Summary Of Carolyn Jessop's Escape

“Escape” is another great book that was hard to put down. This is a first- person account of life inside the world of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. This book gives a thrilling account of one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.

Carolyn Jessop tells the story of her life growing up in the FLDS, with a family that had been deeply and faithfully involved in the community for many generations. She defines polygamy and describes the pain her mother endured as one of multiple wives as well as the torture she and her sisters endured as a result.

When Carolyn was eighteen

It's hard to read because her tale is one of non-stop abuse, from the apocalyptic nightmare that was drilled into her head as a child to the regular violence committed against women and children in the community in the name of God. But it is when Carolyn is given at 18 to be the fourth wife of a man 30 years her senior that things really become twisted. Though those in favor of polygamy may wax poetic about how wonderful and supportive it is to have "sister-wives," the dynamic in Jessop's family was one of ruthless competition, with women who had no rights of their own battling for their husband's attention in order to ensure such basic needs as food and protection for their

It is this determination that makes the book hard to put down, as I was anxious to discover just how, in fact, she ultimately managed to escape her hellish life with no money, eight children, and suspicious sister-wives watching her every move.

I finished Escape a few days ago and felt a little confused about my feelings over this book. I even mentioned this in a phone conversation with another writer-friend.

The story is compelling. It would be compelling if it were fiction; the fact that it's true takes it somewhat beyond compelling and into horrifying territory. The FLDS "church" is perpetrating human rights atrocities on American soil, and the government has, until very recent years, turned a blind eye to it because of how much we all like to tip-toe around any time a person starts screaming about their right to the free practice of religion. In a country where religious rights are often far more precious than human rights, is it any wonder that the FLDS have developed a tradition, a memetic heritage, in fact, of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse, all stitched neatly into the doctrines of their twisted faith? Add to that a healthy dose of interstate and international trafficking in children and adults for the purpose of sexual slavery