Here's the blurb: Faith, I tell them, is a mystery, elusive to many, and never easy to explain. Sweeping and lyrical, spellbinding and unforgettable, David Ebershoff’s The 19th Wife combines epic historical fiction with a modern murder mystery to create a brilliant novel of literary suspense.
It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. A rich account of a family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how a young woman became a plural wife.
Soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second exquisite narrative unfolds–a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah. Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to discover the truth behind his father’s death.
And as Ann Eliza’s narrative intertwines with that of Jordan’s search, readers are pulled deeper into the mysteries of love and faith.
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Kimber An here again.
Most Americans have a hard time putting themselves back in time, back behind the eyes of someone who lived decades or centuries before. If that's you, then Mr. Ebershoff will help you get there. Eliza is female, for one thing, and for most of us her life story and rejected lifestyle is so different from ours that it's difficult to comprehend here in the 21st century. So in comes Jordan, a young man with all the usual challenges you'd expect for a young adult these days. Plus, he's gay.
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Then, you find out he grew up in a cult.
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Poor guy.
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I mean, geez, we all grew up with some challenges, but this guy is one of those who really got hammered. And, yet, he survived and found his own strength.
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Anyway, he finds out via the Internet that his mother (who married his old-goat-father at age 14) has just been arrested for murdering his father. If you know anything about domestic violence, you know how it messes with the mind. Now, top that with religious brain-washing.
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Jordan has no logical reason to help his mom. She dumped him on the side of the road when he was just a kid because the Prophet told her to. This totally defies the maternal instinct and you'd think it would break any sense of love or loyalty a person might have for his mother.
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Jordan thought so too, but a tiny bit of it is left and so he drives back to Utah to visit his mother in jail. He expects she's finally come to her senses and rejected the cult which coerced her into being raped at 14 by an old goat and then coerced her into abandoning her precious baby boy when he was 14. I mean, surely.
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But, no.
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'Cause, you see, when people go through traumatic experiences, especially if they have no love, support, or professional help, they develop ways of surviving. One is Denial. That is, they deny the bad thing happened or that it was that bad. Another way is to twist religion around so they feel they suffered for God and He'll reward them for it.
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Back to the story. Jordan is justifiably angry, yet he digs deep again. And he realizes his mother is innocent of the crime. How could she be innocent when all the evidence points to her? Well, he knows everything his mother's ever been through and he knows that she is still devoted to the cult and its prophet. If she still believes in the cult, then she still believes it is God's will for her to be married to a monster and against God's will to do anything to protect herself or her children, much less murder the monster in cold blood. It doesn't make sense.
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And so the journey begins.
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Meanwhile, you have the historical backdrop narrative going which heightens the tension.
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The cult in this story is a splinter group of the Mormons, but I would not consider this book anti-Mormon. The distinction is clearly made. Also, every religious denomination has its crazies. I think Jim Jones started out a Methodist, for example. So, let's not get into Mormon-bashing. I'm quite content with my own faith, but I'd like to add that I respect the mainstream Mormon church for how they look after their people.
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Pick this one up, folks, and be prepared not to put it down for a while.
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Much love.
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Mr. Ebershoff includes a PDF copy of Ann Eliza Young's original book on his website, among other fascinating things. http://www.ebershoff.com/index.html
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