Next book club meeting: July 16th 7:30 PM
Location: TBD, led by Stephanie Burns
Book: Escape by Carolyn Jessop
Born into the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS),
the author describes her life before, during and after her marriage at
18 to a 50-year-old man with three other wives. This painful memoir
certainly doesn't bear much resemblance to the polygamous fantasies of
the HBO series Big Love. The author's large family lived in grinding
poverty, and Jessop was constantly subjected to humiliations at the
hands of her husband, Merril. But she had inner resources. In a
decidedly patriarchal culture, she often spoke her mind, and she
talked Merril into letting her go to college. Her occasional
questioning of his views, however, earned his suspicion and the
condescension and mistrust of her fellow wives. So what kept Jessop in
the community? Fear. From her earliest childhood, when she played a
game called "apocalypse," she had been taught that God punished those
who disobeyed his rules. Furthermore, she knew that no woman had ever
managed to get herself and her children safely away from the
community. Still, one night in 2003, Jessop snuck her eight children
out of the house and fled to Salt Lake City. There, she found little
in the way of support networks for women escaping polygamy. She was
told that "there would be more legal and financial help for me if I
were a refugee arriving from a foreign country." The chapters about
her struggles to adjust to this new life are more riveting than the
occasionally tedious descriptions of her earlier hardships. Especially
wrenching are scenes featuring the two of Jessop's children who felt
torn between their parents and resented their mother for taking them
away from the FLDS church. The book's final pages recount triumphs
large and small, from getting her first stylish haircut to standing up
to her husband in court.Though Jessop's circumstances were unusual—and
particularly harrowing—her memoir will appeal to many women who have
left abusive relationships
August 20th 7:30
Location: TBD, led by Chelsie Larson
Book: Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond (pending approval- no one
in the club has read it yet)
Jared Diamond (JD) has done extensive field work in New Guinea. His
indigenous New Guinean politician friend Yali asked why whites had
been so successful and arrived with so much "cargo" compared to the
locals. JD rephrases this question: why did white Eurasians dominate
over other cultures by means of superior guns, population-destroying
germs, steel, and food-producing capability ? JD's main thesis is
that this occurred not because of racial differences in intelligence,
etc. but rather because of environmental differences. He wishes to
play down Eurocentric thinking and racist explanations because they
are loathsome and wrong. Modern stone age peoples "are on the average
probably more intelligent, not less intelligent, than industrialized
peoples." New Guineans are "more intelligent, more alert, more
expressive, and more interested in things and people around them than
the average European or American is", traits which he attributes to
survival of the fittest. Proper analysis of the current standing of
various human societies must trace developments beginning before the
onset of historical record.
We're still looking for a book for September- do you have a
suggestion? Are you willing to lead a discussion and bring dessert?
Call or email Melissa if you're interested.
