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Jul 23, 2011

Cecilia rated it:

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 but...a lot of More...

1 comment like (17 people liked it)

Apr 25, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

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 s More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

May 14, 2010

Tim rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like (27 people liked it)

May 11, 2010

BookGirl rated it:

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 employ...couldn't put it down...feel 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 author's painstaking portrayal of the complex emotions that animate each of the spouse's reasons for participating in t More...

2 comments like (20 people liked it)

Feb 20, 2010

Candace rated it:

"How does a shy, lonely boy from the backwaters of Louisiana become an apostle of God, the husband to four wives, the father to twenty-eight children? Easier than you think."

Golden Richards is a man who never quite takes charge of his life, and this is the result. And THEN he has an affair. My goodness, what next?

This is a captivating novel, funny, touching, and full of believable, all-to-human people. Especially funny and moving is Rusty, the son of wife three More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2010

Christie rated it:

Fantastic. Fantastic. Fantastic. It's everything you want a novel to be: rip-roaring fun while also full of piercing moments, arresting observations, and big ideas. I'm giving it 5 stars even though I haven't finished it, because it's already delivered far more than most novels.

Now that I've finished:
Well, there are two types of people that won't love The Lonely Polygamist:
Mormon fundamentalists with no sense of humor, and people who don't like
books. Everybody More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jul 28, 2010

Rebecca rated it:

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 More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jul 30, 2011

Jennifer (aka EM) rated it:

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. More...

10 comments like (20 people liked it)

Oct 31, 2010

Sterlingcindysu rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 28, 2010

Tina rated it:

So far, I like it. Though I prefer nonfiction, I grew up in a large Mormon community, so have an interest in aspects of the LDS church.

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2011

Alexa rated it:

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 unenjoyable person to read about, but they were all so dull! If any of these people were real, I don't thi More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 09, 2012

Michelle rated it:

I read this book the week after Christmas, and haven't been able to stop thinking about it. The themes in this book are as old as time--dysfunctional families. It's just that this family has one husband, four wives, and 28 children. Set in southern Utah in the 1970's, Udall explores the impact of polygamy on all parties involved--husband Golden Richards (the lonely polygamist of the title), the wives which include two sisters, plus the kids, including a misfit chubby 11 year old boy Rusty. U More...

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Dec 04, 2011

Marike added it

The lonely polygamist by Brady Udall

A novel with a big heart. It seems impossible and somehow here it is. In a small Mormom community in the Nevada desert there is a group of believers who live the Principle. The lonely polygamist of the title is Golden Richards a sad, overwhelmed and kind giant who more or less stumbled into the community by accident. And there he is, with four wives and 26 children and everything is very complicated.

What makes the book wonderful is how More...

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Nov 20, 2011

Cindi rated it:

These people are crazy!! Oh, wait a minute...I have polygamist ancestors too! I've read the accounts of my great-great grandma and how sad her existence was. It fits right into this more up-to-date story of a polygamist family. It's part of my past that I can't erase and I guess I wouldn't want to, or else I wouldn't be here, but sheesh! Just let me get hold of the crazy who recommended it (polygamy) in the first place...Oh wait, that'd probably be an animal of some kind.

This st More...

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Nov 13, 2011

Caitlin rated it:

I was curious to see how Udall, who I could tell was a Mormon based solely from his last name (is that bad of me? oh well), would handle a novel about Mormon fundamentalist polygamists. I grew up a Utah Mormon, and my recollection of the polygamists is....well, I didn't have much of a recollection beyond that they were kind of like the oddball, embarrassing cousins everyone tried to pretend were not related to us. Mainstream Mormons are not the most upfront about acknowledging the existence of More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 06, 2011

Aaron rated it:

The Lonely Polygamist is one of the longest books I have read in quite some time. I have a theory that when I am wanting to read really long books, I am trying to fight off my inevidable death (How can someone die while in the middle of a book?). This in nonsense, and I know it, but most of the time I avoid reading anything this long.

The 600+ pages breeze by, and the story, though a little underwelming, is quite an intersting cache of characters. You have four wives and 20+ kids, yo More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

Full disclosure...I loved Brady Udall's The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint when it came out-the quirky characters, landscape, and narrator's voice drew me into the train wreck of Edgar Mint's life. So, when the Lonely Polygamist came out a few years ago, I was excited to read it. But then, I got distracted by reading lots of books for kids and teens for work and it got shoved down to the bottom of the pile. Until this vacation, when I decided that I was sick of paying overdue fines for books I wa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 29, 2011

Erin rated it:

I loved this book on many different levels. Yes, it is about polygamy--fascinating in and of itself--but polygamy is merely the backdrop, or mechanism, for achieving its deeper themes. Artfully written, it speaks to the loneliness and isolation of the human condition. Loss, grief, identity, love, redemption--they're all in there.

