The 19th Wife
Monday, January 4th, 2010 | American Literature
This novel by David Evershoff was very creepy, because you know that it’s based on real cults in the USA today. The actual structure of the novel is flawed; it moves between a modern murder story and fragments of memoirs from a hundred years ago. In the modern story, a 19th wife is accused of murder, and her estranged son, a “lost boy” tries to find out what is really going on in order to help her. In the old story, it re-tells the story of Brigham-Young’s 19th wife, Ann Eliza. I can imagine a better writer managing to allow the story to flow a little more seamlessly; as it is, you begin to forget whose story you are reading. However, despite his shortcomings as a writer, this story is powerful because of the truths in it; that women are still being subjugated by religion every day, and that people prefer to ignore it rather than face it.
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