| |  | Authors: Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer
Publisher: Broadway
Category: eBooks
In Stock
Rating:  401 reviews
Sales Rank: 6,321
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 432
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 289.3092
Publication Date: October 16, 2007
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 401
 Best autobiography I have read July 9, 2010
Cheryl in San Diego (San Diego, CA United States)
This has to be the best autobiography I have read to date. The story sucks you into her world from the first page. I was unable to put it down until I finished it. I highly recommend it!
 Escape July 1, 2010
Birthnutt
Fascinating read about a culture most folks could not imagine. Well written story. Most of the time I was reading this book, my jaw was on the floor and I was shaking my head. Incredible tale of endurance, patience, tolerance and strength. A good book for someone who thinks THEY have it bad. Wow......
Rivetting! June 25, 2010
Oboe Gal (SF Bay Area, Ca.)
This is an excellent book. I had no idea how bad it was for the women of FLDS. Not only does the author describe her daily life in a polygamist relationship(s), her husband deliberately pitting one wife against another and revelling in the competative attention he received, but also the exploitation and abuse of women and children as a fundamental right of FLDS men. Women were swapped and traded, even bred like livestock among the men of their community. Young men were ousted from the community to eliminate competition so that the older men could forcebly take under-aged girls for wives. Most of these men received welfare money for their wives and children. It's hard to believe that something like this happens in our country...in this century, and baffling that any woman would involve herself (or her children)in such a demented and perverse lifestyle. It's a real page turner, well written and enlightening.
Excellent Insight into Polygamy and the FLDS June 23, 2010
Melissa Hempe (Portland, OR USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Carolyn Jessop was born into a polygamist family yet had a spark in her spirit that made it possible for her to eventually escape and write about her life in this book.
And escaping is what this book is all about . . . it is a voyeuristic journey into the most intimate details of a polygamist family; so intimate I almost felt dirty reading it at times! WARNING: Anyone with sexual abuse issues in their past might want to consider whether or not this is the kind of book they would want to read, because along with polygamy the amount of sexual abuse toward children and women increases at an alarming rate and this is a theme carried throughout the entire book.
By the time you are finished reading, you will have no doubt that polygamy is not a healthy lifestyle choice for any family. But more seriously, you will recognize that the FLDS itself is a force to be reckoned with, and you will look at their new incarnation, the YFZ Ranch, with skepticism.
Beginning with her childhood and moving to the eventual transition of leadership within the FLDS from "Uncle Roy" to the infamous Warren Jeffs, Carolyn Jessop unravels a tale of girls being forced to marry older men not of their choosing and the tightening grip of a sadistic leader on the community. Married to a much older man she did not love, she details the abuses of her sister wives and the struggle for dominance in a situation often unbearable without using sex to get favors such as protection of children from the abuses of other wives, etc. The physical, mental and emotional abuse of a wife in a polygamous marriage had never been as clearly described to me as it was by her descriptions. Taking a trip to Hawaii with two other women you can't stand and your husband who loves to be fought over? Yuck.
The manipulative and domineering sister wife named Barbara is so incredibly horrifying that after reading the book I looked online to see if she had responded to any of the accusations against her, but apparently she had a heart attack in the last two years or so. Barbara was the favorite wife, and could manipulate her husband into doing anything she wanted with a syrupy-sweet veneer of being Spiritual. She made Carolyn's life a living hell, as well as the other wives, one of which was clearly mentally ill. The way mental illness is dealt with (or not dealt with) in the FLDS community was tragic to read about. One of Carolyn's sister wives was obviously psychotic or bipolar, and the only treatment attempted was to give her a Vitamin B shot.
Over the years, Ms. Jessop gave birth to eight children, and finally had enough and escaped from the FLDS. It was not without frightening moves by the FLDS to turn her children against her and sabotage their new life. Her oldest, Betty, returned to the cult once she turned 18, and is planning on writing a book to argue against her mother's portrayal of the community. I saw an interview Oprah did with Betty and she looked perfectly rehearsed and said all the right things. She reminded me of a robot.
The Mormon Church claims that the FLDS is a fundamentalist cult and has nothing to do with them. It is important to remember, however, when understanding this movement, that the concept of polygamy is taken directly from the basics of Mormon doctrine instructing that it is the only way to the higher levels of heaven. That teaching has been "overruled" by direct revelation to the leader of the LDS at a later date that polygamy was no longer needed, but many feel the pressure of the government forced this change externally to please the United States, while polygamy was secretly condoned by LDS leadership. Whichever way you look at it, the FLDS has a consuming hatred for the United States and reading about the way the polygamous families commit welfare fraud and laugh about it (calling it "bleeding the beast") is quite upsetting.
I found this book to be upsetting and educational. At the time I read it, the YFZ (Yearning for Zion) Ranch was being raided on what later were found to be false cries of child abuse. All the children removed from the compound were returned to their families, once again making the polygamists look like innocents and the USA as evil, overstretching monsters. If that was your impression, I suggest you read this book.
 Self-serving June 17, 2010
vraiblonde (Maryland)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Before I slam it, let me say that I did enjoy this book. It's a fascinating look at the polygamist culture in America and the strict religion behind it. The description of the pecking order rings true, and the helplessness these women feel in the face of isolation and obedience to the men makes perfect sense.
Unfortunately, Carolyn Jessop is a bit of a crybaby and comes across as self-serving and exaggerated. Everyone mentioned in the book is a villain - except for her. She is always perfect, always reasonable, always doing the right thing, while everyone else around her is either drunk, insane or abusive. Nobody does any work except for her, and everyone neglects their children except for her.
Jessop describes perfectly normal events, such as one of the wives giving birth, with horror and a sense of despair, even though she'd had children of her own by then and should certainly have known what to expect. She just comes across as whiny and holier-than-thou, expressing shock at a lifestyle that she grew up with (she comes from 6 generations of polygamy) and should have been very familiar with. And she also attributes thoughts and feelings to people she admits she was barely on speaking terms with. "Tammy was horrified at the thought of..." "Ruth thought that..." These are Jessop's conjectures because she is clear that these women rarely spoke to her about their feelings or what they thought.
Normally I'd have ditched a book written in that tone by the 4th or 5th chapter, but I stuck with Escape through the end and do not feel I wasted any of my life. Although I question just how bad it really was, since Jessop is prone to exaggeration and misplaced outrage, it's still interesting to get a behind-the-scenes look at polygamy in America.
Showing reviews 6-10 of 401
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