The 19th Wife: A Novel by David
Ebershoff
Mormon Abuse Of "Lost Boys" Exposed
It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful
husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church.
Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end
polygamy in the United States. A rich account of her family’s polygamous
history is revealed, including how both she and her mother became plural
wives. Yet soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second exquisite narrative
unfolds–a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah.
Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect
years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to
discover the truth behind his father’s death. And as Ann Eliza’s narrative
intertwines with that of Jordan’s search, readers are pulled deeper into the
mysteries of love, family, and faith.
Personal Review: The 19th Wife: A Novel by David Ebershoff

This was a very fast-moving 500 pages, in more ways than one. David
Ebershoff has ambitiously blended historical fiction, murder mystery, and
social commentary in interwoven stories of plural marriages divided by
over a century - and the two primary stories actually are connected,
although the connection isn't apparent until well into the novel.
I was immediately pulled into Jordan Scott's present-day story, and found
his narrative voice fully believable. 20-year-old Jordan was born and raised
with a hundred siblings in a small Utah town where the illegal practice of
polygamy has never ended, but he was excommunicated and exiled from
the community at the age of fourteen. However, when he gets a phone call
telling him that his mother has been arrested for murdering his father,
there's no way he can't go back home and try to figure out what really
happened.
Jordan's story is woven between a story of the founding prophets of the
Mormon (Latter-day Saints, or LDS) Church, Joseph Smith and Brigham
Young, and one of its first families, the Webbs. Their daughter Ann Eliza
would eventually marry Brigham Young - as would many other women.
The practice of "celestial" or "plural marriage" was one of the things that
truly set the Mormons apart - in order to ensure salvation and attaining
heaven, men were expected to have multiple wives, at the same time.
These marriages were strictly religious ceremonies - while the practice was
outside the law, the law turned a blind eye to such things in the Utah
Territory, most of which was in the hands of Mormons anyway.
Ann Eliza and Jordan's mother have one thing in common - they're both
19th wives. Ebershoff drew and expanded on Ann Eliza's own memoir,
Wife No. 19, in the historical portion of the novel. This memoir was
instrumental in both stirring up legal action against polygamous marriages
and in the LDS Church's renunciation of the "celestial marriage" doctrine.
However, there were some Mormons who vehemently disagreed with this
change, since it went against the teachings of the founding prophets, and
they splintered away from their church. Some of them still live in small,
remote towns in the Southwest where they continue to practice plural
marriage today...and Jordan comes from one of those towns.
I had a hard time stepping away from The 19th Wife - it completely pulled
me in, and I grabbed every available chunk of time to read it. At first I
thought I'd be more interested in the murder mystery, largely because I
found Jordan's voice so compelling, but as it happened, the historical novel
was equally fascinating - and Ann Eliza was a compelling narrator too. I
was very impressed by Ebershoff's use of distinct narrative voices and
unconventional techniques - facsimile historical documents, letters, and
Wikipedia pages are all part of the story. The novel as a whole is ripped-
from-the-headlines contemporary in its themes, with a page-turning plot
and vivid, memorable characters. It's a thought-provoker and would make
for excellent book-club discussion.

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