The Lonely Polygamist / Brady Udall 602 pp.

I would never have picked this up had I not read Linda's favorable review, and I'm so very glad I did. Brady Udall has written what should be a classic of Western Gothic fiction. (Does that exist?) His protagonist, Golden Richards, has 4 wives, 28 children, and a failing contracting business. To make ends meet, he has taken a job building a brothel in Nevada but tells his wives that it's a senior center. And naturally, because his life isn't complicated enough, he falls in love with a woman while working the brothel job.

So much for the plot. The real point here is that this is a man that I, as a reader, should hate. He has 4 wives, and he's having trouble remaining faithful even to them. Sometimes he forgets his children's names. And yet I don't hate him - in fact, I was rooting for him through all 600+ pages. Following Golden's story of hilarious situations and excruciating losses was a great experience.