Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Lonely Polygamist
    The Lonely Polygamist
    The Lonely Polygamist
    Audiobook23 hours

    The Lonely Polygamist

    Written by Brady Udall

    Narrated by David Aaron Baker

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Brady Udall is the acclaimed author of the internationally best-selling The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint. In The Lonely Polygamist, Udall pens a tragicomic tale starring Golden Richards-who despite having four wives and 28 children, hasn't quite found fulfillment in life. Like other men in the midst of a mid-life crisis, Golden feels as though he's drowning. His wives squabble amongst themselves, and he hardly has time for all his children-least of all the 11-year-old who's taken a keen interest in explosives. And now his construction business is struggling. Yet even after Golden falls in love again and takes a mistress to alleviate his pain, life continues to fall short of expectations. Udall's skillfully observed tale is "as comic as it is sublimely catastrophic" (Publishers Weekly). Narrator David Aaron Baker's performance deftly portrays the complexity of Udall's title character. "Udall's polished storytelling and sterling cast of perfectly realized and flawed characters make this a serious contender for Great American Novel status."-Publishers Weekly, starred review
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateSep 3, 2010
    ISBN9781449836566
    The Lonely Polygamist

    Related to The Lonely Polygamist

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Lonely Polygamist

    4/5

    57 ratings56 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      The first thing that catches your eye is the title: The Lonely Polygamist? Talk about an oxymoron. But it's actually a perfectly succinct way to describe one man's rise and fall (or is it fall and rise?) within a small community of polygamist Mormons. And it's a very powerful, literary read. Brady Udall's novel focuses on three characters (and thank goodness, since the cast encompasses nearly 30 people!): Golden, husband to four wives and the lonely polygamist of the title; Trish, Golden's fourth and youngest wife; and Rusty, son #5 and the "weird kid" of the family. Chapters alternate between the three of them, and span from Golden's and Trish's dysfunctional childhoods to the present day. Each character also has their own arc, from Trish moving forward from past hurts and finding her place in the family to Golden fleeing his family through his attraction to another woman (and its unpredictable aftermath) to Rusty trying to find his place in the world through acting out. Though Golden's is ostensibly the main story, and takes up the most pages, I thought Rusty's was the most heart-wrenching.Now, it would have been easy for Udall to simply villanize the polygamists--but it also would have made a boring and one-dimensional book. I think he instead paints a really nuanced and fair-handed picture of how the polygamist lifestyle affects different people. Trish, for example, craves the noise, the warmth, the constant presence of other people; throughout most of the book, Golden is trying to escape from those same exact things; and it's the noise and stress that makes Wife #3, Rose-of-Sharon, break down. Most of the kids don't seem troubled by having 12 brothers, but lack of attention and care makes an outcast and a troublemaker out of Rusty. Instead of sharp, black and white judgements, The Lonely Polygamist takes the harder, but ultimately more rewarding, tack of making us feel what Golden's family feels about their lifestyle and draw our own conclusions. Udall treats everyone gently and with respect--even when you just want to shake Golden until he makes a decision, damnit.The novel also goes in completely unexpected places--at least, I was surprised by what happens to Golden and Rusty by the story's end. It's a page-turner in the best sense. How will Golden handle his attraction to Huila? Will Trish leave the polygamist life behind? Does Rusty find a way to fit in without alienating everyone around him, or is he doomed by the limitations of the church?The Lonely Polygamist is a perfect example of readable, moving literary fiction--well-crafted, thoughtful, funny, emotional--and I highly recommend it.I received this book as an ARC from W.W. Norton, through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program. The Lonely Polygamist comes out May 3, 2010.Bookwanderer Rating: Four and a half out of five starsBookwanderer Tagline: Four wives, 20+ kids, one husband, and a lot of family drama.
    • 5/5
