yet another escape from a polygamist cult
February 15, 2010
Okay, this is the third novel about a young teen girl who escapes from forced marriage in a polygamist cult that has cross my desk in the space of a year. Keep Sweet, by Michele Dominguez Greene, is a good read. Like the other two I’ve reviewed here, this book has its virtues, but laid side by side all three beg the question “Why are we so fascinated by this one story line?”
In Keep Sweet, 14-year-old Alva Jane is an obedient daughter of the third—and favored—wife of her father. (He has a total of seven wives and 29 children.) Alva Jane has never questioned life in the FLDS compound or the authority of the older men who rule it. Although her life is physically hard (she and her mother bake bread every morning for the whole household) she is privileged by her father’s position, privileged enough to dream of being a first wife herself to the handsome and kind John Joseph, her 17-year-old math tutor.
But jealousy runs high in the huge family. Her father’s spurned first wife is out for revenge on Alva Jane’s mother. When Sister Cora discovers Alva Jane and John Joseph in a stolen kiss, all hell breaks loose. Alva Jane is beaten and imprisoned, John Joseph is run off the plantation. Then Alma Jane is married to a particularly violent man three times her age, a man who beats and humiliates his wives into obedience.
Despite the rapes, despite the poverty of opportunity, despite the culture of submission, hope stays alive in Alva Jane. With the help of another unhappy sister wife she prepares to make a run for it.
Clearly the audience for this book is not young girls stuck in polygamist cults. They will never be allowed to read it with its message of hope and its clues to successful escape.
Why does the story matter to the rest of us? There is a creepy fascination with polygamy right now. Just have a look at the “just folks” photo on the cover of the February National Geographic. It isn’t just the snow on the ground that gives you a chill.
Each of the novels centers on a girl who is just coming of age for critical thought. Right at the time she could begin to think and act for herself, she is married off to a controlling man. Each girl comes, eventually, to think for herself enough to attempt escape.
Are we asking, “What would I do if I were one of those girls in prairie dresses? Surely I’d get out of there. How?”
Could it be that the polygamist compound is a metaphor for societal expectations? Do the abusive marriages stand in for garden variety abusive homes?
One thing that haunts me is how unprepared any of the children—Lost Boys or escaped girls—are for life beyond the compound. A real girl, if she could cut herself loose from family and siblings, her culture, religion and home, would be a sitting duck for exploitation. What is waiting for her in the outside world?
Michele Greene said,
March 4, 2010 @ 12:44 pm
Dear Carolyn,
Thank you so much for including my book, Keep Sweet, in your review of new releases. I really appreciate it and your intelligent, thoughtful comments. I am actually thrilled that there are three books about this topic out in the last year. It means that people are becoming aware of the FLDS and that is seeping into our general social radar. The FLDS occupy a very dark little corner of American culture and have operated with impunity for years. Under the guise of religious freedom, they routinely violate U.S. law through widespread welfare fraud and what amounts to ‘church’ sanctioned pedophilia, by marrying underage girls to much older men. It is hard for people on the outside to imagine. Girls are routinely denied the right to a highschool education which is mandated by law. They are often pulled out of school by age 12 to begin preparing for marriage. Despite age of consent laws, if their parents agree, they can be married at any age. These girls have no voice, no rights, no protection under the law because the FLDS holds itself above U.S. law. Wives are considered their husband’s property and the prophet can reassign them to another man at will if he so chooses. I got the idea for this book after reading the account of Ruby Jessop, the sister of Carolyn Jessop. Carolyn escaped, Ruby tried to but did not succeed and was married off as a young teen to an older man against her will. On her ‘wedding night’ she was taken to the hospital due to hemmorraging.
The FLDS has enjoyed the freedom to commit these offenses for years; it seems that there is a real reluctance to tread into this area of religious freedom, even though this falls way outside that designation. Imagine an African-American community or a Latino barrio in which these things occurred openly and people claimed religious freedom or parental rights? How quickly would the police be there with news cameras and how soon would minors be put into protective custody? And conservatives would be on their soapboxes pounding home all the negative stereotypes that they love to perpetuate. As it is, the first responders in these cases often have no training in handling the specific issues of polygamy and the brainwashing that occurs in these communities, as was the case in Texas with the YFZ ranch raid. They sent the minors to a seminar of sexual abuse and they sent the parents to a parenting class…and then sent them all back. The FLDS also preaches a virulent racism against people of color, the type that in the outside world would attract the attention of law enforcement as a precaution.
So while these girls who hope to escape are woefully unprepared to navigate the outside world, I believe that they are infinitely better off on the outside where there is a hope for autonomy and the enjoyment of the basic human rights that most of us have. On my website and in my school visits, I encourage young people to get involved in advocacy on this issue by contacting their state authorities and agencies as well as their congressional representatives. The FLDS should have to answer to the same laws as the rest of the people in this country. So, the more books that touch on this subject, the better since so many people think the FLDS is about living a quaint lifestyle, adhering to more “traditional values.’ Again, thank you for the attention to my book, your blog is well read and respected and I really appreciate the attention you have given to my book.
Best,
Michele Greene
Carolyn said,
April 17, 2010 @ 11:00 am
I’m glad you found this discussion, Michele, and I think you’ll find the SLJ review very supportive of your book.
One of my concerns is that, in addressing trauma, we also speak to the aftermath and to healing. Leaving a cult is traumatic in itself. Carolyn Jessop discusses this in her as-told-to biography ESCAPE (http://www.childbrides.org/carolyn.html).
Leaving is especially hard when there is no one to catch you, no one to help you find a healthy place for yourself in the Big World Outside. Many of the Lost Boys of the FLDS (boys thrown out or abandoned because they are unnecessary in a cult where one man can have 50 wives) end up being exploited or going into lives of crime unless they connect with one of the organizations there to help them.
In ESCAPE, Carolyn Jessop writes about her sister who fled and experienced tremendous problems. Cult kids are told that the world outside belongs to the devil and that everyone outside the cult is a sinner. It’s no surprise that these expectations come true some times.
I wish KEEP SWEET the best.
Jaci Perez said,
January 17, 2011 @ 9:01 am
I am just beginning to write a story about a young girl on in a polygamist compound who escapes without marriage or children into the arms of the young ranching cowboy who has stolen her heart during their secret meetings at the river.
PLEASE tell me this story has not already been written by someone else.
I attempted a book a few years back and just as I was finishing it, a movie came out with the exact same story line. Of course I threw out the book and do NOT want this to happen again.
Carolyn Lehman said,
January 17, 2011 @ 9:25 am
I can’t promise you, Jaci, that that plot line has not been written, but I review a LOT of the books related to sexual abuse that are published for teens and I haven’t seen a romance with a cowboy.
You should read what’s out there so you know the competition–and can address that in your search for a publisher. But I wouldn’t be discouraged by other people’s similar works. Shortly after my first book SOMETHING ABOUT A MERMAID was published, a movie with the identical plot came out (SPLASH).
It happens. No one owns these things. Why throw out a good book idea? Maybe you’ll do it better, or differently. Be sure to do a thorough job of research, then tell the story that you have to tell.