Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
It took me a long time to get into this book, and on several occasions, I almost abandoned it. I love Brady Udall and both his first two books were a home run for me. This one, not so much. I found the father, Golden, and the main child profiled, Rusty, to be annoying and had little sympathy for them. The main wife profiled, Trish, was interesting and realistic, in my opinion. Also, while I don't stray away from lengthy books, I feel that if they're going to be long, it needs to be that way for a reason. Most of this book led up to the last 100 pages (which I really enjoyed, hence the three stars). My guess is that Udall felt he needed the first 500 to establish sympathy for the characters, understand family dynamics, etc, but it was all I could do to keep trudging through. I know this was described as one of the 10 best books of 2010, but I'm not sold.
This book took me forever to read - it's good, interesting, funny at times, and (for me, at least) completely emotionally exhausting. Everyone just seemed so miserable. I could only read a few pages at a time. I'm glad I finished it, because the end was quite satisfying in an odd way, but I'm also glad it's over.
LOVED this book!! And Mr. Brady Udall seems to be a pro at coming up with great first sentences.
"To put it as simply as possible: this is the story of a polygamist who has an affair."
After enjoying [b:The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint] I was looking forward to reading this book and it did not let me down. I will definitely be looking for more from this author in the future.
"To put it as simply as possible: this is the story of a polygamist who has an affair."
After enjoying [b:The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint] I was looking forward to reading this book and it did not let me down. I will definitely be looking for more from this author in the future.
Well, I thought this book had a lot of potential. I mean, a Mormon polygamist guy with four wives and twenty-something kids who is lonely enough to have an affair? Gotta be funny. I probably would have finished it if I had been more in a reading mode, it wasn't as bad as some others I have given up on. But it came due at the library, and I was so passive about it I didn't bother to renew...
This book could have been better. There was some suspense. Interesting family dynamics. Exploration of grief and loneliness. But I hated the bathroom humor and it was everywhere. So unpleasant. I don’t need graphic detail about bushy pubic hair and how the gum in it changes over time. And then bringing you again and again how it looked and felt when it was finally cut… hundreds of pages later? I’m never gonna get this guy’s pubes out of my head.
I'm not entirely sure I enjoyed this book, but I read all 600 pages of it in one day, and thought about it and its characters for a long time afterwards - and that might be more important than enjoyment. The ending read as it were hopeful, a sort of clean start, but all the problems that brought about the crux of the story are still there. Nothing has been fixed.
I have mixed feelings about this book. I did not like the main character (the father). I felt him to be weak and selfish. The wives and kids I took pity on. The whole thing had a very depressed tone the entire way through. I do not think there was a single "happy" moment through out the entire thing. It did capture my attention enough to want to finish it out to see what happened. However, I walked away a bit disappointed with the whole thing.
Got bored and quit reading it half way through.... My friend loved it though.
I have to say, I really enjoyed The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint way more than I enjoyed this one. When I generally read books, I read them because I want to be enlightened or learn about something or sometimes for their wit and humour. The only thing I really learned more about in this one was the Mormon lifestyle and, having just looked up this author, I see Udall grew up in a large Mormon family, which makes me wonder if some of this may be based on autobiographical life events.
Udall captures quite a bit of what it must be like both being the male of the family with multiple wives and multitudes of children to provide for. He presents the story in third person but focuses on the husband of these wives and his interest in another woman that is not involved in the Mormon community. He focuses on one of the many children, Rusty, but mentions the many others in little instances. He talks about the logistics of being Mormon, at least during the Carter administration, and the decisions that must be made-home school vs. public education for example. What the reader sees or what seems fairly obvious is the difficulty of such a life in terms of both financially providing for so many and in terms of devoting enough emotionally to your family fairly and equitably.
