Thursday, January 21, 2010

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

What do you think of another woman’s story written by a man? What about the transmitting of history through historical fiction? This is the second book in row we've read that have these two contexts.

How does Ann Eliza's story reflect the stories of women? What about abused women? How does the story compare with other women who have powerful husbands? Or, strong, religious connections?

Here is the author's web page.

It’s been a while since we’ve read something that “all the other book groups were reading.” We were ahead of the game with Eat, Pray, Love. By the way, some of us saw Elizabeth Gilbert in Cambridge the week before our meeting and she was really funny.

We used the book group questions from questions from Random House as a framework for our discussion of The 19th Wife and veered off frequently.

1. The first part of the novel, Two Wives, contains prefaces to two very different books. What did you think when you started reading The 19th Wife? Which story interested you the most?

Most of us liked Eliza’s story as the 19th wife the best. The research part, while interesting when we were reading it, really let us down when we read the end notes saying it was totally made up (bummer). The story of the two men lacked depth.

2. Ann Eliza Young says, Faith is a mystery. How does Ebershoff play with this metaphor? What are the mysteries in The 19th Wife? What does the novel say about faith?

When we asked ourselves if this book was about polygamy or something else. We saw that it was about the “something else” and “blind faith” came to mind. Even if the word of God through the Prophet didn’t make sense, the women followed it BECAUSE it was the word of God through the Prophet.

3. What are your impressions of Ann Eliza Young, and how do those impressions change over the course of the novel? Do you trust her as a narrator?

We thought it must have been hard for Ann Eliza to question the word of God. How can you believe in the word of God and then that God ’s word changed (as is what happened when the polygamy rules were allowed and then reversed)?

4. Brigham Young was one of the most dynamic and complex figures in nineteenth-century America. How does the novel portray him? Do you come to understand his deep convictions? In the story of his marriage to Ann Eliza, he essentially gets the last word. Why?

Well, she does disappear at the end. He reminded us of Mohammed from our last novel, The Mother of the Believers. We couldn’t help make comparisons about how they interacted/received their directions from God, how polygamy played a part in both men’s (through God’s words) lives, and how they survived persecution (and massacre) to lead people in a new faith.

5. What kind of man is Chauncey Webb? And Gilbert? What do they tell you about polygamy?

We had the most to say about the polygamous aspect of this book. We talked about Faith v. Teachings v. Social Context. The latter being designed by humans: interpretation of faith through teachings and what is appropriate/acceptable in a given context. It was interesting to read about how not all mean wanted to be polygamous (even though God told them they should) and how Ann Eliza’s brother went off to form The Firsts (the remaining polygamous sect of Mormons, who the Mormons don’t recognize as Mormon).

6. Jordan is an unlikely detective. What makes him a good sleuth? What are his blind spots?

We didn’t really talk about this.

7. Many of the people who help Jordan - Mr. Heber, Maureen, Kelly, and Tom - are Mormons. What do you think Ebershoff is saying by this?

We didn’t really talk about this.

8. Like many mysteries, Jordan’s story is a quest. What is he searching for?

Well, besides the search, this story brought up the issue of homosexuality – “the church may turn its back on us but we’ll never turn our back on the church.” We talked a bit about what cultures, historical and current, have beliefs or religious texts SUPPORTING homosexuality. While it was difficult, we did realize that some cultures do not have strong anti-gay ideologies (Is it because those cultures don’t have written rules because they are based on oral tradition? Is it because those cultures don’t have organized religion, but more spiritual practices?)

This brought us to a discussion of symbols and daily practices which make for spirituality, but not necessarily “religion” in the traditional sense of the word.

9. Why do you think Ebershoff wrote the novel with so many voices? How do the voices play off one another? Who is your favorite narrator? Who is your least favorite?

We didn’t talk so much about the voices, narrator, and characters. We did talk about how the The Bahá'í Faith is the youngest of the world's independent religions. Its founder, Bahá'u'lláh (1817-1892), is regarded by Bahá'ís as the most recent in the line of Messengers of God that stretches back beyond recorded time and that includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Christ and Muhammad. http://info.bahai.org/ They believe that God has spoken to humanity throughout history to renew their covenant, especially when humans have gone astray from the religious teachings.

Belief in God, as a spirit, is not necessarily belief in a doctrine. Spiritual teachings seem to remain the same across the religious we were familiar with, but social teachings change with time. For example, “Honor your mother and father” means respect the rules of the land (the current rules of the culture by taught to you by your parents). Among ourselves, we have mono and polytheistic belief systems, but clearly knew a lot less about polytheistic religions, such as Hinduism.

10. Why do you think Ebershoff wrote a fictional memoir by Ann Eliza Young, and why are some chapters missing? As he says in his Author’s Note, the real Ann Eliza Young actually wrote two memoirs: Wife No. 19, first published in 1875, and a second book, Life in Mormon Bondage, which came out in 1908. Based on your reading of The 19th Wife, what kind of memoirist do you think the real Ann Eliza Young was?

This book reads like a memoir and it was difficult for us to believe that it wasn’t; that it was fictionalized. We wished the truth and the embellished were more clearly distinguished.