The main character, Golden Richards, is not so likeable, but his journey is definitely interesting. All the characters, in fact, are interesting and unique, More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 25, 2011

Pdxstacey rated it:

It started off so well! I was really enjoying the writing style. Then I got busy and the book was due at the library and I forgot about it. Then I bought it at the airport. The cashier at Powells was giggling as rang it up, she thought it was so funny (the book, not me. Although I was wearing my yellow glasses).

I get it, there are some odd characters and an ostrich and way too many children. I didn't like any of the characters. Golden seems mildly retarded and I am appalled that More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 11, 2011

Lindz-o rated it:

This book may or may not have contributed to a bout of insomnia I had over one weekend. Did I read it so fast because I had insomnia and stayed up all night reading it, or did I have insomnia because I stayed up all night reading it? (chicken before egg?) That's the big question surrounding my voracious consumption of this book. At one point, I was up at 2 a.m. with my Itty Bitty Book light keeping my husband awake because my silent laughter kept shaking the bed.

Yes, I laughed an More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 26, 2011

Cheri rated it:

This is a dang good read, hilarious and heart wrenching, the best book I’ve read in recent years.

The book is written from three alternating perspectives: Golden, the “sweet, bewildered, and thoroughly overwhelmed” patriarch (thanks for those perfect adjectives, David J. Loftus, Amazon reviewer); Trish, his youngest and prettiest wife, smart, spunky, grieving, seeking refuge; and Rusty, almost twelve and utterly misunderstood as he vies for attention with outrageously boyish and ultim More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 24, 2011

Forrest rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 14, 2011

Jrobertus rated it:

Golden Richards is the lonely polygamist, and he is isolated indeed. He is a large, but inept and unsure, man. He has four wifes in various states of neurosis and 28 children who generally lack a father figure because he is spread way too thin. The novel follows his life in the 1970s as well as his back-story and that of his wifes. The action mainly focuses on him, his youngest wife Trish, and one disturbed son Rusty. Golden ads to his inherent problems by starting an affair with his boss’s More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 10, 2011

Judy rated it:

One of my favorite quotes from this book is "Families are forever, and he wondered if the slogan was meant as a promise or a threat." Golden is the head of a polygamist family in the Virgin Valley in Utah. He is married to four wives and is the father of 28 children. And he's not exactly clear how this happened. He grew up in Louisiana, moved to Utah in his late teens to be with his father, and through his father was brought into the fold of polygamist Mormonism. That's Golden's p More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 06, 2011

Laurie rated it:

There was a lot to like about this book - vivid visual descriptions of the desert, surprising depth to the characters, wit galore, and I really enjoyed it. I liked being in their world and had trouble putting the book down. I'm having trouble putting my finger on what leaves me feeling sort of meh about the book. Something left me a little flat... I know that I hated the kid character that we spend a lot of time with. Udall said he had fun writing him, and you can tell -- there isn't much restra More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

Eric rated it:

THE LONELY POLYGAMIST starts with a family tree chart. This proved extremely helpful in setting up the novel, as well as serving as a reference guide to help readers keep straight four wives and twenty-eight children. The family chart shows everyone's relation, age, and name. I flipped back to it several times during the course of the 600-page book.

Fortunately, although there are over 30 family characters, the novel only focuses on a select few, leaving the rest as just "back More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 27, 2011

Mitzi rated it:

My curiousity about modern polygamy peaked about 3 years ago, and I thought the discussion/creative plot-lines with this genre were pretty much exhausted, so I wasn't inclined to pick this book up. Even when it was on best-of lists last year, I didn't bite. But then my BSU alumni magazine came out and a quick browse showed Brady Udall and his much lauded book...I didn't look close enough to realize that Udall teaches at BSU--I thought he had graduated from BSU and so I ran right out to see wha More...

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Jun 09, 2011

Katie rated it:

Wow, I really thought this book was fantastic. It used characters in a large polygamist family to show how alone and lonely people can be even when they are surrounded by others. The family didn't conform to many of the stereotypes I have about polygamist families, especially the father who was a sensitive, pathetic softy bossed around by everyone around him. It was well written and really took you through the gambit of emotions: disgust, sympathy, outrage, suspense, and humor. It was intere More...

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Jun 06, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

Brief Description: Golden Richards has four wives, 28 children and a struggling construction business. If his life isn’t already complicated enough, he is contemplating starting an affair. Trish, one of Golden’s newest wives and unable to conceive any children with him, begins to wonder if polygamy is the right choice for her and her daughter from a previous marriage. Rusty, one of the middle children in a family where almost everyone is a middle child, struggles to stand out in a family where i More...

0 comments like

May 17, 2011

Jill rated it:

I was surprised to like this book fairly well, when the main character is more pitiable and frustrating than likable. I seldom enjoy a book where I so frequently want to shake sense into someone, and Golden did seem in need of a good shake. Trish's narration was still a bit hang-dog but at least she seemed to be trying to improve her situation, instead of continually being baffled by the circumstances around her as Golden seemed to be. Yet I still wanted to see what happened to them and betwee More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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