Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Books

I've been reading this book, "Escape" by Carolyn Jessop about a woman who escaped from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She was married when she was 18 to a man 32 years her senior. She had 8 children in 15 years and helped raise her husbands 5 other wives' children. I think there were about 40 or so children in the "family." It blows my mind at how brain washed these people are. For example, she was raised to believe that women had no right to make their own choices - she couldn't even participate in naming her own children. She could not choose whether or not she got a college education - she was lucky enough to get one but could not choose her degree. At one point, she and the other wives and 30+ children had to live on $100/week for food and groceries because the husband was having financial difficulties. She was constantly bulled by the other wives and feared for her own children's safety when she wasn't home. I can not imagine living that way. It must be so depressing to know at age 18 that you're marrying a 60 year old man. Some of these women were forced to marry men in their 80's and 90's. These men could not even stand up at their own wedding.

Anyway, if you're looking for a good read, I highly recommend this. It is very eye-opening to this culture.

1 comment:

  1. I'll have to read this book in December. That's the first time I'll have time to read it, but it sounds interesting and I'm always up for a good read. Thanks for the recommendation.

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