Saturday, December 20, 2008

Escape by Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer

Published in 2007. 413 pages.


Reading Escape, the memoir of a former polygamist wife in the FLDS Church - the cult formerly led by Warren Jeffs - is a bit like driving past a bad car accident on the freeway: one isn't sure that she really wants to see what happened but she can't help staring anyway.

A compelling read - I read nearly the whole thing in one day - Jessop's account illustrates the evil of a religion that teaches that women and children are a man's property and that discourages education and individual thought. The book could have used some better editing, as it sometimes rambles and repeats itself, but it's worth a look. Escape was a Salt Lake County Library's Reader's Choice pick for the second half of 2008.

(By the way, this was book four of my dream to read a book-a-day to the end of the year. I'm officially four books behind.)

2008.75

2 comments:

  1. I had a hard time finishing this one. I found it compelling, but laborious and mundane to read. I got to the point that I just wanted it finished.

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  2. Compelling is definitely the right word. No, it's not the best written book around, but the story just takes over.

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