false 123588 1 The abduction of teenager Elizabeth Smart by a fundamentalist Mormon preacher placed a renewed focus on renegade offshoots of the Church of Latter Day Saints and the culture surrounding the religion in the state of Utah (which, like the church, formally opposes polygamous marriage, though state and religious leaders both seem well aware that the practice continues, and they often turn a blind eye toward it). Like Natalie R. Collins's 2003 novel <I>SisterWife</I>, Dorothy Allred Solomon's <I>Predators, Prey, and Other Kinfolk</I> couldn't seem more topical, but it is an even more powerful book because it has the weight of truth behind it. "I am the daughter of my father's fourth plural wife, twenty-eight of forty-eight children&#151;a middle kid, you might say," her frank memoir begins, and Solomon (a freelance writer who now lives in a happily monogamous marriage in Park City, Utah) maintains a similarly gripping and poignant tone through the book. Her family's story is a fascinating one: Her father, the physician Rulon Allred, was also a fundamentalist preacher and a closet polygamist who went to great lengths to keep his plural marriages and sprawling family a secret from society at large. In 1977, he was shot to death by assassins from a rival fundamentalist sect, the bloody end to a misguided lifestyle that had already taken a severe emotional toll on many around him. His daughter does not hesitate to expose the violent and sexist behavior that permeates many of these cultish offshoots of the Mormon Church, but she does not reduce the believers to one-dimensional caricatures, either, and in the process of sharing a very personal tale, she often steps back to place it all in the much broader context of religion and society, charting the history of the Mormons and the contradictions between ideals and actions on the part of both church and state. <I>--Jim DeRogatis</I> 6602248 2003 Predators, Prey, and Other Kinfolk: Growing Up in Polygamy total:70|5:7|4:29|3:29|2:4|1:1| 70 247 112 13 3 1 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Jan 18 20:24:07 -0800 2008 Mon Jun 09 07:34:50 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed May 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu May 07 11:36:37 -0700 2009 Thu May 07 11:53:31 -0700 2009 1
The result is a fascinating, but fragmented family odyssey. The book is slow...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Apr 28 14:18:48 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 28 14:19:04 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Oct 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 17:53:24 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 17:54:28 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Tue Jun 09 12:20:01 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 12:23:31 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Feb 09 14:27:47 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 10 19:10:42 -0800 2008
The whole middle seems to focus on a description of Mormon history and family geneology that was jus...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Fri Nov 16 13:22:37 -0800 2007 Fri Nov 16 13:29:30 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jul 07 21:14:25 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 07 21:14:38 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Feb 12 12:19:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 12 12:19:58 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Tue Apr 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 24 17:01:52 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 29 13:34:11 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Aug 03 13:54:37 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 12 06:32:47 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Mar 19 13:48:19 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 19 13:52:24 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 08 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 02 08:34:18 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 08 06:57:36 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Nov 09 20:33:47 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 09 20:33:49 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Thu Nov 05 18:49:43 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 05 18:49:43 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Oct 27 16:32:07 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 27 16:32:07 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri Oct 09 19:35:19 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 09 19:35:19 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri Oct 09 12:41:16 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 09 12:41:16 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Oct 06 21:59:32 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 21:59:32 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Sep 24 20:31:50 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 20:31:50 -0700 2009