The Lonely Polygamist

Posted on 11 August 2017 by Brady Udall

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. Free Download The Lonely Polygamist [ Author ] Brady Udall [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr Sometimes when I recommend a book that I ve enjoyed, I worry about talking it up too much, getting people s expectations impossibly high, but that s not something I worry about with Brady Udally s The Lonely Polygamist This book really knocked my socks off it was a book I couldn t put down while I was reading it, and can t stop thinking about now that I ve finished it.The novel is about a large polygamist family redundant circa 1978 that is spiraling out of control The narrative mainly foc Sometimes when I recommend a book that I ve enjoyed, I worry about talking it up too much, getting people s expectations impossibly high, but that s not something I worry about with Brady Udally s The Lonely Polygamist This book really knocked my socks off it was a book I couldn t put down while I was reading it, and can t stop thinking about now that I ve finished it.The novel is about a large polygamist family redundant circa 1978 that is spiraling out of control The narrative mainly focuses on three characters Golden Richards, the patriarch of the family who is secretly working on the construction of a brothel in Nevada, but telling his family it s an old folk s home Trisha, the fourth and newest wife, who has recently lost a child and Rusty, the one kid in the family who can never do anything right, who has tragically smelly feet and a secret penchant for trashy romance novels.When I heard that Brady Udall was working on a novel about polygamists, I was skeptical I enjoyed his ...As I sit down to write this review, I find myself thinking there is no way that I can possibly describe this book the banalities I usually employcouldn t put it downfeel so lame because this book was so good, but I ll try.I started out convinced that I would not like any of the characters the polygamist husband in particular, but also, the wives However, the a...I picked up this novel because it was on a list of 10 best fiction novels of 2010 I hope that is not the case, here, or fiction is in a sad state The novel is okay its not great Udall works very hard to make Golden, his protagonist, a suffering hero with whom the reader should feel compassion But, the guy is really a wimp Yes, he takes responsiblity for his family of 4 wives and 25 children and, yes, he s grieving the loss of his disabled daughter who died on his watch buta lot of these I picked up this novel because it was on a list of 10 best fiction novels of 2010 I hope that is not the case, here, or fiction is in a sad state The novel is okay its not great Udall works very hard to make Golden, his protagonist, a suffering hero with whom the reader should feel compassion But, the guy is really...Slightly grudgingly, just coz I hate bandwagons literary and otherwise I ll say that this book deserved all the hype it received Here are five things it did well that so many books crash and burn trying to do No 5 It surprised me overall I don t know what I was expecting of a book about polygamous marriage, but I m pretty sure it wasn t this and in the individual details There are a couple of twists in characters and plots that I really didn t see coming.No 4 It built character th Slightly grudgingly, just coz I hate bandwagons literary and otherwise I ll say that this book deserved all the hype it received Here are five things it did well that so many books crash and burn trying to do No 5 It surprised me overall I don t know what I was expecting of a book about polygamous marriage, but I m pretty sure it wasn t this and in the individual details There are a couple of twists in characters and plots that I really didn t see coming.No 4 ...I need to stop forcing myself to continue reading a book even though I m certain I don t like it By the time I stop reading the books unfinished, of course I m shocked by the amount of time I wasted reading something I don t enjoy.I found The Lonely Polygamist intensely boring I suppose I liked some of the characters I felt for Trish and Rusty, and Golden wasn t an entirely unenjoya...I m always eager to read a book with local ties As the title of BYU graduate Brady Udall s most recent novel, The Lonely Polygamist, suggests, his critically acclaimed work most definitely has themes central to Utah history and culture I picked up this book wondering how successful Udall would be in making his central character, Golden Richards, a husband to four and father to twenty eight, who still manages time to develop an extra marital relationship, at all likeable Udall succeeds admirab I m always eager to read a book with local ties As the title of BYU graduate Brady Udall s most recent novel, The Lonely Polygamist, suggests, his critically acclaimed work most definitely has themes central to Utah history and culture I picked up this book wondering how successful Udall would be in making his central character, Golden Richards, a husband to four and father to twenty eight, who still manages time to develop an extra marital relationship, at all likeable Udall succeeds admirably in creating Golden and his other characters I came to like Golden, and pity him too, even while finding him immensely frustrating at times The story is told...This book s strong points really stellar writing, vividly believable but out there characters, a set of perspectives that pops the story into three dimensions, nuclear blasts, an evil ostrich, a satisfying ending that isn t really a happy ending, great lists, shockingly accurate fundie plyg portraits think bolo ties , character archs for all, a carrot on a stick narrative structure that keeps us drooling along behind, trying to figure out where we ve been and where we re going, some serious g This book s strong points really stellar writing, vividly believable but out there characters, a set of perspectives that pops the story into three dimensions, nuclear blasts, an evil ostrich, a satisfying ending that isn t really a happy ending, great lists, shockingly accurate fundie plyg portraits think bolo ties , character archs for all, a carrot on a stick narrative structure that keeps us drooling along behind, trying to figure out where we ve been and where we re going, some serious goofiness, some weird shiz, romance novels, a cathouse, jolly mexicans, evil pimps, hormonal pre teens, and bits that made me cry.As for the premise take what you think about a plyg family Now invert it Voila Domineering fundie patriarch No He s a bumbling pawn Whimpering naive abused wives looking for escape Nu uh Try worldy w...I finish train wreck novels like this and wonder why I do this to myself Unpleasant life events happening to unsympathetic people, utterly foreseeable and just as utterly impossible to avert I come away feeling slightly soiled, not exactly wanting those hours of my life back so much as reminded that I really am not part of mainstream literature s target audience The novel is well written, and I u...Done, done Finally done Am still processing how I feel about this one, but my gut reaction is it was okay At times it was fascinating the polygamist life seems so closed and taboo that you almost can t help but get drawn in by the idea of the story But for me, sticking with Udall through all 600 pages was an arduous journey Udall doesn t vilify polygamists he also doesn t embrace them And perhaps that is where I found much of the difficulty with The Lonely Polygamist there wasn t a str Done, done Finally done Am still processing how I feel about this one, but my gut reaction is it was okay At times it was fascinating the polygamist life seems so closed and taboo that you almost can t help but get drawn in by the idea of the story But for me, sticking with Udall through all 600 pages was an arduous journey Udall doesn t vilify polygamists he also doesn t embrace them And perhaps that is where I found much of the difficulty with The Lonely Polygamist there wasn t a strong pull either way I didn t much care about ...This was the rare occasion when I basically skimmed the last 150 pages just to find out a few key plot points, rather than actually reading, because I was excruciatingly BORED while reading this book The hero, despite having 4 wives, is completely uninteresting a hulking cipher as blank as his improbably shut in childhood without friends or education If he had one wife, instead of 4, this tale of a middle aged schlemiel who has no will, no agency, no real yearnings other than to get with t This was the rare occasion when I basically skimmed the last 150 pages just to find out a few key plot points, rather than actually reading, because I was excruciatingly BORED while reading this book The hero, despite havi...

English
11 August 2017

Brady Udall