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Sister Wife, is a novel by Shelley Hrdlitschka whose three main characters are female teenagers in the fictional polygamous Mormon community of Unity. The main protagonist is Celeste, and like the other older daughters of Kelvin’s four wives, her life is filled with child care and household chores. She begins to have “impure thoughts” and doubts as she moves closer 
to her fifteenth birthday when she will be “assigned” by the prophet to be married to a middle aged husband with wives.
The stories of Celeste, Nanette, and Taviana are intertwined as the narrative moves to its gripping conclusion. The polygamous community is portrayed through the eyes of the young girls who have varying degrees of faith. The characters are likeable and their motivations are realistic.
The depiction of the community is not an overtly negative one and there are some sympathetic men. However, for the most part the portrayal is of a completely patriarchal system in which young girls and boys are exploited. A man can only go to heaven if he has three wives, thus a girl’s role is to enable the males to achieve the glories of the afterlife. Celeste’s father is a harsh man who would rather see his wife die in childbirth than receive proper medical attention. It’s a community that is motivated by a fear of shame and is image-driven within itself and to the outside world. Young boys are essentially driven away by the lack of future within the community. Jon’s father eventually has six wives but is still heart-broken when his son leaves the community. With favoured men collecting multiple wives, young boys have no future in the community.
This book is moving and compelling with memorable characters. Although there were some slight plausibility issues in the resolution, it is a gripping book that resonated with this reader long after the book was finished. The issue is relevant now more than ever. Events in Bountiful, BC just might force the legal status of polygamy all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. Can the ban against polygamy survive a challenge to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? Will religious freedom trump the ban? Legal changes that were previously unthinkable in a western liberal society just might be around the corner.
Update:
Now that the blog post is finished, I’m going to get all indignant and angry here. The more I think about this book the more disturbed I am by the issue. (Spoiler Alert) The character of Martin Nielsson marries his son’s sweetheart and eventually racks up seven wives. Demographically, this will inevitably drive away sons from the community. Multiple wives is the ultimate selfish indulgence. Men indulge their spiritual and sexual needs at the expense of their own offspring. Martin regrets his son’s Jon leaving only because he was help for the farm. The idea of ensuring your place in heaven (with the acquisition of at least three wives) by using women is simply repulsive. Women have no rights, no hope, no future. They simply exist to further the desires and goals of the few powerful men in the community.
I asked a friend how it’s possible that men could behave so selfishly towards their own offspring and he pointed out that these men are similar to male lions who amass a pride of lionesses as a means to consolidating power. It’s the powerful men who get all those wives with the Laura Ashley dresses.
It’s unfathomable to me that there isn’t more of an outcry by Canadian feminists about this form of male exploitation. If the ban against polygamy doesn’t survive a challenge at the Supreme Court of Canada to religious freedom under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms than Canada will take a step towards the dark ages. There are inevitably going to be people that will argue that polygamy is internationally, historically, and religiously, less ‘radical’ than same-sex marriage. I would argue that in that case, perhaps the government shouldn’t be in the marriage business, granting licenses and dictating who gets to and doesn’t marry. Polygamy is a patriarchal system that exploits even grown women (yes I know, there are voluntary polygamous unions, but there are always exceptions to prove any rules) and only exist in the most patriarchal and illiberal societies. If we as a liberal Western society cannot even prevent this form of oppression against women, than we have nothing left to stand for.
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