In this follow up to “Escape”, Jessop effectively answers the question, “If life is so bad for women in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) why don’t they leave?”
In 2008, based on a call from a young woman claiming abuse, Texas authorities raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch and ended up placing over 400 children in foster homes while investigating the alleged abuse. Overwhelmed by the number of children and utterly confused by the reaction of the mothers and children, Jessop was brought in to help child-care workers and authorities understand FLDS culture. I’m not sure her task was at all possible, but in describing her own childhood, marriage, home-life and eventual escape from the FLDS, Jessop lends perspective to a culture that is absolutely (and thankfully) foreign to the typical American.
While a very different type of book, “Triumph” will make a nice companion to Jon Krakauer’s history of the Morman Church “Under the Banner of Heaven: a Story of Violent Faith”.