I can't really hold back my own subjectivity and say that of all the religious I'm familiar with, I find Mormonism the lead favorable. Why is it they think it's okay for heterosexual men to marry multiple wives and they fund the passing of hateful legislation prohibiting same sex marriages? This seems very strange and homophobic to me...really very ignorant too. This lifestyle does not seem the least bit intriguing or pleasurable to me and I have a hard time fathoming why anyone would choose it except if you were raised into it and it was all you knew or you were just a really emotionally insecure woman? It literally drives me crazy that one of my favorite bands, Low, is Mormon. (As much as I have tried, I just can't quit them).
In any case, I think what I might be trying to say is here is really, "Dear God, please don't let Mitt Romney get elected!!!"
It isn't clear to me exactly what Udall's motivations and biases are in writing this but I suspect he's just trying to lay out a story in the best way he knows how with his own life experiences to guide him. The plot is interesting and exposes some hypocrisy as well as American paranoia. It makes you feel sorry for the wives and the kids and even the dumb dad who just can't seem to get it together in any way. The gum scene is probably the most hilarious part of the book. The other funny parts are all inadvertent as one of the characters is named Ted Leo (though only those into the indie rock scene would know that is also the name of a musician..Here, Ted Leo is definitely not an indie rock musician by any stretch of the imagination.)
But, in the end, I was just left with a bunch of characters I couldn't relate to and a minor tragedy I saw coming from the minute explosives were introduced earlier on. It seemed a little obvious and predictable and I'd rather read about and learn from characters I'm more interested in at the end of the day. I guess it's good to know that these people's exist and what their lives are like but that doesn't mean I want to hang out with any of them (except for Low.) This is 600 pages that should have done more with all that girth.
I also found Udall's writing on this one stylistically a little too straightforward and not engaging enough but I tend to favor the more poetic lyrical type anyhow.
Udall captures quite a bit of what it must be like both being the male of the family with multiple wives and multitudes of children to provide for. He presents the story in third person but focuses on the husband of these wives and his interest in another woman that is not involved in the Mormon community. He focuses on one of the many children, Rusty, but mentions the many others in little instances. He talks about the logistics of being Mormon, at least during the Carter administration, and the decisions that must be made-home school vs. public education for example. What the reader sees or what seems fairly obvious is the difficulty of such a life in terms of both financially providing for so many and in terms of devoting enough emotionally to your family fairly and equitably.
I can't really hold back my own subjectivity and say that of all the religious I'm familiar with, I find Mormonism the lead favorable. Why is it they think it's okay for heterosexual men to marry multiple wives and they fund the passing of hateful legislation prohibiting same sex marriages? This seems very strange and homophobic to me...really very ignorant too. This lifestyle does not seem the least bit intriguing or pleasurable to me and I have a hard time fathoming why anyone would choose it except if you were raised into it and it was all you knew or you were just a really emotionally insecure woman? It literally drives me crazy that one of my favorite bands, Low, is Mormon. (As much as I have tried, I just can't quit them).
In any case, I think what I might be trying to say is here is really, "Dear God, please don't let Mitt Romney get elected!!!"
It isn't clear to me exactly what Udall's motivations and biases are in writing this but I suspect he's just trying to lay out a story in the best way he knows how with his own life experiences to guide him. The plot is interesting and exposes some hypocrisy as well as American paranoia. It makes you feel sorry for the wives and the kids and even the dumb dad who just can't seem to get it together in any way. The gum scene is probably the most hilarious part of the book. The other funny parts are all inadvertent as one of the characters is named Ted Leo (though only those into the indie rock scene would know that is also the name of a musician..Here, Ted Leo is definitely not an indie rock musician by any stretch of the imagination.)
But, in the end, I was just left with a bunch of characters I couldn't relate to and a minor tragedy I saw coming from the minute explosives were introduced earlier on. It seemed a little obvious and predictable and I'd rather read about and learn from characters I'm more interested in at the end of the day. I guess it's good to know that these people's exist and what their lives are like but that doesn't mean I want to hang out with any of them (except for Low.) This is 600 pages that should have done more with all that girth.
I also found Udall's writing on this one stylistically a little too straightforward and not engaging enough but I tend to favor the more poetic lyrical type anyhow.
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail