W.W. Norton
Publication date: 2010
Source: library
The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall is a specific
type of family saga: it’s the story of
middle-aged Golden Richards, his four wives, and his numerous children as he’s
going through a mid-life crisis. I had
my doubts along the way because stories about a man’s mid-life crisis are not
stories I seek out, but in the end, the pace picked up and I became invested
with these frustrating characters.
The set-up for the story is the first draw. I’ve watched some of the seasons of the HBO
show Big Love (and again, I’m not a fan of the polygamist husband and
his mid-life crisis), and I’ve watched some news specials about
polygamists. The draw is figuring out
how a family with so many people and living in so many houses works.
The actual plot of The Lonely Polygamist involves
Golden living away from his family when he works as a general contractor on the
expansion of a brothel in Nevada. It
involves his marital crisis (he becomes involved with another woman during the
long stretches he’s away from home).
The other main stories involve his fourth wife Trish, who is grieving
the loss of her stillborn son Jack, and his twelve-year-old son Rusty, who
clashes with his non-biological mother Beverly as well as his siblings. Udall captures the polygamist experience
from the point of view of the husband, one of the wives, and one of the
overlooked children.
I think it’s most interesting to look at this book as a
study of how lonely everyone in a polygamist household can be. Being overlooked is unavoidable in a brood
so large, especially if the parents are working away from home. This book has the added layer of the story
of Trish and Golden’s grief at the children they’ve lost. Grieving, or not grieving, more accurately,
led to more estrangement between Golden and the rest of his family. The grief sections of the book are very
strong and very affecting.
There were a couple drawbacks to the story: first, the character of Golden, and second
all the female characters. First, I
didn’t particularly like or feel sorry for Golden, as sad as his upbringing and
his emotional stuntedness made him. I
think it’s a case of the underdog being such a sad sack that I didn’t root for
him. He was frustrating because he was
so naïve about the feelings of those closest to him as well as so naïve about
what he himself was feeling. Second,
there is the problem of the female characters.
Huila, Golden’s extra-marital love interest, is a very idealized
character. We don’t spend that much
time with three out of the four of Golden’s wives for them to be fleshed out
people: they are suffering,
overburdened wives who spend all of their time caring for the rest of the
family. That said, Udall does do a good
job with the characters of Trish and Rusty.
It’s an interesting premise for a book with a couple characters that
drew me in.
