The Lonely Polygamist

Reviews / Votes

Udall demonstrates a wonderful ability to move the reader one way or the other. He is a brilliant comic writer, and this novel is full of laugh-out-loud moments and running jokes. But he is equally adept at heartbreaking tragedy. Combining the two superbly here, he has recreated the terrible wonder and wonderful terror of family life, in a novel that's not larger than life, but just as large, as difficult, as funny and as poignant as everyday life itself -- Doug Johnstone * Sunday Herald * It's funny, but not simply a comic noel; Udall has some wonderful observations about the dynamics of family life * The Times * An exceptional tale of an exceptional family. * The New York Times * A dark, funny and insightful probe into the ways we can be lonely even when surrounded * Sunday Telegraph, Australia * Memorable... Shining above all in this joyful celebration of communal living is Rusty, the misfit whose explosive fate will have profound effects on the whole, enormous family. -- Ross Gilfillan * Daily Mail * Some people might be saying the latest David Mitchell book or the most recent Martin Amis, but for me, so far, The Lonely Polygamist is the novel of 2010 * Book Munch * Udall, author of the well regarded The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint, posesses a comic touch that is occassionally reminiscent of Richard Russo or John Irving. And while his style is usually as effortlessly plain-spoken as the people he depicts, he is capable of impressive rhetorical flights -- Stephen Amidon * Sunday Times * Udall is the real thing: a writer with an instinctive feel for the human condition worthy of Steinbeck or Twain -- Daily Telegraph At every turn, Udall plays with his readers' expectations of believers and non-believers, husbands and wives...That this longish book is kept largely aloft by a structure of humorous conceits is an indication of the author's strengths as a storyteller. -- Emma Hagestadt * Independent *