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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
This book is hilarious. Great characters. Fun read. It reminds me of Billie Letts The Honk and Holler Opening Soon. Golden is a poligamist--not an easy life. Finances are not good, he is contemplating an affair, home life is not good, etc. While I laughed out loud, the story is also touching.
Merged review:
Funny look at polygamy. Lies lead to more lies.
Merged review:
Funny look at polygamy. Lies lead to more lies.
Such a funny story. All the difficulties of a normal life are multiplied by the 4 wives and 30 kids involved. Definitely going to read more by the author, who until very recently was the official "writer in residence" of the state of Idaho.
Udall's The Lonely Polygamist is the story of Golden Richards, who unexpectedly falls into polygamy. He and his wives are well rounded and well described characters, as are a few of the children and other characters. Golden is a bit removed from his own life and seems bewildered by all the wives and children. Early in the novel Golden starts to make choices that could upset the lives of his whole family. This quiet novel is very engaging, although without much action or adventure. The novel isn't bland, though, there were some twists to the tale that I found surprising. I found myself more interested as each character unfolded.
emotional
medium-paced
This book was extremely hard to get into and it took a good half of the book before I had any sort of investment into it. The second half is more engaging than the first but overall the book was boring and tedious to read.
This was another book that did not live up to the premise of its (totally awesome) title. In fact, I found it so boring that I've apparently put off reviewing for two weeks.
What I expected was an exploration of polygamy, emotions, and the idea of being lonely when surrounded by people. Maybe also, being a Jewish woman from the eastern half of the country, and therefore having very little exposure to Mormons and known to FLDS, I have a bizarre fascination with them.
What I got was a quality author acting like he could get away with the most basic of midlife crisis plots by adding a couple extra wives. With four wives and a potential fifth, a mistress, a mob boss, an anarchist bomber and 20-somthing children, you'd think that at least some of the supporting characters would have something in the way of character development. Unfortunately, it was mostly a bumbling, completely unsympathetic putz of a main character and the son cast in his own image with no characterization of the remaining cast.
On the other hand, Udall's use of nuclear experimentation as a foil for interpersonal dynamics worked beautifully (if not a little on the wordplay side of things.)
What I expected was an exploration of polygamy, emotions, and the idea of being lonely when surrounded by people. Maybe also, being a Jewish woman from the eastern half of the country, and therefore having very little exposure to Mormons and known to FLDS, I have a bizarre fascination with them.
What I got was a quality author acting like he could get away with the most basic of midlife crisis plots by adding a couple extra wives. With four wives and a potential fifth, a mistress, a mob boss, an anarchist bomber and 20-somthing children, you'd think that at least some of the supporting characters would have something in the way of character development. Unfortunately, it was mostly a bumbling, completely unsympathetic putz of a main character and the son cast in his own image with no characterization of the remaining cast.
On the other hand, Udall's use of nuclear experimentation as a foil for interpersonal dynamics worked beautifully (if not a little on the wordplay side of things.)
OK, this is probably the oddest book I have ever read, but I don't think I have talked about a book more while I was reading it. The plot is this farcical craziness of the many households and history of Golden, the polygamist with 4 wives and 28 kids. I'm not sure how realistic the story is or if the author researched polygamy or if it is all imagaination (a rather vivid one, at that). I was rather disgusted with Golden and his wives most of the time, but the situation was so wacky that it kept drawing me in through all 600 pages.