      An outstanding novel – if this doesn’t win a major award this year I will be very surprised. It examines in detail a family of one husband, four wives, and twenty-eight or so children. The father is stretched too thin, economically and emotionally, and is lying to his wives and on the verge of having an affair – as odd as that may seem. Wife #4 and son #5 are followed closely as well, giving the reader a fascinating glimpse into the psychology of a poly-family.But it is the humor that really makes the novel stand out. It’s the humor of awkward situations and unintended consequences, the type where you just can’t believe that happened, but are totally convinced it could have. The humor is mixed with pathos and tragedy, which makes it all the more real.It’s a fascinating novel, perfect for a book club or discussion group. A real page turner too, with unexpected twists and turns and an ending that is real and not manipulative or saccharine. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      Golden Richards has four wives, 28 children, and a pile of troubles. He gets no peace anywhere. There is chaos around him and no privacy. Moveover even surrounded by all these people, he fails to connect with anyone special, barely knows his children, has so many regrets and sorrows. This book is written in humor in spite of being sad. I enjoyed it but was happy to finish!
    • 5/5
      This is a big book featuring a big protagonist with a big family. The book starts out very slow, and is intimidating (the family tree at the front of the book spells out just how many characters there are), but Udall's storytelling skills pull you through the first half and reward you in the second.This could have been a book of oddities, since it centers mostly around Mormons and brothels, but Udall not only never makes these folks into freaks , he makes you see each one of them - good and bad (and all the actors have both good and bad characteristics) as human beings.Don't be intimidated by the large cast - most of the Mormon kiddies only make brief cameos.
    • 3/5
      While not the Next Great American Novel (as some reviews would lead you to believe), this is an engaging book that filled me with great sadness. No matter how big the umbella under which we might live, we each wrestle with our own loneliness. I can't say that any of the endings were the ones that I wanted, but then, isn't that life?
    • 4/5
      It's the title that grabbed me with this book. I've thought of polygamists as misguided (at best) and abusive to women and children at worst. But never as lonely.Enter Golden Richards, husband to four women and father to 28 children. Golden has drifted into his life. At first, his mother was firmly in coltrol of his life; then his father and finally his first wife Beverly rules the show. Golden is lonely -- unconnected with anyone -- and has fallen in love for the first time in his life with a woman he meets through his out-of-state job. But, Golden is not only person in this book who is lonely. The author uses the scene of a large, polygamist family to highlight the loneliness of Trish (wife #4) and Rusty (aged 11, one of seven children of the third wife, Rose). He provides a perspective of isolation and connectedness that is thought-provoking.The book is very entertaining, and often funny. While most of the family members are just part of the background, the portraits of Golden, his wives and several children, notably Rusty and Faye, are well drawn. These are complex characters facing everyday problems made more difficult by their chosen lifestyle.
    • 5/5
      Golden Richards is overwhelmed. Living his life as a polygamist Mormon, Golden has four wives, each of whom present him with different difficulties, and twenty-seven unruly children whose behavior closely resembles a tribe of lemmings. Golden, a shy and reserved man, is having trouble resigning himself to the life he has chosen to lead and finds himself leaning towards thoughts of an extramarital affair. But as can be expected, just when he arrives at a decision, his life quickly begins to spiral our of control. One of his wives is becoming increasingly distraught at the lack of attention he gives to her, while one begins to rule the roost with an iron fist. His eleven year old son Rusty is on a campaign of misbehavior and deviance that makes even the most seasoned of the mothers blush, and Golden finds himself secretly working as a contractor building a whorehouse. As Golden tries to navigate his crazy existence, he discovers that nothing is simple, easy or concise. As his family wiggles its way into more and more complicated situations, it will be up to Golden to herd them all into some semblance of order. Outrageous, hilarious and at times very sad, The Lonely Polygamist is a luminescent novel of startling clarity and wonderful originality.I fell in love with this book from its very first pages. Golden and his family were just a hot mess to read about. From the warring factions of children wearing down the dining room carpet into a racetrack to Rusty's absconding with a box full of the other children's shoes during a showdown with one of his mothers, there was scarcely a bit of the text that was not imbued with something outrageous. Though the book was filled with all kinds of unlikely events, it never felt over the top or forced. Instead, Udall began building the crescendo of the plot into a towering and unpredictable story that filled the pages with deft humor and unexpected humbleness.One of the things I liked most about this book was the way that Udall seemed to capture so many emotions