Author: David Ebershoff
Genre: Fiction, Standalone
Published: 2008
Personal Rating: 2.5/5 (eh)
Yearly Count: 43
The 19th Wife alternates between two fictitious stories of polygamy: a historical account of Brigham Young and his 19th Wife, Ann Eliza, and a contemporary mystery in which the "husband" of many wives is murdered.
For me, the individual stories separated themselves on both ends of the spectrum. The historical account was intriguing and compelling, while the contemporary story was very amateurish and ineffective. Also, as a listener to this book, I found it to be very choppy. I did not care for the alternating chapters and didn't really care much about the characters. Also, I wondered many times, if any of the historical aspects held any truth. I had high hopes for this "chunkster," but ultimately feel it was way too long, and a waste of my time. There are many other really good books on this topic that I would recommend.
My feeling on the historical bits... some truth and some not, as all these sorts of books seem to be. In the book (which the audio book may not have had) the author talks a little more about what is true and what is not in an author's note at the end of the book.
ReplyDeleteSorry this didn't work for you. I really liked the book, even though I did find some parts a little slow.
ReplyDeleteI am not into slow reads, especially during the summer months, so I'll take a pass on this one! :)
ReplyDeleteI read this for ny book club and chatted about it with some people and we all agreed that the historical story was the best part of the book. If he had stayed there I would have been perfectly happy.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry this one didn't work better for you, Joy. I really enjoyed it. It motivated me to do a good deal of research to find out how much of it was based on fact. While the author did take some liberties, there is also a lot of truth there, historically.
ReplyDeleteThis one got an "eh"???? Oh no...I had high hopes for this one and almost picked it up from the library Saturday. Guess I'll put it on the back burner for now.
ReplyDeleteSuey ~ Ohhhh, I would like to read the author's notes. Hmmm, maybe I'll have to check it out at the library the next time I go.
ReplyDeleteBermudaonion ~ Yep, I found it to be slow too. Thankfully I was listening, so it just kept going.
Les ~ Not worth the time, imho.
Nicole ~ I agree 100%. Too bad the publisher didn't tell him that. :)
Literary Feline ~ It's just hard to believe sometimes that this stuff actually goes on!
Staci ~ If you are a audiobook listener, I'd go that route. It gets too slow (boring) at times.
I agree with you about the modern vs. historical parts of the book, but my book group did not agree. Did you see her-- Eliza's -- picture on Wikipedia? She really was a beauty!
ReplyDeleteBybee ~ No, I didn't. I didn't look anything up regarding this book because it didn't grab me. I will, however, take you up on the idea. Thanks.
ReplyDelete