, I prefer endings that ring with a dull thud over a symphonic overture. I tend toward ambivalent endings. This book brought that ambivalence as well as a concrete yet superficial-feeling resolution.

Actually, there were two endings. Written as a story within a story, one ending was a mystery solved and the other was a mystery never to be solved. The first story concerns Jordon Scott, a gay ex-Mormon from a remote Utah sect called the Firsts. The Firsts claim to fame is their adherence to polygamy in spite of the Church's official stance of banning the practice. As a teen, Jordon was abandoned by his mother. The reunion of mother and son after many years is at a prison where his mother is being held, accused of murdering her husband. She was his 19th wife.

The second story also tells of a 19th wife. This one concerns Ann Eliza, 19th wife of Brigham Young. She became a powerful agent in ending the practice of polygamy within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and criminalizing it in the rest of the country. Blackmailed into marrying the Church's prophet then basically ignored and neglected by him, Ann Eliza begins to doubt the central tenets of the Church. Eventually she leaves the Church, begins a lecturing tour, and pens an autobiography. Her book, along with other documents depicting life in early Church history, is interspersed with the story of Jordon Scott.

I love the story within a story idea, and Ebershoff pulls it off nicely. However, the Jordon Scott story often took a backseat much of the time to the Ann Eliza story. Her story and the supporting documents were used in a compelling way. It was much more of a well-researched historical novel than a present-day murder mystery. The Ann Eliza story and the Jordon Scott story filled in gaps for each other, making each one more compelling than if told individually. I appreciated this writing technique; Jordon provides the sparse prose with blunt dialogue, while Ann Eliza provides the deeper emotions of being one of many wives and the toll it took on the many children involved.

The author tells us to treat it like a fictional story. Perhaps it is entirely fictional, perhaps it's based on truth. It has a ring of truth to it, but I know nothing about the Mormon religion, let alone the radical off-shoot that believes in polygamy.

I also don't understand how any female would choose that lifestyle; or how anyone would be able to watch their daughters be raped and their sons evicted. But I guess they do.

My inability to not get frustrated with all the characters made it harder for me to like this book. It's interesting, and I kept turning the pages to see what happened, but, to be honest, I skimmed a lot of the "historical" material because I really didn't care if so-in-so married so-in-so and became his wife number (enter number here).

And I didn't like the characters in the modern day part of the story: the young boy was too much a jerk, the main character too well adapted considering his lifestyle and background and his discovery of "true love" just too convenient. ( )

Having read about the history of the Morman Church and plural marriages in Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven I chose this book from the NextReads General Fiction newsletter as it sounded interesting. The parallel stories of two 19th wives one, Ann Eliza Young the 19th wife of Brigham Young the second prophet of the Mormans who successfully led them to settle in Utah and the other the 19th wife of a man involved in a fundamentalist breakaway sect of the Mormans who still practice plural marraige to the present day, who has been accused of his murder. The story of Ann Eliza Young is interesting as it is a fictional historical account of her successful fight to outlaw plural marriages in the United States during the late 1890s after she divorces Brigham Young. Both narratives draw attention to the plight of women and children involved in plural marriages and shines a light fundamentalism and the fight for religious freedom that is so much a part of American culture. ( )

This book was about 2 "19th" Wives one in the 1800's and one modern.(19 is in quotes because neither of these women were really the 19th but thats what they were called).
Ann Eliza was married to Brigham Young ,the historical fiction part of the book about Ann Eliza goes from her childhood till she divorced Brigham and went on a tour of the country talking about abolishing polygamy.
I found Ann Eliza's story really good it kept me interested and those parts of the book were written very well.
I however did not like the present day story or that the author seemed to think that if Jordan said the F-word ever other sentence then we'd know it was the present day story.I just really didn't like this part of the book at all when it finally came out who killed Jordans father did I care ? No , I guess I really didn't.
If this book would have just been about Ann Eliza It would have gotten 4 - 4 1/2 stars but the present day story takes away from it too much. ( )

Ebershoff manages to straddle multiple stories, centuries and leading characters without losing the reader behind. All voices feel authentic and it is easy to let go and be carried away by the quirky circumstances of a world I could never understand. And while it is not out and out historical fact, I am that much closer to understanding this totally foreign religion without fear and just a little self-indulgent anger.
A superb read through and through! ( )

The 19th wife is really 2 stories in one, the 19th wife of Brigham Young and the 19th wife of a modern day "First" polygamist. The stories are intertwined offering insight into the relationships of both women with their husbands and with the rest of the Mormon community. Ebershoff includes as historical background letters and chapters from Young's wife's book. Though both marriages are shown to be failures, one ending in divorce and the other in murder, the outcomes are surprising different. ( )

