A group at church is reading this book for an August book club. Since I've vowed not to buy any books, I'm at the mercy of friends or the county library. Well, the book came in just as I finished June's book--The Guersey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.Having been to Nauvoo, IL last fall, this book put people in that abandoned village. Although this is billed as a historical novel, it is based on the autobiographical book written in the 1800's, Wife No. 19 by Ann Eliza Young, Brigham Young's 19th wife.
It's pretty unusual for a novel to have a list of sources, but the author David Ebershoff has a page and a half of sources below (double click to read them).
But, he also acknowledges that many of the "documents" were written by himself.
Like the Guernsy. . .Society novel, this novel has a variety of "voices" One voice is Jordan Scott, a gay young man in the present who is investigating the death of his father in order to save his mother,"the 19th wife" of polygamous family in Utah. She has been arrested for his father's death.
At first, this was the most interesting story-line, but gradually Ann Eliza's story became very riveting---the story of an independent woman in the 19th century and how she became Brigham Young's wife. In every way it is central to the story even the one in the present. The events of her era are reverberating through Utah today. Not only did I learn a great deal about the early years of Mormonism, I learned about the culture and how it has evolved. Below is an excerpt from the Ann Eliza story.
Interspersed are "documents" which made the novel seem more authentic.
One of the saddest parts of the story was finding that no one knows what happened to Ann Eliza---not even her own family although some suspect she was "quieted" by her brother and the rest of the "Firsts". That brings the story full circle back to the Jordan Scott story-line which is about the "Firsts" who live today on the Utah and Arizona border.
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