The book follows two different timelines. The first is sort of a Ann Eliza Young fanfiction based on her confusingly similar titled autobiography. The second timeline is about a young gay man, Jordan, who solves a murder mystery to get his accused mother out of jail. His mother was coincidentally a 19th wife, and through Jordan's story we get to catch an outsiders glimpse of a fictional polygamous cult.
The author often cites the historical fiction segments as primary sources from closed Mormon church archives. Ann Eliza Young's real autobiography is called Wife #19. The author cites her work as The 19th Wife. As you are reading the book, only a few things will tip you off that these aren't actual historical excerpts. For one, the author doesn't do a good job of shifting his voice. Even though Jordan speaks modern english complete with its slangs, idioms, and profanities, you can still hear the authors voice in the historical segments. Well, you have to look past all the highfalutin, proper, turn-of-the-century speak, but he is still there. The fake Wikipedia article is a smoking gun to how fake the rest of the book is. But the only way you know for sure is because the citations aren't in MLA format.
That concealed phoniness was my only qualm about the historical fiction excerpts. They were at least interesting and had a powerful voice. Jordan's little murder mystery, on the other hand, was pretty lame. All the background characters had motive, and reasoning was so flimsy when they revealed the killer that they could have just picked the conclusion out of a hat. Not to mention that the mystery was at a complete standstill until the last 30 pages of the book. That is 500 pages of book where the murder mystery goes no where. It doesn't help that the main character keeps saying "I feel like we are so close!". You can't fool me, Ebershoff.
The finesse-less editing was apparent when the book ended with a whisper. Ana Eliza's story had a big fat "The End" written at the end of her chapter. I turned the page and Jordon was still undergoing the second half of all the action in his story. There was an Epilouge that had a conclusion I cared more about than the true ending of the book. The author note explaining his sources and intentions should have been the blasted preface. That simple cut and paste alone would have removed all of the phoniness of the book.
I am sorry that I didn't enjoy the book. Normally New York Times Bestsellers are like crack, even if the book isn't very good. I actually had a hard time picking it up from time to time. It didn't even satisfy my voyeuristic fascination with polygamy because it wasn't sexy enough. The only explanation I have for the inexplicable sales without any of the goods is that they must have been going for the Mormon crowd. If that is the case, then the chaste gay relationship was a thinly veiled way to keep the mainstream crowd still gawking.
Other notes:
-A Los Angeles Times blurb on the back of the book states that "The 19th Wife is a big book, in every sense of the word". See, I thought that this meant that the book was full of texture, with enough content to occupy my thoughts for days. Instead it turned out that a "big book" just means that there was a lot the book should have left out. It was just all over the place.
- Whats the deal with dogs? The author seemed so upset when his lifetime original movie excluded the dogs. I mean, it makes sense that he could be upset that they decided to rewrite Jordan as straight.
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