so well in his story. There was humor, of course, but also despondency, sadness, humility, wonder and honesty. He manages to capture all the frailties of Golden's life with a clear and no-nonsense forthrightness. There isn't a lot of time spent in pointless cogitation, because frankly, a man with four wives and twenty-seven children just doesn't have that kind of time. Instead, Golden and his family soldier on, meeting the troubles of their lives head on. Before reading this book, I couldn't even begin to imagine what life as a polygamist Mormon would be like, but with Udall's colorful interpretation of Golden and his family, I quickly began to get the picture. All the aspects of plural marriage were described in such a way as to not only educate the reader, but to pull them into the lives of this unlikely tribe called a family.Udall got full use and range out of his characters, penning them with ferocity and originality and leaving no room to wonder about their thoughts and motives. I think I liked Rusty the best. He was just a crazy little dude with imagination and hormones racing ahead at full speed. Every time I saw his story on the page, I knew I would just be wafted away in his tenacity and indignance, and his sections had me laughing out loud with astonishment and glee. I think everyone can relate to Rusty. Who can forget being eleven and being at the mercy of restrictive parents and cruel siblings? Rusty gets himself into a great many unlikely situations and always seems to handle himself with a certain forced composure that I relished. From his crush on one of the mothers to the incident with his older sister's underwear, Rusty is an undeniably original and wonderful creation.Though the book is often funny, Udall does a great job dabbling with more serious emotions. As Golden struggles to find his way, he loses himself in the impossible sadness that his life has brought him. From the unexpected deaths of two of his children to the fruitless wishing for freedom, Golden has much more to worry about than his wild and extensive brood. I think that most people have a certain perception of polygamists but Golden doesn't fit that mold at all. He is self-disparaging, meek and wayward, clumsily leading his family along like a blind general. Golden is just as fallible as any man, but what's refreshing is his humbleness and modesty. He wants to be able to give his family his all, to give them sustenance and be their protection, but he finds himself stumbling under the load that he has accepted, fruitlessly losing all composure just when he needs it most.I can't say how wonderful and enriching this book was. Not only did I find myself snorting with laughter, I also found myself teary-eyed with grief while reading it. Udall's book is filled with richness and complexity and has some of the most unforgettable characters I have ever come across. Do yourself a favor and pick up this wonderful novel, you'll be glad you did! A perfect light read.
    • 4/5
      Polygamy is a serious subject, fundamentalists are no laughing matter. So why am I laughing? Because of quotes like this:Golden flinched, struck by the moment he found himself in: standing in a dark closet, knuckles smeared with barbecue sauce, tinkling into a bucket while delivering a lecture about bathroom manners to a dog wearing jockey shorts. Could it get, he wondered, any worse than this? Sure it could. I've read several books about LDS, both mainstream and fundamentalist, both fiction and non-fiction. Some have been better than others, all have been interesting, but none have been mainly from the point of view of the polygamist husband and father, none have been funny. Until now. But the book is also heartfelt, touching. This fundamentalist sect is a gentler, kinder FLDS: no child abuse, no forced marriages of girls to old men. The children behave like children, unruly, with their own quirks. Especially Rusty, a misfit in his own family.The characters in this are richly drawn. Golden, an unlikely polygamist, has four wives and 28 children. As head of the family, he is doing a terrible job. His first wife makes all the decisions, his children are out of control, he is maintaining three separate households, and Golden just wants a little peace and quiet...not to mention abdication from his enormous responsibilities. Throw in a beautiful woman, her brothel-owning common law, thug husband who is also Golden's boss, and a loner who is building an extensive bomb shelter, and it all makes for a highly entertaining read.America's love affair with open-air bomb testing in the desert, with the callously intended as well as accidental cruelties and repercussions, these are integral to the story, and so sad to read.At ~600 pages, this isn't a short novel, but I loved all of it.
    • 5/5
      i thought this was a fabylous book. i admit when i first picked it up i was floored by the page count and figured i would lose interest halfway through, but i read it all in two sittings and found every moment of golden's life gripping. a wonderful read!
    • 4/5
