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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
I really enjoyed this book, both for its humor and the wild and crazy predicaments these poor people experience. The moral seems to be that sex solves everything, but I oversimplify. Brady Udall brings forth so many different types of characters you really love to relate to. His storytelling technique honors the intelligence of the reader in the way he weaves his story together.
The only character I liked was Rusty. About 150 pages too long -- thought the protagonist was boring. A few amusing parts with Rusty and one gross one I didn't need to read at all. Meh minus.
I've been stewing over this book for days and have come to the conclusion that I just didn't like it. It was quite readable, but I couldn't sympathize with either of the two adult (the polygamist referenced in the title and his fourth wife) main characters. I did like the other main character, the 11 year old boy. The adult's problems seemed to be of their own making and the boy had little choice. Because I couldn't connect with the characters, I was mostly annoyed and bored.
However, the lonely polygamist makes an observation that I did find truthful: women who learned of his polygamy were always distrustful whereas men were always very interested.
I think that polygamy works (somewhat) in agricultural societies where all those children can be put to work. But in our society it seems to create a lot of excess and lost children. I would argue that in the US today, if there is going to be polygamy, it should be one woman and several men, as this will result in less children and more "means" for the family to live on. I'd like to read that book. Who would be a good person to author it?
However, the lonely polygamist makes an observation that I did find truthful: women who learned of his polygamy were always distrustful whereas men were always very interested.
I think that polygamy works (somewhat) in agricultural societies where all those children can be put to work. But in our society it seems to create a lot of excess and lost children. I would argue that in the US today, if there is going to be polygamy, it should be one woman and several men, as this will result in less children and more "means" for the family to live on. I'd like to read that book. Who would be a good person to author it?
A fictional story about a very complicated and lovable polygamist family living in southern Utah. It was pretty unsettling to me to read pieces of my religion, in the form of hymns, scriptures, and traditions, sprinkled into their fundamentalist lifestyle. (Hey, those are our sacred things!) But the story was so well-written, with interweaving subplots and sympathetic characters, that I ended up loving it anyway. It reminded me a bit of Jojo Rabbit with its funny-about-something-serious style. Couple f words too, fair warning.
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
This book surprised me. I wasn't expecting an empathetic yet critical look at someone practicing the polygamy life - at the same time, the ending was pretty realistic - no one ended up running around from their problems even though several had "outs" of sorts. Would recommend, but it was quite long for what it was trying to accomplish.
I have always been intrigued with the logistics and intricacies of plural marriage. This book presents the story from various points of view: husband, wife, child. Challenges I had never thought of were presented. The concept of extreme loneliness, shortage of restroom facilities, having to withhold emotional attachment from the children as there simply isn't enough love to go around in a 24 hour day, infertility, mental illness, attention seeking behaviors, nuclear testing and so much more are explored in this book. Parts of the book are hilarious while other parts bring tears. Characters change based on life. After soul searching, our lonely protagonist makes the largest changes of all. I could not put the book down. It made me think so much about relationship dynamics and the lengths humans go to meet their needs.
dark
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was recommended to me by my favorite two library co-workers. I can totally trust their recommendations to be satirical and disturbing and funny. This was right in the vein. I never ever expected to be sympathetic to a polygamist but here I was, wondering if I was rooting for him and his affair, his kid, or one of his wives. Turns out, I wanted them all to win and that was never going to happen.
Such a good read!
Such a good read!
Got about 1/3 of the way in and couldn't finish. Story just wasn't moving along quickly enough for me. Main character is not likeable, which made it hard to read.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/books/stories/DN-bk_lonelypolygamist_0509gd.ART.State.Edition1.4c7f844.html
Book review: 'The Lonely Polygamist,' by Brady Udall
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, May 9, 2010
By JENNY SHANK / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
Jenny Shank is the books and writers editor of newwest.net. Her first novel, The Ringer, will be published in 2011.
Golden Richards, the protagonist of Brady Udall's bighearted, funny novel The Lonely Polygamist , is in deep. When we meet him, he's straining to provide for his family of four wives and 28 children. He's commuting from Utah to Nevada to oversee a construction project that he tells his wives is a senior center. It is, in fact, a brothel.
Golden is exhausted. He spends weeknights in a trailer before rushing home to council meetings at the Living Church of God in Virgin, a polygamist enclave. What's worse, he's infatuated with the fetching Guatemalan wife of his boss, a small-time gangster. When Golden returns home from work, he's so disoriented he doesn't know where he's supposed to sleep or where the bathrooms are located in his two houses, and he's desperate to fend off the claims of his family members, "each one of them a burning spotlight of attention and need."
The Lonely Polygamist is an absorbing, moving, entertaining novel that will transport the reader into Golden's chaotic world, making most other lives seem calm by comparison.
Udall doesn't delve into several troubling aspects of some polygamist communities – such as lack of schooling for the kids or underage brides paired with middle-aged men. In this novel, Udall gives polygamy the benefit of the doubt, with all the adults entering into the situation uncoerced, with understandable motivations and the best intentions, and all the children educated, loved and more or less cared for. That doesn't mean there aren't massive problems with this way of life, which Udall explores thoroughly and with no small amount of glee.
