MOTHERS OF INVENTION

A former member of a secretive Christian sect blends memoir, history, and investigative journalism in this nonfiction account.

Founded by two Episcopalian laywomen in 1970 Massachusetts, the Community of Jesus began as a self-styled ecumenical Benedictine movement (despite not being part of the Catholic order) and would become affiliated with Brockville, Ontario’s Grenville Christian College. Long protected by prominent donors and board members—who included a Rockefeller heir and multiple lieutenant-governors of Ontario—the religious organization and school lost a class-action lawsuit in 2023 related to its abuse of students. In this compilation of nine essays, written across a 15-year timespan, Whyte, a former student who arrived at the school as an 11-year-old, limns a sordid picture of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. The author’s opening essay, “The Cult that Raised Me,” details his personal experiences, beginning with an introductory meeting with the school’s headmaster, who open bragged “with a sense of delight” about how he beat students. Other administrators, Whyte reports, used “light-sessions” (forced confessions) to humiliate students caught masturbating or simply displaying a bad attitude. While the book’s memoir sections provide an intimate look at the school, other essays offer a more journalistic exploration of the sect, including a historical overview of its founding and commentary on how art and music are used to manipulate members. Informed by a sizeable archive of documents, vintage videos, and photographs dating back to the 1950s in addition to hundreds of hours of recorded interviews with former students and members, other essays read like journalistic exposes, such as one covering the civil trial against Grenville. Whyte, the author of multiple poetry and essay compilations, concludes with a literary reflection on his childhood while on a train ride to visit his dying mother, a devout member of the sect, writing, “We all love our mothers, even if they have behaved badly.” The author’s eclectic writing style as expressed across the essays makes for an engaging read, and the text is accompanied by a wealth of photographs.

A well-researched, deeply personal reflection on growing up in a religious cult.