      The multiple narrators made the book seem a little bit scattered. The ending pulled all the different storylines together but I spent most of the book wondering if all of the components were really necessary (I'm still not sure the short chapters by the omniscient narrator were integral to the plot). I felt like some aspects of Golden't character were a little unbelieveable, but I liked that his transformation at the end wasn't complete; he still second guessed himself and didn't completely take control of the family. Despite these criticisms I enjoyed the book. Overall it was well written and the numerous characters were comlex and realistic.
    • 3/5
      Delightful book about a repugnant sub-culture. Upon reflection, 3.5 stars.
    • 4/5
      It was an interesting take to tell the story from the perspective of the polygamous husband. Had this ever been done before? If so, I haven't read one like this. There was a humorous bent to the novel that had me really feeling for poor Golden. As a character, he seemed like a giant oaf of a man that was being pushed from house to house, and wife to wife, with not even a "pot to pee" in (both literally and metaphorically). There are some pretty hilarious scenes of his children creating non-stop chaos around the home, bathroom waiting lines because of all the family members, and awkward romantic interludes with wives that just didn't work (to put it mildly). Through it all, Golden seems to go with the flow, trying to meet the needs of everyone and not succeeding. In fact, he then comes last on the list, and he feels disconnected and unhappy most of all. Golden is just a funny character, and one you just can't help but feel sorry for along the way. It seems as if a million bad things happen to him, which makes him an easy character to like. I know it sounds odd, overall. I have to give Udall credit for writing a novel, with all its humor and quirky mishaps, that he created a character and story that we could embrace. Overall, I did enjoy this novel and liked it a lot more than I did some of the previous stories. I suppose that I don't need to be hit over the head anymore with stories of corruption, so it was nice to have a character-driven plot, where polygamy actually seemed more like a device than a philosophical theme!
    • 4/5
      Brady Udall's name was familiar to me, but I hadn't read any of his work before The Lonely Polygamist. The story was immediately engaging, starting with Golden as a put-upon husband to four wives but quickly jumping back in time to his life as a boy. I enjoyed the shifts in time and perspective from Golden (past and present), to Trish (the fourth wife), to Rusty (one of the eleven-year-old sons)--and back around again. Other reviewers have commented that the pace is slow and that nothing much happens, but that's one of the things I liked most about the book. The slow pace allows the characters to develop and we as readers learn more about how complex the Richards family is. I found myself falling in love with this family, as dysfunctional as it is, and wanted to know more about the motivations of some of the characters we saw through others' eyes. Other people have done a good job of summarizing the plot and characters. My review is more about why I enjoyed the act of reading this book. It's messy and slow, and the characters feel real and are so frustrating. If you like that kind of thing, pick this up!
    • 5/5
      I am a big fan of The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint/Brady Udall so I have been waiting for this book for ages. I think Udall captures young boy characters well, so I really enjoyed reading Rusty's parts of the novel. I liked him as a main character more than I liked Golden. I found Golden a really slow character - I guess that's good writing - as the way he was written illustrated his personality.It is an epic novel about man dealing with his life. I would recommend it to people who like big, meaty novels and I would espec recommend it if you enjoyed Edgar Mint.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book! It is in turn funny, moving and devastating. I don't really like the idea of second wives (even though I could use the extra pair of hands!); but I did enjoy the look behind the curtain into the life of this plural marriage and family. The father, Golden, has a failing business, four wives and 28 children, a mistress, a child who dies, an ostrich for a neighbor and gum stuck in a most unusual place. Oh yeah, and then there is a brothel and government nuclear testing. All of this fits together in a yarn that is heart-warming, illuminating, and told with grace, wit and tenderness."During his years in the church Golden had noticed that most of the polygamists he had come to know were honest, upright men. He had always believed this was because they lived according to their convictions, but now he was starting to suspect it was something else entirely: being a dishonest polygamist was an exceptionally difficult trick to pull off. If you told a lie to one wife, you were going to have to repeat it to all of them. And they all asked questions, of course, each of which had to be answered consistently and with the correct details in the correct order because you could be darn sure that afterward, like a bunch of dogged television police detectives investigating a capital murder case, they would get together and compare notes. It didn't take long to come to the conclusion that telling the truth--painful and inconvenient as it might be--was the only sensible option."Which made Golden wonder: How had he managed to last this long?"A favorite book this year.