This book intertwines the story of Ann Eliza Webb Dee Young Denning, the 19th (or 27th or 52nd, depending on how you count) wife of Mormon leader Brigham Young, with a modern-day murder mystery set on a polygamous compound of “Firsts,” Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS), in Utah. The historical fiction part of the book is loosely based on Ann Eliza’s 1876 memoir, Wife No. 19 (available online), with a number of liberties taken with the real story. Ann Eliza actually sued Brigham Young for divorce and went around the country speaking about her life in polygamy, contributing indirectly to its eventual demise in the official Mormon church.

I found the parts of the book pertaining to Ann Eliza’s story the most interesting. They are presented in the form of supposed excerpts from her memoir, her father’s autobiography, Latter Day Saints (LDS) church archives, letters by her son and one brother, contemporary newspaper articles and interviews, even her mother’s, another brother’s, and Brigham Young’s diaries, and research by Ann Eliza’s descendent, Kelly Dee, supposedly a student at Brigham Young University working on her master’s thesis. In an endnote, author David Ebershoff makes it clear that “Although I am the author of these, they are fictional representations of what it’s like to spend time in the archives and online researching Ann Eliza Young, Brigham, and early LDS history. Many are inspired by an actual text or a kind of text.” Ann Eliza’s story is so fascinating that I was compelled to do research of my own to find out what was real and what was not in Ebershoff’s fiction.

The mystery centers around Jordan Scott, a 20 year old gay kicked out of the Firsts at age 14 (more because it was common to do so with the excess of boys in polygamous societies, as he hadn’t come out at that point). His mother is the 19th wife of a First, Jordan’s father, and she’s been accused of killing him. Jordan believes she is innocent and sets out to prove it. On his website, Ebershoff relates an incident while doing research for the book that ends up happening to Jordan too.

Ebershoff pulls together the two stories with Kelly, who meets and aids Jordan at one point. This modern-day story is less interesting than Ann Eliza’s tale, yet it provides insight into recent events involving FLDS.

I found it interesting that one of Ann Eliza’s brothers is implied to be the first leader and “Prophet” of the Firsts, and that no one knows what happened to Ann Eliza after her second memoir was published in 1908. The latter point is true and I think she was probably murdered by Firsts for resuming her fight against polygamy.

The unabridged audio version of this book was excellent. It employed four narrators, a young male for Jordan, a young female for Kelly, an older female for Ann Eliza, and an older male for most of the other voices in the book (Ann Eliza’s father, brother, son, Brigham Young, etc.). This made it quite easy to follow the weaving storylines. ( )

I am usually not a fan of books that jump between two storylines taking place at different points of time. However, this book sucked me in and never let go. The author does a good job of depicting the practice of poligamy in the early Mormon Church as well as in present day independent sects. Solving the murder that takes place in a small isolated town proves challenging - and the murderer unexpected. In addition, I thought the portrayal of Brigham Young was well done. He is shown both as the incredible religious leader who helped so many AND as a flawed husband. In historical fiction such as this, authors often take a great deal of literary license. Eberhoff provides an extensive appendix explaining when his information comes from historical record and when his storytelling takes over....Highly recommended ( )

With this book, you really get what could be two separate books in one.

Jordan Scott, who as a teenage boy was removed from his polygamous family home on the compound (by way of being left on the highway), returns to Utah after his mother has been arrested for the murder of her husband, Jordan’s father. The return is highly emotional for Jordan since he has not seen his mother since he was thrown out. In this track of the story we are given a look into modern-day polygamy as Jordan plays junior detective to solve who really killed his father. While on this path, Jordan learns more about himself as he opens his life up to his mother’s lawyer, the lawyer’s assistant, a teen who was also thrown out of the compound and a manager at a local hotel.

The parallel track of this story is historical fiction based on Brigham Young’s 19th wife Ann Eliza. Ann Eliza’s story is told via her memoir as well as other pieces of “primary” documentation, including: records, newspaper clippings and sermons of Brigham Young. These pieces of the book offer a history of the beginning of the Mormon religion, the migration of Mormons to Utah and the growth of polygamy. Ann Eliza was the daughter of a polygamous family, eventually became Young’s 19th wife, but later while seeking a divorce embarked on a speaking tour to discuss what it was like to be a wife in a polygamous relationship.