Part of the Udall political family, the author reveals that he knows a few things about life in a big family through the book's dedication to his eight siblings; he makes the reader care about his multitude of characters. He differentiates each one quickly through incisive descriptions, then displays them from different perspectives that reveal each character's good and bad qualities.
For example, Golden's first wife, Beverly, "was a woman whose moods held sway over the immediate atmosphere, who seemed to be in control of everything, including the weather." Beverly schedules and orchestrates the lives of the entire family, which makes the other wives and their children chafe. One wife calls her, behind her back, "the Great Bev," yet before the end, Beverly earns the reader's sympathy.
Although all of the characters play roles in the plot, Udall sticks closest to three of them: Trish, the young, dissatisfied fourth wife; Rusty, a totally irresistible and occasionally repulsive 11-year-old, known as "the family terrorist;" and Golden, the hapless, often clueless patriarch who towers at 6 feet 5 inches and whom Rusty refers to as Sasquatch.
As much as Golden struggles to keep his family, his job and his mental health together, it's amazing how flawlessly Udall juggles all the elements of this novel. He tosses off nothing, no matter how slight a detail seems at its first iteration. There are certain objects and animals that recur with greater plot and thematic implications each time, including an old couch that Golden can't seem to get rid of, an underpants-wearing dog, an ostrich and a piece of gum that ends up in an unexpected place.
Although the overall tone of The Lonely Polygamist is comic, there are darker undercurrents, such as the deaths of several children and the looming calamity of bomb testing in the desert that has left people with radiation poisoning and latent cancers.
Good-humored and wise, The Lonely Polygamist is, as Rusty thinks of spending time with Trish, "as good as it could possibly get, better than cherry Popsicles on a yacht with Wonder Woman."
Jenny Shank is the books and writers editor of newwest.net. Her first novel, The Ringer, will be published in 2011.
Book review: 'The Lonely Polygamist,' by Brady Udall
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, May 9, 2010
By JENNY SHANK / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
Jenny Shank is the books and writers editor of newwest.net. Her first novel, The Ringer, will be published in 2011.
Golden Richards, the protagonist of Brady Udall's bighearted, funny novel The Lonely Polygamist , is in deep. When we meet him, he's straining to provide for his family of four wives and 28 children. He's commuting from Utah to Nevada to oversee a construction project that he tells his wives is a senior center. It is, in fact, a brothel.
Golden is exhausted. He spends weeknights in a trailer before rushing home to council meetings at the Living Church of God in Virgin, a polygamist enclave. What's worse, he's infatuated with the fetching Guatemalan wife of his boss, a small-time gangster. When Golden returns home from work, he's so disoriented he doesn't know where he's supposed to sleep or where the bathrooms are located in his two houses, and he's desperate to fend off the claims of his family members, "each one of them a burning spotlight of attention and need."
The Lonely Polygamist is an absorbing, moving, entertaining novel that will transport the reader into Golden's chaotic world, making most other lives seem calm by comparison.
Udall doesn't delve into several troubling aspects of some polygamist communities – such as lack of schooling for the kids or underage brides paired with middle-aged men. In this novel, Udall gives polygamy the benefit of the doubt, with all the adults entering into the situation uncoerced, with understandable motivations and the best intentions, and all the children educated, loved and more or less cared for. That doesn't mean there aren't massive problems with this way of life, which Udall explores thoroughly and with no small amount of glee.
Part of the Udall political family, the author reveals that he knows a few things about life in a big family through the book's dedication to his eight siblings; he makes the reader care about his multitude of characters. He differentiates each one quickly through incisive descriptions, then displays them from different perspectives that reveal each character's good and bad qualities.
For example, Golden's first wife, Beverly, "was a woman whose moods held sway over the immediate atmosphere, who seemed to be in control of everything, including the weather." Beverly schedules and orchestrates the lives of the entire family, which makes the other wives and their children chafe. One wife calls her, behind her back, "the Great Bev," yet before the end, Beverly earns the reader's sympathy.
Although all of the characters play roles in the plot, Udall sticks closest to three of them: Trish, the young, dissatisfied fourth wife; Rusty, a totally irresistible and occasionally repulsive 11-year-old, known as "the family terrorist;" and Golden, the hapless, often clueless patriarch who towers at 6 feet 5 inches and whom Rusty refers to as Sasquatch.
As much as Golden struggles to keep his family, his job and his mental health together, it's amazing how flawlessly Udall juggles all the elements of this novel. He tosses off nothing, no matter how slight a detail seems at its first iteration. There are certain objects and animals that recur with greater plot and thematic implications each time, including an old couch that Golden can't seem to get rid of, an underpants-wearing dog, an ostrich and a piece of gum that ends up in an unexpected place.
Although the overall tone of The Lonely Polygamist is comic, there are darker undercurrents, such as the deaths of several children and the looming calamity of bomb testing in the desert that has left people with radiation poisoning and latent cancers.
Good-humored and wise, The Lonely Polygamist is, as Rusty thinks of spending time with Trish, "as good as it could possibly get, better than cherry Popsicles on a yacht with Wonder Woman."
Jenny Shank is the books and writers editor of newwest.net. Her first novel, The Ringer, will be published in 2011.