    • 4/5
      Interesting look at polygamy from the husband's side.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book. As despicable as one would think a character who had multiple wives would be, it was easy to like and feel sorry for the main character. It gives perspective into the lives of Polygamists and was fascinating. I really liked the character of the 4th wife and poor Rusty. The main character was pretty sad and had a terrible life and devistating things happen to him throughout. But the book also had a dark humor to it that I really appreciated. I was intimidated by how thick it was, but it was a quick read and I would recommend it!
    • 5/5
      Golden Richards, in his late 40's, is a man who has 4 wives and 28 children. Yet, even with this "bounty" he is very lonely and misunderstood. AND he is also having a mid-life crisis. Can a polygamist have an affair?A brilliantly written, dark dark comedy full of well developed characters and equally well developed language, Brady Udall takes us beyond the People magazine exposes on sister-wives and polygamist families; but one where children get lost, father's forget their children's names. Golden is a nice man, he just is not cut out for being a drill sergent to this brood.The most brilliant character is Rusty, a 12 year old who revolts against his "Aunt" and craves attention from his father. He meets up with a man building a nuclear bunker in the middle of the desert and tries to get him to marry his other "Aunt."I was intimidated by the 600+ pages at first and was hesitant to begin it, but when I was near the end I was reading slower and slower .... wanting to stay with the Richard family for longer. I really surprised myself how much I enjoyed this book.
    • 3/5
      I lugged this book with me everywhere I went. Its interesting title had lots of people asking me what I was reading. Unfortunately, the content of the book isn't as interesting as its title. It is hard to feel sympathetic for a man with 20-something children and four wives who can't remain faithful to them. The wives are slightly more sympathetic, each with a background that explained her decision to enter a polygamous relationship. The children are the really tragic characters, as they all sort of meld together and no one child stands out.Except Rusty, that is. Rusty really wanted — nay, *needed* — some attention from his mother and father. Unfortunately, they were too busy (with the other kids or with a secret lover, respectively) to notice. When they finally did take notice and begin showering him with love & attention, it was, tragically, too late.Despite what the cover may say and what some reviewers may have you believing, this is not the "next great American novel." It is simply a book about the loneliness that comes with living in a polygamous family. The characters are varied but they're all very sad. There are some humorous moments but then Udall keeps rehashing them a la "Clerks." (After each unfortunate series of events, the store clerk in the movie exclaims, "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" This is done repeatedly.) However, unlike "Clerks," the humor in "The Lonely Polygamist" is poorly executed: the lighthearted jokes feel forced and out of place.I wasn't crazy about this book but I seem to be in the minority.
    • 4/5
      Brief Description: Golden Richards has four wives, 28 children and a struggling construction business. If his life isn’t already complicated enough, he is contemplating starting an affair. Trish, one of Golden’s newest wives and unable to conceive any children with him, begins to wonder if polygamy is the right choice for her and her daughter from a previous marriage. Rusty, one of the middle children in a family where almost everyone is a middle child, struggles to stand out in a family where it is easy to get lost. The voices of Golden, Trish and Rusty weave together throughout this book to provide a multi-faceted view of a polygamist lifestyle from the view of the husband, a wife and one of the children.My Thoughts: This book has the magic combination of elements that I look for in a novel: a sense of humor (often leaning toward the dark side) mixed with tragedy and heartbreak and the ability to illuminate a type of lifestyle that is unfamiliar to me. Although the title of the book sounds like an oxymoron, Brady Udall effectively conveys how the life of a polygamist could be incredibly isolating and lonely. The loneliness that drives Golden to have an affair felt completely believable to me, and I found myself rooting for him! But Udall makes a genius decision to bring in the voices of Trish and Rusty to counterbalance Golden’s perspective. I felt for all of them and was so involved in their lives that, even though the book is 624 pages long, I wasn’t ready to leave at the end. Although many parts of the novel are very funny (particularly one scene with some lost gum), Udall gives his characters real pain and problems too, which keeps them grounded in the real world. This was a wondrous read, and I would highly recommend it. If you are concerned with how it portrays a polygamist lifestyle, I’d have to say that I thought Udall’s depiction felt realistic, complicated, and multi-layered (as I imagine it might be).
