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The Lonely Polygamist

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Brady Udall is the acclaimed author of the internationally best-selling The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint. In The Lonely Polygamist, Udall pens a tragicomic tale starring Golden Richards-who despite having four wives and 28 children, hasn't quite found fulfillment in life. Like other men in the midst of a mid-life crisis, Golden feels as though he's drowning. His wives squabble amongst themselves, and he hardly has time for all his children-least of all the 11-year-old who's taken a keen interest in explosives. And now his construction business is struggling. Yet even after Golden falls in love again and takes a mistress to alleviate his pain, life continues to fall short of expectations. Udall's skillfully observed tale is "as comic as it is sublimely catastrophic" (Publishers Weekly). Narrator David Aaron Baker's performance deftly portrays the complexity of Udall's title character. "Udall's polished storytelling and sterling cast of perfectly realized and flawed characters make this a serious contender for Great American Novel status."-Publishers Weekly, starred review
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    • AudioFile Magazine
      Comedy and pathos prevail throughout Udall's novel about hapless Golden Richards, who has four wives, 28 children, a failing construction business, and a melancholy as deep as Utah's valleys. It's impressive enough that David Baker easily slips from companionable raconteur to bearer of tragic tales. But most arresting of all is when he deadens his voices to become the merciless, omniscient narrator that Udall occasionally uses to observe Golden's unhappy clan. Devoid of all the warmth normally in Baker's voice, the transformation is truly frightening and sinister. That voice itself underscores what is the most salient characteristic of poor Golden and his brood: vulnerablility. M.O. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from March 22, 2010
      A family drama with stinging turns of dark comedy, the latest from Udall (The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint
      ) is a superb performance and as comic as it is sublimely catastrophic. Golden Richards is a polygamist Mormon with four wives, 28 children, a struggling construction business, and a few secrets. He tells his wives that the brothel he's building in Nevada is actually a senior center, and, more importantly, keeps hidden his burning infatuation with a woman he sees near the job site. Golden, perpetually on edge, has become increasingly isolated from his massive family—given the size of his brood, his solitude is heartbreaking—since the death of one of his children. Meanwhile, his newest and youngest wife, Trish, is wondering if there is more to life than the polygamist lifestyle, and one of his sons, Rusty, after getting the shaft on his birthday, hatches a revenge plot that will have dire consequences. With their world falling apart, will the family find a way to stay together? Udall's polished storytelling and sterling cast of perfectly realized and flawed characters make this a serious contender for Great American Novel status.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 26, 2010
      Udall's dark comedy of polygamy and American anomie has as its protagonist, the overworked father and (polygamous) husband, Golden Richards. Surrounded by wives and children (so many that he occasionally has trouble remembering their names), Golden is nonetheless a solitary spirit, finding little companionship amid the hubbub of his multiple homes. Udall's nimble prose dances lightly between farce and tragedy, and David Aaron Baker's reading manages a similar feat. Comic episodes are suitably breezy and Baker's pace grows stately when faced with darkness, his reading slowing to a molasses crawl for heartrending moments like the loss of a child. A Norton hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 22).

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