faith and religion

Over the last weekend, I finished reading the 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. It's been a while since I found myself engrossed with a book. But it’s not surprising that I loved the 19th Wife. I have always had a penchant for historical fiction. With characters taken from the past, the story becomes more vivid and real, and I usually find myself actually pulled into their world, reliving the scenes from each page.

The very base of this novel talks about a subject matter that is close to my heart. It is about religion and the clash between what you believe and what you are told to believe. It is about faith being tested and sometimes being discovered to be wrong, or rather not for you. And it is also about the strength of faith itself, and how you can never look at it as a plural thing, but a very singular entity, different for each and everyone who practices it. At the final note, it is also about being lost, and missing something so intangible that you don't even know you are missing it.

At the face of the novel is a story about polygamy in the Mormon Church during the 19th century, and how it affects the lives of the people inside the institution. The novel is a work of fiction, but uses real life historical figures as its cast. As with the works of Iain Pears, I love these kinds of books because it makes me want to research more about the subject matter and the characters, thus I have spent a fruitful weekend reading up on the Latter Day Saints and their history and founding fathers.

The story is about Ann Eliza Webb Young, who was the 19th (as far as she knows), wife of the great Brigham Young, then leader and Prophet of the Mormon church and a powerful political figure in 19th century America. It examines their lives as Mormon pioneers, and also the lives of a community engaging in plural marriage.

According to the book and my research online, Ann Eliza was one of the leading figures in bringing to an end the polygamous practices of the Mormon Church. Disillusioned by her husband and with it, her faith, she divorced them both and proceeded to lecture around the country on the negativity of plural marriage. She also wrote a memoir, the 19th Wife, detailing her life, being born into a polygamous family and then being married into one.

However, the book is a work of fiction and in between the historical review of the lives of the original Latter Day Saints, there is also a story about a murder inside a polygamy practicing religious community in the twenty first century. Jordan Scott, a lost boy of the Firsts, a breakaway religious group from modern-day Mormons, returns to his religious community in Mesdale, to investigate the murder of his polygamous practicing father. His mother, a 19th wife, stands accused of the crime.

All the elements in the two stories connect as puzzle pieces, adding up to a historical review and perhaps a critique of how polygamy works. Within these two stories, the life and consequences of plural marriage on women and even more important, on children, is depicted and examined, in beautiful lyrical language.