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Jun 24, 2011andreabroomfield rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
The Lonely Polygamist is one of the few novels I have read recently that held my attention. I never had the impression that Udall himself quite knew how to work out the extraordinarily tangled plots he created until almost to the novel's climax, when Rusty detonates the firecracker/bomb. As a result, I could not easily predict the outcome of Golden's midlife crisis and his family's feuds and battles. Like many people, I picked up the book because I am curious about how a polygamist lifestyle might work. I was at first dismayed that it is set in the 1970s, but the more I read, the more I saw the brilliance of Udall's decision. The backdrop of Cold War politics, '70s social liberalism, and the various survivalist cults and ideologies that defined the Southwest during this era was perfect for the novel's plot as it unfolded. While Beverly is never given her own point of view, I was most drawn to this first wife and how her own sins and foibles ultimately allow her to become human to the rest of her sister-wives and the children. Trish, I felt, was a weak character, even though Udall gives her a point of view. Rose-of-Sharon was so believable in her frailty and her final courage when Rusty is near death. Nola's story, that of her teenage "date" and the nuclear fallout that takes her hair, was probably the one that will stick with me the longest. Golden himself is one of the most original protagonists I have encountered in a long time. Kudos to Udall for a brilliant, must-read-again novel.