Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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228 of 240 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent and about more than it appears to be..., 22 Jan 2009
This book is somewhat misleading. From the cover and the blurb on the back you'd think it was a murder mystery set within a Mormon sect, which in a way it is, but it's much more than that. It's set in two times periods: the modern day, in which Jordan, a young gay man excommunicated from a fanatical Mormon sect that still practices polygamy, attempts to solve the murder of his father, a murder that his mother, the 19th wife, is accused of committing; and the mid 19th century, where it follows the life of Ann Eliza Young, a real life figure who was the 19th wife of Brigham Young and sister of the man who founded the First breakaway sect that Jordan and his mother are a part of, her divorce from Brigham Young and her crusade against the practice of polygamy. It's much more about the destructiveness of polygamy than it is a murder mystery, and it's well worth reading.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too long..., 1 Mar 2009
I think this novel could have been vastly improved by being about 200 pages shorter.
It started off interesting and addictive - though I initially found the references to Mormons, Latter Day Saints and Firsts a little confusing, it was soon much clearer in my mind. There is no doubt that DE has a fluid, readable writing style and a flair for full and honest characterisation - that much I certainly did like.
Narrated by Mormon's, Ann Eliza Young, the 19th wife of the Prophet Brigham Young and various members of her family during the 19th Century and Jordan a Century later - an excommunicated homosexual trying to piece together the murder of his father while his mother awaits trial for it, the story is brimming over with Historical fact.
However, by the middle third of the book, I was flagging. It just went on and on and on far too long to hold my attention. I wish DE had been more succint in his tale as I know I would have savoured it. Instead, I was speed-reading in order to move on to something else.
A huge shame...
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117 of 125 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great murder mystery, but the historical section was a bit dry, 5 Feb 2009
The 19th Wife is based around a polygamous Mormon sect. The book is split into two distinctive parts. The first begins in 1875 and follows Ann Eliza Young, the nineteenth wife of Brigham Young, the second Prophet of the Mormon Church. Unsatisfied with his treatment of her, she separates from him, and then leads a crusade to end polygamy in America.
The second is basically a murder mystery. Twenty-year-old Jordan discovers that his father has been murdered, and his mother is accused of shooting him. Jordan was expelled from the Mormon sect at the age of fourteen, when he was discovered holding hands with one of his step-sisters. He returns to Utah to visit his mother in jail, and begins to uncover many secrets within his polygamous family.
Other than the theme of polygamy there was nothing to link the two stories; as the book is a whopping 606 pages long, I think that it could have benefited from being split in two separate books. The writing styles were very different, and I think they will appeal to different people. I much preferred the modern, murder mystery, as it had more pace and intrigue. The character of Jordan was well drawn, and I had lots of empathy for him. The ending was reasonably satisfying, and this section works well as a thriller with a twist.
I found the historical section to be quite dry, and by the end of the book I had lost interest in it. The large number of footnotes, and other historical references were distracting, and it was difficult to know which sections were factually accurate, and which were fiction. The characters became lost in the data, and it became more like a text book than a novel.
Overall, there was a lot of interesting information about life within a polygamous family, but it lacked that special spark.
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