Brady Udall

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 show more where it is easy to get lost. The voices of Golden, Trish and Rusty weave together throughout this book to provide a multi-faceted view of a polygamist lifestyle from the view of the husband, a wife and one of the children.

My Thoughts: This book has the magic combination of elements that I look for in a novel: a sense of humor (often leaning toward the dark side) mixed with tragedy and heartbreak and the ability to illuminate a type of lifestyle that is unfamiliar to me. Although the title of the book sounds like an oxymoron, Brady Udall effectively conveys how the life of a polygamist could be incredibly isolating and lonely. The loneliness that drives Golden to have an affair felt completely believable to me, and I found myself rooting for him! But Udall makes a genius decision to bring in the voices of Trish and Rusty to counterbalance Golden’s perspective. I felt for all of them and was so involved in their lives that, even though the book is 624 pages long, I wasn’t ready to leave at the end. Although many parts of the novel are very funny (particularly one scene with some lost gum), Udall gives his characters real pain and problems too, which keeps them grounded in the real world. This was a wondrous read, and I would highly recommend it. If you are concerned with how it portrays a polygamist lifestyle, I’d have to say that I thought Udall’s depiction felt realistic, complicated, and multi-layered (as I imagine it might be). show less

I've been waiting and waiting for Brady Udall to write another book. The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint was one of the best books I've ever read. I hate reading short stories (just as I'm getting into them, they end), but Letting Loose the Hounds lived up to my expectations.

I'm not finished with The Lonely Polygamist--I'm trying to read it as slow as I can to make it last as long as I can--but it is building into a fantastic read. I already reccomend it on several counts: it's got a great show more multi-level plot that's nevertheless easy to follow, it makes you laugh, you find yourself inexplicably identifying with the anti-hero (the lonely polygamist--husband to 4 wives and 28 children, trying to have an affair on the side and having a midlife crisis and questioning his belief system, while making a fool of himself), and you can't put it down. show less

Polygamy is a serious subject, fundamentalists are no laughing matter. So why am I laughing? Because of quotes like this:

Golden flinched, struck by the moment he found himself in: standing in a dark closet, knuckles smeared with barbecue sauce, tinkling into a bucket while delivering a lecture about bathroom manners to a dog wearing jockey shorts. Could it get, he wondered, any worse than this? Sure it could.

I've read several books about LDS, both mainstream and fundamentalist, both fiction show more and non-fiction. Some have been better than others, all have been interesting, but none have been mainly from the point of view of the polygamist husband and father, none have been funny. Until now. But the book is also heartfelt, touching. This fundamentalist sect is a gentler, kinder FLDS: no child abuse, no forced marriages of girls to old men. The children behave like children, unruly, with their own quirks. Especially Rusty, a misfit in his own family.

The characters in this are richly drawn. Golden, an unlikely polygamist, has four wives and 28 children. As head of the family, he is doing a terrible job. His first wife makes all the decisions, his children are out of control, he is maintaining three separate households, and Golden just wants a little peace and quiet...not to mention abdication from his enormous responsibilities. Throw in a beautiful woman, her brothel-owning common law, thug husband who is also Golden's boss, and a loner who is building an extensive bomb shelter, and it all makes for a highly entertaining read.

America's love affair with open-air bomb testing in the desert, with the callously intended as well as accidental cruelties and repercussions, these are integral to the story, and so sad to read.

At ~600 pages, this isn't a short novel, but I loved all of it. show less

For whatever reason, I find books about Mormon polygamists fascinating. The intricate, complicated balance found in a household with multiple wives and often dozens of children is amazing and full of opportunity for drama. Brady Udall's The Lonely Polygamist certainly lived up to expectations. Udall has created a large but for the most part not dysfunctional polygamist family headed by Golden Richards. Despite four wives and dozens of children, Golden is lost in the chaos of those around show more him. He sets out to escape some of the everyday hassle by taking a construction job building a brothel in Nevada. There he meets yet another woman, throwing everything he thought he understood into disorder.

The Lonely Polygamist is a family drama, but more farcical than serious. Udall's tone and the absurdities of Golden's life read like something from Carl Hiassen or even Tom Robbins. If these authors appeal to you, you will love this book. I am not a huge Hiassen or Robbins fan, but there was enough in this book to keep me reading through the 500+ pages. The Londely Polygamist is populated with unforgettable, at times heartbreaking characters. Long after you forget the names of most of Golden's wives and children, you will still be touched by both Rusty (Son # 5) and Trish (Wife #4). show less