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 enlarge | Authors: Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $16.47
You Save: $8.48 (34%)
New (71) Used (96) Collectible (4) from $4.99
Rating:  317 reviews
Sales Rank: 6515
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.4
ISBN: 0767927567
Dewey Decimal Number: 289.3092
EAN: 9780767927567
ASIN: 0767927567
Publication Date: October 16, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 One Of the Best Books on the Subject Matter of Polygamy October 24, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have to confess. All because of the HBO series, "Big Love", it has sparked an interest about polygamy, the various fundamentalist Mormon sects that practice polygamy and the LDS church - its history and its present. Over the last year, I have devoured book after book on these topics including but not limited to, "His Favorite Wife" "Mormon America", and "Leaving the Saints". I have read information on all sorts of web sites, viewed countless message boards and have walked away feeling like I have a pretty good and unbiased grasp of polygamy.
That being said, I want to commend Carolyn Jessup for doing what no one else has really been able to explain to me - exactly why women stay and tolerate this harsh lifestyle. We all know that there is a degree of isolation and lack of education which answers part of the question, but why do they really stay? The lack of money, job skills and outside connections makes it difficult to run - especially with loads of kids but Carolyn was able to explain to me why many of them stay. She dispelled the myth that there is a gun to their heads and explained it's not only because they are trapped but that they believe. Believing in a concept has a much stronger hold than anything and she explained what's waiting for them in the next life if they blindly obey the "rules". It's a pretty package if you believe it.
Now Carolyn was not really typical. For one thing she had a college degree and was married to Merrill Jessup, one of the upper echelon in their church. However, none of these assets made her life any better than someone with no education or married to someone of lesser status.
This is a remarkable book that gives a real insight to the community she came from. It explains the dynamics of being one of several sister-wives, some of whom hate each other, the resentments, the favoritism and the abuse of children as a way of keeping the mothers and children "in line".
This is an excellent book and also one of inspiration.
 Riveting, Horrifying, but Not Well-Written October 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I recommend the book for it's content, not it's style--the writing is pretty awful, most notably for it's frustrating redundancies and lapses.
Preconceived notions you have about the quaint, if misogynistic, polygamists of the FLDS church may be turned on their heads when you learn first-hand what it's like for women and children who are literally trapped in a community, committed to living lives they have little control or influence over.
Great Book and it arrive in Excellent Condition October 7, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Love the book, I haven't got all the way through it, but it's hard to put down. Well written and real.
 Amazing story -- horrible writing. Comes off as VICTIM rather than VICTOR. October 6, 2008
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
I couldn't finish this book. It covers a very interesting subject and an amazing story, but the writing is just awful. I felt like I was reading an 8th-grade book report. It was a facts-based, unemotional retelling of what happened. "We went here. I said this. He said this. We had sex." The author seems completely unattached. What's worse is she fills the historical account with modern commentary. This comes off as preachy. Rather than allowing readers to reach our own conclusions, she tells us why what so-and-so did was wrong or how this event that happened then contradicts her current expectations.
The memoir is filled with contempt. Rather than a victor's story of "I am stronger because of what I survived," this story is a bitter victim's tale of "I'm better than my past and I never should have gone through this." I consent she has reason to feel this way, but we all go through stuff we shouldn't have to. I wish she had had a better editor. She has a powerful story, but poor writing stripped most of its potential impact. The book would be much more effective if it offered a personal, but objective view instead of telling the readers what to think.
Final Thoughts: I want to learn more about the topic, but am thoroughly disappointed with this book. There has to be a better one available.
 Should be in FICTION October 4, 2008
0 out of 22 found this review helpful
Apparently the author put together a conglomeration of hallucination, exaggeration, retaliation, and called it ESCAPE. From what? Why? Perhaps it gets more sales (don't buy it). There are too many conflicting stories and tales which led me to say it should be in fiction.
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