I was extremely impressed with how author David Ebershoff presented Ann Eliza’s story. Following Ebershoff’s extensive research, he creates a wide variety of these “primary” documents told via various voices – all seeming authentic and to actually be an original text. Before this book, I had not heard of Ann Eliza so was not sure where or how Ebershoff pulled his material. As soon as I finished the book, I was reading the author’s conversation at the back of the book so I could better understand the origins of Ann Eliza and her story. I now also find myself wanting to read both of Ann Eliza’s actual memoirs Wife No. 19 (from 1875) and Life in Mormon Bondage (from 1908).

If you would like more insight into Ebershoff and his work for this book, an interview with him recently posted on LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com/author/eb...). ( )

avid Ebershoff attempts to wind two lines together in The 19th Wife, both concerning polygamy and it’s effect on those entrenched in the lifestyle. One plot line is a modern murder mystery in which a husband with many wives is found dead at his computer suposedly at the the hands of his 19th wife. One of his children, a lost boy and the son of the wife suspected of killing him, is intent on proving who is really responsible for the murder in order to set his mother free. The second story line follows Ann Eliza Young, a 19th wife herself, as she struggles against the confines of her lifestyle in the dawn of the polygamous lifestyle in America. Eliza’s story line is made up of a fictionalized account of her life and actual excerpts of her book-also called The 19th Wife.

When I tell them my father has five wives, and I was raised to believe plural marriage is the will of God, these sincere people often ask, But Mrs. Young-how could you believe such a claim?
Faith, I tell them, is a mystery, elusive to many, and never easy to explain.

I had high hopes for this book. I’ve read other books about the polygamist lifestyle and always found them fascinating, in a disturbing way. The story switches back and forth between the past with Eliza and the present with Jordan. At first I enjoyed the comparison of the two, but near the half way point I felt like Ebershoff really would have liked to write a book solely about Jordan, but couldn’t flesh it out enough so he wound Eliza in to make up for the lack of content. Jordan’s story line had possibility, but I felt that the wrapping up of his plot line was too sudden and convenient. Eliza Young is a historical character and I felt that Ebershoff remained true to her and her tale, but in the end I would have enjoyed one book about her and one book about Jordan better. The two of them both deserve an entire novel to tell their stories. This is my only complaint about the book, because Ebershoff is a talented writer, but it was a big enough complaint to make me think twice about reading it again. ( )

This book is about the practice of plural marriage among the original Latter Day Saints and also among the current “Firsts” or “First Latter-Day Saints,” those who continue to practice polygamy as part of their faith. The stories of both groups are intertwined in a creative scheme that attempts to create the verisimilitude of a historical study.

The focus of the earlier tale is the actual story of the so-called 19th Wife, or Ann Eliza Young, one of the many wives of LDS leader Brigham Young. Ann Eliza was instrumental in helping to bring an end to the practice of polygamy by Mormons after her apostasy, widely-circulated book, and speaking tour of the country in the second half of the 1800’s.

The contemporary story takes place in Mesadale, which is a fictional amalgam of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona – two existing enclaves of Firsters. This (fictional) story is narrated by Jordan Scott, a young boy who was evicted from the colony, ostensibly for holding hands with his stepsister. He believes, however, with good reason, that the older men did not want any competition from the young boys. Jordan was not the first young boy to be sent into exile.

At the book’s outset, Jordan has been gone from Mesadale for six years. He has since come out of the closet, and has also been out of communication with his mother, who herself is known as the 19th wife of Jordan’s father. He never had much respect for his father. He explains:

"My dad … was a religious con man, a higher-up in a church of lies, the kind of schemer who goes around saying God meant for man to have many women and children and they shall be judged on how they obey. I know people don’t really talk like that, but he did and so do a lot of the men where I come from … I should tell you right off we weren’t Mormons. We were something else – a cult, a cowboy theocracy, a little slice of Saudi America.”

Jordan also speculates about why his mother and others like her put up with plural marriage even at great personal cost:

"…if you didn’t know anything else, if your only source of information was the Prophet, if you spent seven hours in church on Sunday listening to a man who claimed to have a direct line to God, who your father and mother swore was a Prophet, and your brothers and sisters, and your teachers, and your friends, and everyone else assured you, promised you, his word was the word of God, and those that he damned were damned for all of eternity, you’d probably believe it too.”

This theme is echoed by the author’s recapitulation of the early history of the LDS church, in which the leaders assured their followers that although even they themselves "hated" the whole concept of plural marriage, they would all be damned without hope of Salvation unless they went along. Brigham Young was even recorded as telling his faithful that it would be justified to shed the blood of any neighbor who did not believe in the doctrines of the Church. (This is known as the Blood Atonement Doctrine.)

