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
About the Author :
Brady Udall is the author of The Lonely Polygamist, a New York Times bestseller, and Letting Loose the Hounds. He teaches at Boise State University.
David Aaron Baker is a voice and film actor. He is an award-winning narrator of dozens of audiobooks, including the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz, Paradise Dogs by Man Martin, and The Bartender's Tale by Ivan Doig. He has earned several AudioFile Earphones Awards and been a three-time finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration.
Review :
"Audacious, frequently funny...Udall's blunt, empathetic portrait paints...a story that perpetually unsettles our expectations...Udall [is] a contemporary successor to the black humorists of the 1960s...yet the closing scenes resonate with extraordinary tenderness, even as the author continues to take big risks."
-- "Washington Post"
"Comedy and pathos prevail...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 voice 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: vulnerability."
-- "AudioFile"
"It is funny, it can be moving, it is ambitious, and it is tender about man's endless absurdities and failings...As in good science fiction, this world is no less recognizable for the strangeness of its people."
-- "New York Times"
"Lively, humorous, and sometimes tragic...Udall observes with a keen eye for the ridiculous while showing compassion. Think of the zany theatrics of Carl Hiaasen paired with the family drama of Elizabeth Berg. Enthusiastically recommended."
-- "Library Journal"
"Udall is...given to virtuosic description, but he uses the backdrop of Cold War atomic testing to fine effect, capturing the paranoia and nihilism engendered by the prospect of vast destruction, and has produced a wry, sympathetic portrait of a spectacularly dysfunctional family."
-- "New Yorker"
"Udall's story has some of the whimsy of John Nichol's The Milagro Beanfield War but all the complexity of a Tolstoyan or even Faulknerian production--and one of the most satisfying closing lines in modern literature, too. Fans of the HBO series Big Love will be pleased to see an alternate take on the multihousehold problem, and lovers of good writing will find this a pleasure, period."
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"