    • 4/5
      Poor Golden Richards! His four wives don’t get along. His 28 children are constantly fighting with each other, and his construction business is doing so poorly he’s had to take a job 200 miles from home building a brothel in Nevada. He’s had to lie to his family about what he’s actually doing. The fact that he is working so far away means that he is only home on weekends, so he is unable to spend time with his wives, which only makes matters worse. Uncle Chick, the leader of his “church” is trying to convince him to take a fifth wife, a woman in their community who already has two children and has been abandoned by her husband.Can life get any more complicated for this man? Yes it can. His years of passivity have led to the point where he is unable to make a decision about anything. His own upbringing has left him poorly educated and unable to deal with the business he has inherited. He spent his childhood waiting for an absent father, and now he has become that absent father.I had never heard of Brady Udall, but he has created an amazing book. The Lonely Polygamist takes place in the 1970’s. Udall has recreated that time so that it really is alive (although I guess you had to be there). Although most of this book is quite sad, there are some parts that are laugh out loud funny. The Richards family is poor, and torn by tragedy. Two children have died. The remaining children are unsupervised, ill-fed and poorly clothed. And this community expects Golden and his wives to keep reproducing.Life for the Richards clan has to get much worse before it gets better. Although this book is quite long (602 pages in hardcover) it is worth it. Sometimes the story gets bogged down by extraneous characters and situations, but I still recommend it.Thanks once again to LibraryThing Early Reviewers for sending me this book.
    • 4/5
      The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint is one of my all time favorite books so I was very optimistic about The Lonely Polygamist. The things that I liked about this book are the same things I like about Edgar Mint-- Udall's talent at creating the voice of an adolescent boy and his comical portrayal of the bizarre- Rusty's multiple attempts to escape the Old House, June's bunker, the gum! On the whole, I'm not sure the book worked. There were so many characters, most of them not nearly developed enough but I certainly fell in love with Rusty, one of the title characters 28 children.
    • 4/5
      The Lonely Polygamist is the story of a man, his four wives, and 28 children. Brady Udall manages to convincingly get inside the head of all his main characters and tell a story that is touching, funny, and relatable. Udall seems to have researched his material well, as the details and emotions each person feels come across as authentic and varied, whether male, female, young or old. If there is one complain, perhaps the ending is a bit weak. For all the intricateness of the story, Udall seems to tie things up in a nice, simple package. Nevertheless, the strength of this book is the varied thoughts and emotions from all his many characters, showing a huge range of humanity, without being overly judgmental. The Lonely Polygamist is certainly worth a read.
    • 3/5
      Couldn't get into the angst of the polygamist. Where one should possibly empathize with the women and children, I could only come up with the idea of what do you expect, given the circumstances? I couldn't get beyond what woman would do that to themselves AND their children? There's a reason it's illegal....
    • 2/5
      I am NOT impressed. I'll probably finish this book one day, but that day isn't soon. I love literary fiction, but when I'm on page 170 and NOTHING has happened, it's no longer literary fiction... it's rambling. One might argue that this is a character-driven plot, but I disagree. It's a lot of characterization with zero plot. When I do finish the book, I'll amend this review, but for now, it's getting tossed to the bottom of the pile.
    • 3/5
      I have to say, I really enjoyed The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint way more than I enjoyed this one. When I generally read books, I read them because I want to be enlightened or learn about something or sometimes for their wit and humour. The only thing I really learned more about in this one was the Mormon lifestyle and, having just looked up this author, I see Udall grew up in a large Mormon family, which makes me wonder if some of this may be based on autobiographical life events.