The author, through his characters, makes it clear that religious righteousness was merely a cloak for sexual promiscuity. Moreover, the ability to prey on young girls was as corrupting to the spirit of the husband as it was harmful to the well-being of the (discarded) wives and children. (In a postscript to his book, the author states that he interviewed several women people who had been part of polygamous families: “women who had left their husbands, and boys and young men who had been excommunicated. Each told a variation of the same story: a dominant theology, a bounty of wives, a life of loneliness, intimidation, and fear.”)

On the Internet, Jordan sees a news item that his father has been murdered, and his mother has been accused of the crime and arrested. Jordan speaks to his mother in jail, and becomes convinced she is innocent. He sets out to prove it.

Jordan’s story and Ann Eliza’s story are positioned in such a way that each provides an explanation for and commentary on the other. The author employs a clever narrative technique that mixes up a variety of formats to present his information, including purported excerpts from Ann Eliza’s book, Wikipedia entries, excerpts from a Ph.D. thesis, legal documents, sermons, letters, and more conventional fiction chapters. This approach is more than an innovative way to switch voices in the novel; in the postscript the author notes that on a “meta” level, he wants to make the point that history is but a collection of interpretative data: “The historian’s point of view, his or her selection of subject and sources, the emphasis, the tone – all of these lead to subjective history, inevitably so.” But the author is also careful to point out that all of his fictional documents were inspired by actual documents and sources. If you use a search engine to check on the facts as presented in the book, you find they pretty much adhere to what the author avers.

At the conclusion of the book, some of the fictional mysteries are solved, and some historical ones remain. I would say the novel is a little longer than it needed to be; some of the last material seemed irrelevant. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating and thought-provoking book. ( )

I found this book fascinating. This contains two tales- the first set in modern day America of Jordan and his mum, who's just been charged with his dad's murder. The catch? His mum is one of twenty-odd wives. The second is the story of Ann Eliza Young, the '19th wife' of Brigham Young, Prophet of the Mormon church. Both tales contained the answers to the questions about the Mormons and the Firsts that I didn't know I wanted to ask. Ebershoff weaves the stories together well, including Masters theses, interviews and excerpts from the church. However, I did find the wrap up of the murder a little too quick and too neatly tied up. There's some well written minor characters in here too- the runaway Johnny and the too-cute Tom. A very interesting read. ( )

I found this to be a fascinating but somewhat flawed book. The author is telling two different stories that center on polygamy in Utah. One is the fictionalized diaries of Ann Eliza Young, the "19th Wife" of Brigham Young. She was a real person, and she did indeed campaign across the country to end polygamy. The other story surrounds a colony in Utah that continues to practice polygamy and a glimpse into what might happen to children who live in that situation. Kind of a timely topic. I really enjoyed the historical sections. They were told from a personalized perspective, but some of the historical information was new to me and was fascinating. I thought the modern story was less well developed and made it hard for the reader to follow the leaps in action or figure out whether certain characters were playing an important role or not. Still, an interesting read. ( )

Pretty disappointed overall. I must say the premise for the book is very intriguing - a polygamous cult plagued with accusations of sexual abuse and mind control is rocked by the murder of its Prophet by his 19th wife.
The story is told from two historical perspectives, now and the late 1800's when the Mormon sect first took shape and a similar real murder case took place. This in itself is fine and lends fascinating depth and context to the story. However, its told from the point of view of different characters via different mediums eg letters, newspaper articles, diaries, excerpts from books and even a university thesis. Although this gives it historical accuracy, it disrupts the momentum & tension of the murder mystery.
With the recent media spotlight on cult activity & its survivors, this novel is a timely glimpse into this scary & confounding world. Its very interesting from that angle but if you're looking for a gripping murder thriller, this is not it.

Despite the glowing reviews on the back -- and a recommendation by a patron -- I could not get into this book. I found the modern day character, Jordan Scott, especially difficult. Perhaps I will try it again sometime in the future. ( )

This was the most interesting and enjoyable book I've read in a long time. I love the changing voices and perspectives. It's so masterfully interwoven, that it truely was difficult to discern what was factual and what was fiction. I can't wait to try some of his other books. ( )

A unique way of telling the history of polygamy thru fiction intertwined with a modern story of the impact of polygamy. ( )

I only got through the first chapter or so of this book. It's just not as interesting as the description made it seem ( )