The 19th Wife presents the reader with two tales - one set in the present day of an excommunicated young gay Mormon guy trying to prove the innocence of his mother - a 19th Wife. The other are historical documents and such relating to another 19th Wife the famous Ann Eliza Young
The book opens up with the modern day and I was immediately drawn into the world of of Jordan and his back story. I feared from this point on that the 'history' aspect of the novel would drag and not be interesting however the opposite ended up being true. Towards the latter part of the book Jordan's story became a tad irritating - he as a character was fine but what I found unconvincing was his relationship with a fellow gay ex-Mormon and the hint that he was a changed character towards the end.
The history aspect of the book was surprisingly compelling - whether the unknown area of polygamy kept me going or whether it was the quality of the writing I'm not sure, but it was well written.
I think the success of this novel lay in my expectations, to say I had none to begin with would be false, I anticipated that I would not enjoy the book and at over 600 pages it appeared to be a slog but the modern aspect was my lead in and my initial enjoyment of the contemporary story ultimately led me to dislike it's apparently easy conclusion.
Would the book have been better had the author just focused purely on the historical aspect - a merely fictionalised biography of a historical figure? I don't know - It probably would have sold fewer copies. And certainly the contemporary story wasn't strong enough to stand on it's own
But to return to my original qualifier I did enjoy this book and would and have recommended it - I guess the expectations I had at the beginning of the book which were overcome were replaced by new expectations - ones which were a little too high at the end - it's never a good sign when you want a book to end
So let's see if I can pick up a copy of The Danish Girl somewhere. Is it better to read something before it becomes a film?
I've referred to the characters as Mormons - In the book the modern day characters are part of a sect referring to themselves as Firsts these are an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The historical characters are set in a time when the religion was in it's relative infancy so no division is made. I don't understand religions, I really don't.
