Polygamy Week Book Review: Escape

Escape by Carolyn Jessop

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn’s heritage: She was born into and raised in 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. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstood her husband’s psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy.

Carolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband’s whims. He decided where she lived and how her children would be treated. He controlled the money she earned as a school teacher. He chose when they had sex; Carolyn could only refuse—at her peril. For in the FLDS, a wife’s compliance with her husband determined how much status both she and her children held in the family. Carolyn was miserable for years and wanted out, but she knew that if she tried to leave and got caught, her children would be taken away from her. No woman in the country had ever escaped from the FLDS and managed to get her children out, too. But in 2003, Carolyn chose freedom over fear and fled her home with her eight children. She had $20 to her name.

Escape exposes a world tantamount to a prison camp, created by religious fanatics who, in the name of God, deprive their followers the right to make choices, force women to be totally subservient to men, and brainwash children in church-run schools. Against this background, Carolyn Jessop’s flight takes on an extraordinary, inspiring power. Not only did she manage a daring escape from a brutal environment, she became the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS. And in 2006, her reports to the Utah attorney general on church abuses formed a crucial part of the case that led to the arrest of their notorious leader, Warren Jeffs.

I really liked the straightforward manner in which Carolyn told her story. She was able to recount the horrible things she went through as the wife of Merril Jessop without a lot of anger coming through. That’s not to say she doesn’t have anger but she didn’t let it cloud the story she was trying to tell.

I appreciated how she repeatedly pointed out that her husband, Warren Jeffs, and their ilk were not following the principle of polygamy correctly. She gives examples of other polygamist relationships in her community in which the husband and wives were happy. (That is before Jeffs came to power. Once he was in charge, no one was really happy.) When she recalls her grandmother’s explanation to her of the spirituality behind the principal of polygamy, it actually seems to make sense. (As much sense as any religion makes to a person who is not a part of it.)

This book was published before the raid on Warren Jeffs’ Yearning for Zion ranch in 2008 but it does explain how Jeffs rose to power in the FLDS church and why he had such a hold on his followers. There are other denominations besides the FLDS that practice polygamy and may not be as cult-like as the FLDS, which I think is important to keep in mind. I really enjoyed reading Carolyn’s story – she is a strong, intelligent woman and that came through in her story.

Buy this book at:
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