The Lonely Polygamist: A Novel

By Brady Udall

Reviewed by Russell Y. Anderson
On 5/28/2010

W. W. Norton & Company, 2010 Hardcover:
602 pages
ISBN-10: 0-39306-262-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-39306-262-5 Price: $26.95

Reviewed by Russell Anderson for the Association for Mormon Letters

Having recently read Favorite Wife: Escape From Polygamy which was a true story about one woman's experience as the sixth wife of Verlan LeBaron, I thought it would be interesting to see if a fictional account could capture the perspective of the husband in those relationships. In Favorite Wife, Susan had given many examples of loneliness, betrayal, poverty and the many difficult dynamics confronted in a marriage with multiple wives competing for the affection, time and resources of only one husband.

This story starts, “To put it as simply as possible: This is the story of a polygamist who has an affair.” (p. 15) So from the very beginning you expect that the husband will find himself torn in many directions and find solace and comfort in the life or arms or another woman. But is this being oversold? Normally you would expect a lurid sexual experience, and yet the polygamist of our story (Golden) tells us that although he was inappropriate with a man's wife, there was “no adultery, that's for certain.” (p. 442)

There are several indications from the beginning that Golden is struggling. “Look at him: a man afraid to walk into his own house.”(p.16) “But for the first time in his memory there was no one there to greet him. He was all alone and it unnerved him.” (p. 17)

Facts are stranger than fiction because fiction has to be believable. Although this might have happened in real life, it seemed out of place when talking about the four wives: “The sisters had shared Big House for the entire eleven years of its existence and Golden had never once seen them argue or disagree.” (p. 32) This is one of the things that bothered me about the book. It seemed to be written as a caricature of polygamist life without making it believable. He expressed appreciation for “the families in Utah and Arizona for their generosity and insight, for allowing me into their lives.” But to me the book seemed more interested in ridiculing the life they had chosen instead of giving us lives that were believable and substantial.

Why is it that books and TV programs about those who practice polygamy have to set them up to be unworthy representations of the lifestyle represented by real people? For example, in the TV series Big Love they have the husband working in the gambling business with less than firm support of church principles except that he has several wives. In this story we have a builder that is building a brothel in Nye country Nevada and the lies which that requires. There are plenty of problems in a polygamist relationship without adding additional elements that don't fit.

For me this was a difficult book to read. As I would start to get into the story, I would turn the page and the story would flash back or flash forward in uncomfortable rapidity. Whether it was reviewing the life of a daughter that died several years earlier, or the previous life of one of the wives, or jumping back and forth to review the life of his father or focus on Rusty. a troublesome child. The constant switching of time periods and story was giving me historical whiplash.

When Golden asked his father why God would want someone to take more than one wife, he explained, “it's complicated. Most folks think it's about sex, but that ain't it at all. If a man wants sex, well, I don't have to tell you there's easier ways to do it then marrying someone. God wants us to live the Principle, mostly because it's a hard thing to do and it makes us better for it.” (p. 161) To live a difficult “Principle” like this would take more than a passing interest. But that is never explored. Golden just seems to suddenly go from being a member of the “Living Church of God” to having several wives. Interestingly, just having wives gave him position in the church -- “once he began taking wives, [he] would be called to the Council of Twelve, an order of apostles of which there were currently a grand total of nine.” (p. 163)

So, even though I think the title of the book describes an aspect of life in polygamy that is worth exploring, I think this book takes cheap detours without giving the characters the real meaning that shows why people are willing to live this type of life.


Copyright 2010