Wife No. 19

Ann Eliza Young doesn't have anything good to say about the early Mormon church. She portrays Joseph Smith and Brigham Young as opportunistic, charismatic leaders who think themselves above human law and encourage their followers to lie, steal and cheat from their gentile neighbors (thus causing the persecution they can then decry). She also portrays them as narcissistic, arbitrary, manipulative and downright homicidal. Her depiction of polygamy is overly emotional, as is the style of the day, showing polygamous men to be intent on getting themselves new young wives and leaving the old ones to fend for themselves in poverty.

This book was characteristic of anti-polygamy memoirs at the time of its publication. Similar efforts were cited as the primary reason for the rise of organized public opposition to Mormon polygamy in the mid-1800's.

Even by contemporary standards, the writing is stilted and dull. An aggressive editor could easily cut out 95% of the text, and still retain everything of real interest to a modern reader.

For the most part, this book is an impassioned series of first, second, and thirdhand stories about life inside Mormon society from the perspective of an Ex-Mormon Ex-polygamist activist. The author's agenda is explicit and her passionate opposition to her ex-husband and ex-religion are very genuine. Occasionally she strays into preaching show more or polemic territory, but for the most part she maintains a dry descriptive matter-of-fact tone.

I was surprised at the occasional sarcasm and humor in this book. At one point the author recalls that she was given a new name, Sarah, and later on learned that every other Mormon woman she ever met also received the same new name. She then observed that this practice should make it easier for their husbands to remember their many wives new names, and to call all of them at the same time when the occasion arises in the afterlife.

Overall, I'm glad I picked this book up, but I wish I'd started skimming it immediately instead of reading the first 400 pages consecutively. My endurance wore down, and I only read selected portions of the remainder of the book. show less

This is a memoir by the infamous 19th (or 27th, but probably 52nd) wife of Brigham Young, second "prophet" and leader of the Mormon Church, originally published in 1875. After reading The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff, I wanted to read this book as it was a major source for his novel.

Ann Eliza's memoir was a sensation when she wrote it, as she was already famous from the series of lectures she'd been giving about polygamy after filing for divorce from Brigham Young, her second of three husbands. As can be expected, her accounting when talking about Brigham is going to be biased, but she's accurate about her life growing up in a polygamous household, and one can see where Ebershoff followed her memoir and where he took creative license show more with the story.

This is a long book (over 600 pages), but worth the read. show less

As an adult who was raised in the LDS faith I found this a very interesting. The author shares the other side of the story that is not often told or even hid from the mainstream teachings of the church. I have to admit though, some of things she relates are her own thoughts as she experienced it and comes from her perspective. A very interesting read though.