      Udall captures quite a bit of what it must be like both being the male of the family with multiple wives and multitudes of children to provide for. He presents the story in third person but focuses on the husband of these wives and his interest in another woman that is not involved in the Mormon community. He focuses on one of the many children, Rusty, but mentions the many others in little instances. He talks about the logistics of being Mormon, at least during the Carter administration, and the decisions that must be made-home school vs. public education for example. What the reader sees or what seems fairly obvious is the difficulty of such a life in terms of both financially providing for so many and in terms of devoting enough emotionally to your family fairly and equitably.

      I can't really hold back my own subjectivity and say that of all the religious I'm familiar with, I find Mormonism the lead favorable. Why is it they think it's okay for heterosexual men to marry multiple wives and they fund the passing of hateful legislation prohibiting same sex marriages? This seems very strange and homophobic to me...really very ignorant too. This lifestyle does not seem the least bit intriguing or pleasurable to me and I have a hard time fathoming why anyone would choose it except if you were raised into it and it was all you knew or you were just a really emotionally insecure woman? It literally drives me crazy that one of my favorite bands, Low, is Mormon. (As much as I have tried, I just can't quit them).

      In any case, I think what I might be trying to say is here is really, "Dear God, please don't let Mitt Romney get elected!!!"

      It isn't clear to me exactly what Udall's motivations and biases are in writing this but I suspect he's just trying to lay out a story in the best way he knows how with his own life experiences to guide him. The plot is interesting and exposes some hypocrisy as well as American paranoia. It makes you feel sorry for the wives and the kids and even the dumb dad who just can't seem to get it together in any way. The gum scene is probably the most hilarious part of the book. The other funny parts are all inadvertent as one of the characters is named Ted Leo (though only those into the indie rock scene would know that is also the name of a musician..Here, Ted Leo is definitely not an indie rock musician by any stretch of the imagination.)

      But, in the end, I was just left with a bunch of characters I couldn't relate to and a minor tragedy I saw coming from the minute explosives were introduced earlier on. It seemed a little obvious and predictable and I'd rather read about and learn from characters I'm more interested in at the end of the day. I guess it's good to know that these people's exist and what their lives are like but that doesn't mean I want to hang out with any of them (except for Low.) This is 600 pages that should have done more with all that girth.

      I also found Udall's writing on this one stylistically a little too straightforward and not engaging enough but I tend to favor the more poetic lyrical type anyhow.

