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Escape

One of my librarians recommended this book to me after I asked what she was reading.  Carolyn Jessop was one of many wives to a prominent member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Her escape with her 8 children was a sensation because she was only the second woman to leave the “church” (it’s classified as a cult by the US government) and retain her full parental rights.   I found this book a tedious read.  It’s salacious for sure — Jessop is married at 18 to a 58 year old man with multiple wives.  Her life in that household is one of abuse and deep, deep dysfunction.  But it reads like a slightly embellished daily-diary.  There’s little reflection or theme, just relentless cataloging of drama.  I wondered for days after finished this if Jessop’s lack of deep thought on her past is part of having survived it — some sort of post-traumatic loss of affect.  The back of the book has a huge quote from John Krakauer, who writes narrative nonfiction, the most famous of which is probably Into Thin Air.  That book was a GREAT read, a dramatic, taut story with lots of reflection.  I wish he had written this story.

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