Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
May 2010, 602 pages
Paperback:
May 2011, 608 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Donna Chavez
Buy This Book
Beautifully written, keenly observed, and ultimately redemptive, The Lonely Polygamist is an unforgettable story of an American family—with its inevitable dysfunctionality, heartbreak, and comedy—pushed to its outer limits.
From a luminous storyteller, a highly anticipated new novel about the American family writ large.
Golden Richards, husband to four wives, father to twenty-eight children, is having the mother of all midlife crises. His construction business is failing, his family has grown into an overpopulated mini-dukedom beset with insurrection and rivalry, and he is done in with grief: due to the accidental death of a daughter and the stillbirth of a son, he has come to doubt the capacity of his own heart. Brady Udall, one of our finest American fiction writers, tells a tragicomic story of a deeply faithful man who, crippled by grief and the demands of work and family, becomes entangled in an affair that threatens to destroy his family's future. Like John Irving and Richard Yates, Udall creates characters that engage us to the fullest as they grapple with the nature of need, love, and belonging.
Beautifully written, keenly observed, and ultimately redemptive, The Lonely Polygamist is an unforgettable story of an American family—with its inevitable dysfunctionality, heartbreak, and comedy—pushed to its outer limits.
Family Home Evening
TO PUT IT AS SIMPLY AS POSSIBLE: THIS IS THE STORY OF A POLYGAMIST
who has an affair. But there is much more to it than that, of course; the life of any polygamist, even when not complicated by lies and secrets and infidelity, is anything but simple. Take, for example, the Friday night in early spring when Golden Richards returned to Big House—one of three houses he called home—after a week away on the job. It should have been the sweetest, most wholesome of domestic scenes: a father arrives home to the loving attentions of his wives and children. But what was about to happen inside that house, Golden realized as he pulled up into the long gravel drive, would not be wholesome or sweet, or anything close to it.
The place was lit up like a carnival tent—yellow light burned in every one of the house's two dozen windows—and the sound coming from inside was as loud as he'd ever heard it: a whooping clamor that ...
Thanks to Udall's awesome ability to craft these lives and this place – the American west – Golden et al come off the page and join the reader ... I am going to miss Golden Richards. And Trish, Golden's fourth wife. And Cooter, Golden's bug-eyed dachshund mix who, due to an obsessive licking problem, occasionally has to wear tiny undershorts that once belonged to a Swingin' Baby Timmy doll and are "all white except for a yellow explosion on the rear, inside of which the words HOME RUN!!! were printed in blue." I am going to miss them and the dozens – yes, dozens, more than two dozen actually – of children that Golden has with Trish, and Beverly (wife #1), and Nola (wife #2), and Rose-of-Sharon (wife #3)...continued
Full Review
(519 words)
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access,
become a member today.
(Reviewed by Donna Chavez).
Estimates of the number of Mormon fundamentalists residing in the western United States, Canada and Mexico range from 20,000 to 60,000 (compared with over 10 million mainstream Mormons worldwide). Although there are numerous sects, the largest two are the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS Church) and the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB). They each have 9,000 to 10,000+ members and both are headquartered in Utah, although the AUB also has a temple in Mexico. Not all sects espouse multiple marriage although many do. Exact numbers are hard to come by but it is thought that fewer than 15,000 are practicing polygamists.
Indeed, fundamentalist Mormons eschew the term "polygamy" as it implies multiple ...
This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.
If you liked The Lonely Polygamist, try these:
by Tara Westover
Published 2022
Winner of the 2018 BookBrowse Nonfiction Award
An unforgettable memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University.
by Francesca Hornak
Published 2018
A warm, wry, sharply observed debut novel about what happens when a family is forced to spend a week together in quarantine over the holidays...
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Stone Home
by Crystal Hana Kim
A moving family drama and coming-of-age story revealing a dark corner of South Korean history.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
