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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
I liked this book. What puzzles me most is why it took me SO LONG to finish it. That indicates to me that there were a few things about it that weren't working for me.
This is sort of a tragi-comedy. It is the story of a lonely and depressive man, who has four wives and twenty-something kids. Great, great premise. I was immediately interested. So again, why couldn't I get through the book? There were sad elements (including deaths of several children) but also lots of comic relief. I think part of the reason it didn't work for me was that the comedy wasn't quite funny ENOUGH. I would think to myself "this book is so quirky" but it wasn't quite funny enough for a smile to pass my lips. Nor was it quite sad enough for me to feel the intensity of that emotion. I guess I was emotionally confused by the book! I felt like I saw what the author was trying to do, but felt like the effort wasn't quite working. This book was almost like a John Irving, with weird, quirky elements combined with real human emotion. The writing just wasn't as good as most John Irvings, in my opinion.
Another problem with the book was that I wasn't crazy about any of the characters. The chapters dealing with Rusty (one of the sons) were the only ones that interested me much. I think Golden was just SO flawed that it was hard to connect to him at all. And the story only went into the inner life of one of the wives. Again, wanted to know what she was thinking and how she ended up in a plural marriage, but it didn't turn out to be that compelling.
The book wasn't a disaster. As I said, I liked it (emphasis on like). It is really very memorable. That I can say for sure.
3 1/2 stars.
This is sort of a tragi-comedy. It is the story of a lonely and depressive man, who has four wives and twenty-something kids. Great, great premise. I was immediately interested. So again, why couldn't I get through the book? There were sad elements (including deaths of several children) but also lots of comic relief. I think part of the reason it didn't work for me was that the comedy wasn't quite funny ENOUGH. I would think to myself "this book is so quirky" but it wasn't quite funny enough for a smile to pass my lips. Nor was it quite sad enough for me to feel the intensity of that emotion. I guess I was emotionally confused by the book! I felt like I saw what the author was trying to do, but felt like the effort wasn't quite working. This book was almost like a John Irving, with weird, quirky elements combined with real human emotion. The writing just wasn't as good as most John Irvings, in my opinion.
Another problem with the book was that I wasn't crazy about any of the characters. The chapters dealing with Rusty (one of the sons) were the only ones that interested me much. I think Golden was just SO flawed that it was hard to connect to him at all. And the story only went into the inner life of one of the wives. Again, wanted to know what she was thinking and how she ended up in a plural marriage, but it didn't turn out to be that compelling.
The book wasn't a disaster. As I said, I liked it (emphasis on like). It is really very memorable. That I can say for sure.
3 1/2 stars.
I didn't want to enjoy this book. I didn't know until I just looked it up that it's considered by many to be a modern classic and that the author is well known and successful. I read the back of the book and thought it sounded dreadful but the cover design was intriguing. It's taken me a while to get through it but I covered the last three hundred pages in one insomniac binge.
I really loved it and amongst its many triumphs are making a hopelessly passive polygamist a wildly sympathetic character.
Read it!
I really loved it and amongst its many triumphs are making a hopelessly passive polygamist a wildly sympathetic character.
Read it!
I really just wanted a book that poked fun at the FLDS church but this is just boring and sad I don't care
A tragicomic story of a deeply faithful man who, crippled by grief and the demands of work and family, becomes entangled in an affair that threatens to destroy his family's future.
It's been a long road to the finishing line of Brady Udall's 600-page novel. I began this book in March as part of my audiobook experience in the car (as an aside: David Aaron Baker did an AMAZING job with his narration and contributed greatly to my love of this book) and as I listened, 30 minutes at a time, I became enthralled with the Richards family more and more deeply, from Golden to his would-be mistress Huila to his weird, but strangely compelling son Rusty to his compassionate, extremely likeable youngest wife Trish. In the end it's not so much about the Mormon experience as about life in a large family and the feelings of loss, isolation and, yes, loneliness in this world.
There are so many books that don't deserve this amount of pages, but Udall doesn't waste a single word. His forays into Golden's past, both recent and distant, color the story in a vital way. You come to understand this man and his troubles, even when you want to throttle him for his indecisiveness and cluelessness. Finally, the book comes to a fully satisfying conclusion, which I find to be very rare in so many novels I read. This ending shows the journey of the characters and makes perfect sense in light of what they've been through. It is a funny, poignant, thought-provoking, never short of remarkable work of fiction that has become one of my absolute favorites of recent works.
It's been a long road to the finishing line of Brady Udall's 600-page novel. I began this book in March as part of my audiobook experience in the car (as an aside: David Aaron Baker did an AMAZING job with his narration and contributed greatly to my love of this book) and as I listened, 30 minutes at a time, I became enthralled with the Richards family more and more deeply, from Golden to his would-be mistress Huila to his weird, but strangely compelling son Rusty to his compassionate, extremely likeable youngest wife Trish. In the end it's not so much about the Mormon experience as about life in a large family and the feelings of loss, isolation and, yes, loneliness in this world.
There are so many books that don't deserve this amount of pages, but Udall doesn't waste a single word. His forays into Golden's past, both recent and distant, color the story in a vital way. You come to understand this man and his troubles, even when you want to throttle him for his indecisiveness and cluelessness. Finally, the book comes to a fully satisfying conclusion, which I find to be very rare in so many novels I read. This ending shows the journey of the characters and makes perfect sense in light of what they've been through. It is a funny, poignant, thought-provoking, never short of remarkable work of fiction that has become one of my absolute favorites of recent works.
Great title, good idea for a novel, and I've had read it all if there weren't other books waiting for me. As it is, I read about 150 pages and then the last 20 or so.
This is a tragicomic story of a man with 4 wives, 28 kids, having a mid-life crisis. While there are times it makes you laugh out loud, there are also times that bring tears to your eyes. The situations the main character finds himself in are either hilarious or tragic. My main criticism is that it was a bit too long, but the characters were wonderfully developed.
I think I'm going to put this one aside. It's not horrible, I just find so many other books more interesting.
Started slowly and didn't grab my attention until halfway through, when the most beautiful description of an explosion and its fallout (literal, figurative, metaphorical, emotional, and physical) catapults the pace of the book and its development into high gear. In the end, I really enjoyed this story and the characters have stuck with me.
A literary friend, and former Morman, was seen reading this. A solid recommendation. I enjoyed getting to know the characters (at least the ones the author focused on--in a family of 35 kids you can't know them all, I guess). Using a large, plural family was a very interesting way to tell a story about love.
I am really liking this book, but Book Clubbers, I'm not sure what you will think. It is really long- over 500 pages and not a page turner. It is an intense look into the lives of this polygamist family, but the plot tends to drag a bit. Just want to give you a heads up before you buy it!