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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
I'm SO SO into Big Love and interested in the culture of plural marriage. While I felt that some details were a bit of a stretch, the characters were extremely loveable and real.
a fun read (perfect for a vacation), but ultimately not all that memorable.
There were a lot of great things about this book, and a few so-so things. It's pretty long, and I felt that the story didn't move along very quickly, but it had its memorable moments: the description of a parent's love and grief that may be the best I've ever read, the depiction of the fallout from a nuclear bomb that I won't don't think I'll ever forget, and many scenes and turns of phrase that made me laugh out loud. There are also characters that will stay with you a long time, most importantly Rusty, the 11-year old sad sack nicknamed "Repulsivo" by his numerous siblings, who will do just about anything to get his family to pay attention to him. I just wish the story itself had been a bit more compelling.
This had me laughing out loud at times, and wound up being lovely and poignant, too
I alternated between laughing outloud and cursing the main character, Golden Richards, the polygamist of the title. Engaged throughout the book, I couldn't have been more disappointed in the ending.
A lot happens in this book and none of it was expected. I love Rusty - such a great character. I was surprised I liked this book as much as I did after not really feeling for any main characters for most of it. This is really more of a 3.5 star for me but it is very engaging and a good read.
Who would have thought I would enjoy a book about polygamists? But the story is universal, the sense on loneliness and feelings of being trapped do not just belong to the polygamists. We all feel them at some point in our lives and we have to find the right way to deal with them, to not let them take your life over.
It's certainly a fascinating subject, and I enjoyed the variety of perspectives through whom the story was told (husband, wife, son, odd 3rd person narrator whose description reads like stage directions). The story wasn't awful, though the end lost a few threads (Huima and Nestor? I'm so sure). None of the characters were really all that likeable, but you feel for them. I dunno, it was just ok. But I read it in like four days.
One of my favorite quotes from this book is "Families are forever, and he wondered if the slogan was meant as a promise or a threat." Golden is the head of a polygamist family in the Virgin Valley in Utah. He is married to four wives and is the father of 28 children. And he's not exactly clear how this happened. He grew up in Louisiana, moved to Utah in his late teens to be with his father, and through his father was brought into the fold of polygamist Mormonism. That's Golden's problem: he seems to drift into situations and then allow those situations to develop around him without much positive input from himself. For example, when dealing with his family, "over time, he developed a noncommittal stone-faced countenance...so he couldn't be accused of looking differently upon one child or wife, of loving one over another, of harboring favorites. Even the smalest guesture of regard had to be planned out well in advance and executed with the discipline and skill of a jewel thief." This book sneaks up on the reader because it's written on so many levels. It is funny, thoughtful, and heartbreaking. Told in three voices, Golden, Trish, his fourth wife, and Rusty, aged 12, who in many ways is at the heart of the book, this book is an examination of polygamy from the point of view of the husband, junior wife, and one of the many, many children. The first half is funny, very funny, but the second half of the book is much more serious account (with funny moments) about how life in a polygamist family with a head of household, who is having a serious mid-life crisis, is slowly coming apart.
It took me awhile to really get into this book, it was not what I thought it would be initially. But I'm glad I stuck with it. There were parts that were hilarious (lots of LOL) and other parts that were so sad. We're all looking for love, and in this mixed up family it's interesting to see the lengths people will go to find it.