    • 3/5
      This is a pretty good book overall. Some scenes were particularly effective/devastating, but overall the book dragged on for too long. Golden, the protagonist, was drawn well and was memorable. The wives, too, as well, and one of the sons, Rusty, who makes up the most poignant parts of the book's tragedy. The book was stronger in parts than in its whole. It didn't break any new stylistic grounds -- the prose was serviceable, and, at least, never got in the way of the story. Only recommended if you like "Big Love" or are particularly interested in polygamy. Otherwise the novel didn't contribute much in the way of important conversation.
    • 1/5
      Personally could not make it through the book. I was so bored that I finally gave up on it. I have a friend who loved it but this was just not for me.
    • 4/5
       Brady Udall is trying to stay out of the way. His new novel is about a Fundamentalist paterfamilias with 28 kids and 4 wives, naively blundering into motley hijinx and hatching adolescent longings for the boss' wife, backing himself into a web of lies and an imminent family showdown that builds up for most of the book's nearly 600 pages.In a world with so many characters and so much potential for emotional damage, Udall steers the narrative ship by removing himself from the thread: the momentum of the whirling plot creates its own little galaxy and he remains predominantly hands-off with his three main narrators (Golden, the patriarch; Rusty, the uncharismatic and totally sympathetic, ignored kid; Trish, the youngest and most, frankly, dull of the wives).Of course, this is fiction, so beyond noting the naturalistic style of writing, claiming that Udall is not present is fallacious. But what he bends backwards to do, with eerie success, is the avoidance of even the literary equivalent of an subtle eyebrow raising: never once does the remotest sense of moral judgment leak into the book that isn't a product of a specific character's outlook.Thus, the jostlings of the 28 offspring and the drama of the competition between the four wives just unfolds, without much intrusive commentary.The parts of the story that draw one in, though, are the parts where Udall is present. The juxtaposition of the family's formation in Utah--the bulk of the action takes place in the 1970s, but has tentacles reaching back earlier--against the nearby atomic bomb tests is surreal and vivid, even if the ultimate outcome is a bit heavy-handed. There are some nice passages about grief and duty, and Udall keeps enough plotty curveballs zinging to keep things moving.The plight of Rusty, middling and forgotten child, is borderline heartrending in the chapters where Udall lets himself get involved. Here's a kid whose father barely knows his name, who is weird and lonely, starting to self-destruct at the age of 11. The other siblings, who get a rather distant treatment (then again, there are 27 of them, and giving them all a solid dose of humanity might be an impossibility), seem infuriatingly average and well-adjusted, even given their various infirmities.And then there's Golden, the hub of all of this, whose main characteristic is his lack of much personality and physical heft. He's left grappling with various crises that tend to come to a head at rather deus ex machina moments (perhaps purposeful in their divine intervention feel). It feels more like things are happening to Golden than anything, he doesn't seem like an active force as much as a passive one. 'How lovely to sit under the lowering sky, the dead grass whisking his ankles, with springtime coming on and a feeling in his heart of imminent disaster.'It is this sense of dread and a forthcoming battle that ties much of the book together. Raymond, a neighbor's insane ostrich, watches over the family trysts and tragedies. In dire straits, Golden fights the bird in an absurd desperation, not unlike Jacob wrestling the angel. Children die and radioactive fallout sears lives. Golden's construction business atrophies; his job site is a brothel, not the old folks' home he claims to his sundry wives and associates. It's an organic, glorious mess that has nowhere to go but woe.The climax is a wallop. Perhaps it had to happen this way: something massive had to give for there to be redemption for so many lives. The Lonely Polygamist is a long, sinuous trip through the valley of death and back again. With a (possibly) supernatural ostrich to boot.
    • 4/5
      Golden Richards may have four wives and twenty-eight children, but he's a lonely man. So lonely, in fact, that he can't help but fall in love for the first time in his life. But he's not the only one in the immense family to feel isolated. Trish, wife #4, is also terribly lonesome and buries herself in romantic novels. And despite the fact that eleven-year-old Rusty is surrounded by siblings, he cannot find a single person - either adult or child - with whom to connect. The Lonely Polygamist may be a study in human isolation, but the story itself is hilarious. In the tradition of authors such as John Irving and Richard Russo, Brady Udall does a remarkable job of entertaining the reader. He describes outrageous incidents that could only happen in a family as large as the Richards'. After reading the book, it will be impossible to ever think of chewing gum in the same way. The protagonist Golden Richards, could have been depicted as an exploiter of women and children, but instead, he is a sympathetic character. Although he's let his family down by not giving them the love and attention they need, the reader can sympathize with his plight. He, like the other members of his family, is a victim of circumstance. The one flaw in the story is the ending. I was very frustrated by the decisions that some of the characters made. The members of the Richards clan seemed trapped in their desperate lives and unable to escape, even when given the opportunity. Although, after reading the book and getting to know the characters, it doesn't seem likely that the book could end any other way.