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DESTROYING THEIR GOD

Name: DESTROYING THEIR GOD
Author: Wallace Jeffs
ISBN: 978-0-9993472-1-8

HOW I FOUGHT MY EVIL HALF-BROTHER TO SAVE MY CHILDREN

by Wallace Jeffs ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 6, 2018

A remarkable but sometimes-tedious account of the human mind’s susceptibility to wholesale manipulation.

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Jeffs recounts his fight to extricate himself—and his children—from a dangerous religious cult.

Debut author Jeffs grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and was born the 30th child of Rulon Jeffs, a polygamist and soi-disant prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. By 8, the author lived in one house with all his father’s wives and children—eight women and as many as 50 children under the same roof—and was encouraged to identify all the women as his mothers. The author was taught that the prophet’s word was unchallengeable law and lived under the constant fear of the world’s end. Jeffs chillingly details the strange sexual dynamics of the FLDS world: he had two wives and fathered 20 children himself, and his second wife was his half sister’s daughter. Eventually, he learned that the church leadership also indulged in darker activities, including rape and pedophilia, practices worsened by the tyrannical rule of his half brother Warren. Once Warren was arrested and the latest FLDS compound was raided, Jeffs finally understood the depths of the church’s deception, and he tried to rescue his younger children from its grip. In 2011, he was nearly killed in a terrible car crash, an accident he believes was orchestrated by his brother in response to his perceived betrayal. The author lucidly depicts his harrowing story, ably discussing the epistemological silo one’s environment can become and the ways an otherwise rational man can be vulnerable to such extraordinary mendacity. Jeffs’ account can be frustratingly minute—his play-by-play account of the internal politics of the FLDS becomes exhausting. And some of his narrative digressions seem incongruent with generally dark themes—for example, his complaints about the tasteless cooking of FLDS mothers or his misadventures in internet dating. Jeffs’ experience is spellbinding, but he writes with greater passion and candor than he does authorial adroitness.

A remarkable but sometimes-tedious account of the human mind’s susceptibility to wholesale manipulation.

Pub Date: June 6, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-9993472-1-8

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Zarahemla Books

Review Posted Online: April 20, 2018

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.