It's true: when given a choice, I tend to read much more fiction than non-fiction.
I have always tended to gravitate to the tales of whimsy and woe, make believe and imagination rather than reading about facts, history, true events.
And yet, sometimes non-fiction books read as though they are really make believe - truth being truly stranger than fiction.
As if something like this just couldn't be true.
My most recent "I swear it's like a train wreck... I want to look away and I just can't..." book is Escape by Carolyn Jessop.
I read Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer several years ago, and while I wouldn’t go so far as to say I enjoyed it, I was certainly interested and intrigued by it - the true story of faith, fanaticism and extremism of the Mormon faith. I’ve watched the first two seasons of Big Love on HBO, and have found the portrayal of the polygamist compounds compelling, if vaguely unbelievable in this day and age - unbelievable that a culture can be so insular, so devout, and so very "under the radar" of traditional religion.
This time, though, we’re inside the gates.
Jessop’s story takes us inside the FLDS (the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints), which have lately been flooding the news with an unfolding story of polygamy, underage sexual relations, compounds away from the world, and various types of abuse of the women "inside". At last count, 401 children had been taken into custody from the Yearning for Zion ranch in Texas.
This breaking news came as no surprise to me, since I had only recently read this book.
Carolyn was like one of those women currently in the news – the mother of eight children, she was the fourth wife of Merrill Jessop, who was 32 years her senior. She endured years of mental torture, marital rape, four near-fatal pregnancies, and a highly abusive emotional life with her sister-wives until she finally managed to “get out” – with all eight of her children.
Carolyn’s tale is truly harrowing, and yet, like a train wreck, you just can’t look away.
Carolyn’s story is told in a very matter of fact, very approachable way – generally without pity, and with little embellishment, despite the torture she endured under the thumb of her truly volatile husband and his even more volatile first wife. Despite having grown up in a plural marriage family, her own marriage was nothing like the marriages her father had undertaken during her childhood.
Interestingly, Warren Jeffs came to power as the prophet of the FLDS during the time chronicled in Carolyn’s memoir – Jeffs, who was arrested just a few months ago after being put on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted List” for his arrangement of marriages for underage girls, sexual misconduct with minors and incest, among other charges. Jeffs was sentenced to ten years to life in prison in November of 2007, though the FLDS continues to operate in several compounds in the southwest, with a membership in the thousands.
In any case, Carolyn's memoir takes the reader inside the compound, inside plural marriage, inside a world where the prophet's word is law, the husband is always right and rarely just, and the woman's sole role is to serve as mother to her husband's children. Carolyn, however, was different - she fought to complete her own education, even attending college and earning a degree as a teacher. She fought to protect her children, going to great lengths to keep them safe and away from the abuse permeating her household from both her husband and his wives. And what most sets her apart from the rest of the women trapped in this lifestyle: she got out. She found people to help her escape, resources to tap for money and emotional support, and a way to retain custody of her children and finally free herself from the toxic marriage she had found herself thrust into at the age of 19.
This is a harrowing, readable, amazing, frightening, horrifying, interesting and entirely TRUE story.
And now to see it played out on the front page of CNN.com...well, it just couldn't hit home any harder for this reader.
To read other memoirs about polygamist lifestyles, try Shattered Dreams by Irene Spencer, His Favorite Wife by Susan Ray Schmidt, or Daughter of the Saints by Dorothy Allred Solomon.
To read more about CNN’s coverage of the current FLDS compound evacuation and about Warren Jeffs, visit: http://topics.cnn.com/topics/warren_jeffs.
Looking to ask the Loud Librarian a question or comment on one of her reviews? Email her at marissa.priddis@crucialpop.com.
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