The 19^th Wife by David Ebershoff is about a young man, Jordan Scott, who was kicked out of a polygamous sect of the Mormon Church as a teenager.  Years after he was kicked out, Jordan revisits his home when his father is murdered and his mother is on trial for the murder.  Jordon is convinced that his mother is innocent and is determined to find out who really committed the crime.  As Jordon digs into his family’s past, he also learns about the past of the Mormon Church and Ann Eliza Young, the notorious wife of the prophet, Brigham Young.  Ann Eliza Young divorced her husband and set out to denounce the faith and her marriage.

The premise of The 19^th Wife completely intrigued me.  Among my many weird fascinations is polygamy.  I have watched and read many books about polygamy.  Frontline produces a series of shows on the Mormon Church that was really, really interesting and well done.  Political feelings aside, I find the idea intriguing.  Why would anyone want to share your husband and, on the other hand, why would a man want to be married to more than one woman?  The main character is also trying to answer these questions as he comes to grips with his childhood.

Although the storyline intrigued me, I found the story a bit lacking.  One, because I never really understood what Ann Eliza Young’s story had to do with Jordan’s story.  Is it because of the Mormon Church?  Faith alone connected them?  Because Jordon’s mom and Ann Eliza were both 19th wives? If so, then I find that a bit sketchy.  I kept waiting for an answer: like Ann Eliza Young was Jordon’s grandmother or Ann Eliza Young was connect to Jordon’s mom or dad.  It never happened.  Young’s story is fascinating, but I just didn’t quite understand what this real life character had to do with a fictional character.

Next, I didn’t particular care for Jordon Scott.  I never really understood him or could really get into his character.  Jordon is gay and that is well known in the novel.  However, he was not kicked out of the church because he was gay.  It was because he was “inappropriate” with one of his sisters.  Okay, so why make the character gay?  I felt like he was gay just to be gay.  I didn’t see what it had to do with anything and only distanced me from his character.  I completely don’t care if a character is gay, but make it relevant to something.

Last, Ebershoff had too much to say and wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to say.  The fact that he is completely against polygamy is very obvious, but I don’t think polygamy is a black and white issue and the novel attempts to make it such.  The main character is so staunchly against polygamy that I couldn’t jump on his bandwagon.  I couldn’t say “Wow, this is a horrible religion.” I never could because the character was way too one-sided for me to believe him.

Thought it all, the intriguing story was Ann Eliza Young’s and I feel like her story was undermined by Ebershoff’s retelling of it.  Ebershoff rewrote many of Young’s words.  So the book is completely fictional.  I feel a bit cheated by The 19^th Wife because I never really got to know any of the main characters and the one I was most interested in, Ann Eliza Young, real voice was not even used in the novel.

One thing that I did get out of the novel was a passion to learn about Ann Eliza Young and her story.  Her opinion is obviously biased, but I’m interested in learning more about it.  Overall, I found The 19^th Wife to be a bit disappointing. I think more character development is needed because the over storyline is good, but to completely get involved in a novel, I need meatier characters.

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