Escape

Sometime over a year ago, I went on a book-shopping binge and this was one of the books that I scooped up and deposited on my bookshelf where it patiently awaited my touch. Remember how I used to read fiction almost exclusively? Escape by Carolyn Jessop (with Laura Palmer) is a good reason for expanding my horizons to include non-fiction.

Many of us watched with a mixture of horror and obsession as the women of the FLDS Church were paraded into the courtroom in Texas.  We mocked their haircuts and dowdy dresses. We wondered how they could accept the life they led. We shuddered to think that the women actually wanted to take their children back there! How could they? Freedom was within their grasp.

Carolyn Jessop gave me answers in her account of her escape, but more importantly, her account of her life living within the FLDS. Carolyn was born into a polygamous marriage, went to school where teachers were not allowed to teach outside of the FLDS doctrines and knew nothing about life outside except the horror stories fed to her by church leaders. The people outside the cult were evil. The people inside were going to be saved.

These tenets did not provide much comfort when, at the age of 18, her father arranged her marriage to a 50-year old man who already had three wives. Most of us know that women in close proximity can get a little catty and competitive. Well, try having four women live in one house and not being sure which one's bed the husband will sleep in tonight!

As the years went by, Carolyn did her duty, churning out eight children by the age of 33. Escape tells the truth about polygamy, the in-fighting among the wives and the lack of opportunity for daughters to do anything but follow in their mothers' footsteps, marrying at younger and younger ages. Planning an escape with her eight children was not a simple matter. Every move she made was scrutinized and reported on by her husband's ever-burgeoning number of wives. Her plans were complicated by the severe health problems of one of her sons.

Somehow she did it. That's not a spoiler. The book is called Escape. But having read it, I look differently at those women in Texas. They have no real context within which to question their faith and their lifestyle. They have been told that the apocalypse is near and that they are the chosen people. Most of us have lived in a world of religious freedom. We aren't necessarily encouraged to leave the faiths we grew up in, but we are aware of other faiths and interact regularly with people who have other beliefs. The women of the FLDS don't necessarily desire to escape their lives. They are taught to feel proud of their many children and to see the number of wives a man has as an indication of his power in the church hierarchy.

Throughout Carolyn's life, she suffered some unimagineable tragedies, but somehow found the strength to leave and start a new life. Her story is both compelling and inspiring...and definitely worth a read.

Di (Remember when this was Di's Book Blog and I did this all the time? I need to get back a little closer to that. I'm starting Faulkner next!)

Comments

[marina]

that is one of the sickest cases around. every year i get more and more amazed with people's ways.
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