Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife
by Irene Spencer
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
lists with this book
Where's the love? Add this book to your favorite list.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 740)
Reading this book left me with at least one clear and resounding thought: "Thank God I wasn't raised in a crazy religious cult." Irene Spencer tells a mesmerizing tale of her upbringing as a fourth generation fundamentalist Mormon, an upbringing that led her into a polygamous marriage at age sixteen. Taught all her life to uphold the Principle of plural marriage, the author sacrificed again and again, leaving a man she truly loved (but whose insistence on monogamy would have damned ...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Shattered Dreams is a fascinating look at a way of life totally foreign to most people. Irene Spencer grew up in the branch of the Mormon faith that still believed in polygamy. As the second of what was ultimately her husband's ten wives, she became the mother of thirteen of his 58 children. The statistics are important as they show the unimaginable situation in which Irene Spencer spent much of her life.
This book is a brutally honest memoir of a woman' life. It follows her from place to pl...more
This book is a brutally honest memoir of a woman' life. It follows her from place to pl...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in October, 2007
It was interesting to me that a book on polygamy was on the Amazon Top 100, so I put it on hold at the library. I think the authors story, while certainly tragic, is different from most of the polygamist girls that are married off young. Her mother left her father (as did another of the fathers 3 wives) when the author was young. Her mother then begged her for years not to follow into polygamy. She had a nice guy she was in love with who was desperate to marry her - monogamously. Yet she st...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
1 comments
Read in November, 2007
Fascinating train wreck of a story, but my feminist sensibilities had a hard time allowing the author to lead such a life. She turned down a chance a real love to do what she thought god wanted. Strike one. Followed "signs" to lead her into what she knew would be a life of submission and silence. Strike two. Any children would also be prey. Strikes three, four, and five.
At the hands of men, she had decades full of heartbreak, broken promises, charismatic bullies and endless suffering...more
At the hands of men, she had decades full of heartbreak, broken promises, charismatic bullies and endless suffering...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
1 comments
Read in April, 2008
I really enjoyed this memoir. Knowing very little about the fundamentalist Mormon church, I found Spencer's candor and honesty about being a polygamist's wife refreshing, heartbreaking, and informative. Spencer never stoops to the level of pathos or moralizing. She tells her story straight-up and to the point, detailing how she falls in love with her brother-in-law and becomes his second wife, the abject poverty she lived in for much of her life, bearing 13 children, and more often than not, ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in November, 2007
This is, again, a book I would have given 3.5 stars if possible. I liked the book; didn't love it. I didn't think Irene Spencer was a particularly talented writer, but for the purposes of telling her story, she didn't really have to be. What she was saying, told in simple English, was compelling enough.
I often wondered about people this freakish. Not much about the story was unexpected. She spent her life barefoot, pregnant and living among misogynists. Big shock. I was also slightly ...more
I often wondered about people this freakish. Not much about the story was unexpected. She spent her life barefoot, pregnant and living among misogynists. Big shock. I was also slightly ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
Update: Funny, the first half of the book takes us to her 20th year....and then the second half zips through the next 2/3s of her life. I was terribly disappointed that we didn't get to hear more about her murderous brother-in-law or second husband. But I guess that just shows how interested I was. (And since her life was so shite, I'll forgive the dozens and dozens of anecdotes that do little but highlight the sense of humor she's so proud of.)
* * * * *
Really into this so far. I'm glad sh...more
* * * * *
Really into this so far. I'm glad sh...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
Mormons
While reading this book, I discovered my husband may still technically belong to the Mormon church his mom signed him up for as a kid. Well, probably not, since they excommunicated his sister.
Myself, I totally disagree with Mormonism, polygamy, and people who do things for religious purposes, especially when it goes against common sense. I kind of enjoyed the story just to see how different someone's life can be from mine. There were a lot of extremely unfortunate incidents described here t...more
Myself, I totally disagree with Mormonism, polygamy, and people who do things for religious purposes, especially when it goes against common sense. I kind of enjoyed the story just to see how different someone's life can be from mine. There were a lot of extremely unfortunate incidents described here t...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
want an in depth look and understanding of pologamy
Shattered Dreams is a fascinating look at a way of life totally foreign to most people. Irene Spencer grew up in the branch of the Mormon faith that still believed in polygamy. The second of what was ultimately her husband's ten wives, she became the mother of thirteen of his 58 children. The statistics are important as they show the unimaginable situation in which Irene Spencer spend much of her life.
This book is a brutally honest memoir of a woman' life. It follows her from place to place...more
This book is a brutally honest memoir of a woman' life. It follows her from place to place...more
Like this review?
yes
(2 people liked it)
1 comments
Not neccessarily the best writing style, but an interesting story nonetheless. While I understand that Irene was led to this life by her faith, and her understanding that she would go to hell if she didn't live a polygamous lifestyle, I started to get fed up with her.
She thought many times about leaving her husband, and never actually did. She finally told her husband one last time that she was leaving, for real this time, and he ended up getting killed a week later. If he hadn't died, woul...more
She thought many times about leaving her husband, and never actually did. She finally told her husband one last time that she was leaving, for real this time, and he ended up getting killed a week later. If he hadn't died, woul...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
It was so interesting! Sometimes you hear news stories about Mormon polygamists, but it was so compelling to hear a woman share her real-life experience of it. By the time her husband died, at the age of 51, he had 10 wives and 58 children. Irene herself had 13 children- most of the time they lived in complete poverty, with no electricity and running water, with clothes made out of flour sacks. Despite the bleak physical conditions, the thing that seemed to be the most profoundly difficult f...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in November, 2007
After already learning about the LeBaron family from "His Favorite Wife," I couldn't wait for the softcover, and happily plunked down the dough for the hardcover as soon as it showed up at Barnes & Noble. I knew it would be worth every penny, and it was.
This woman's life story is heart-wrenching and educational. It's hard to believe all of the hardships she went through in what she terms the "twin plagues of poverty and polygamy," considering this all happened not to...more
This woman's life story is heart-wrenching and educational. It's hard to believe all of the hardships she went through in what she terms the "twin plagues of poverty and polygamy," considering this all happened not to...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
polgamist, bio
My second book of the year (08)was also a letdown.. I had hoped for the real story about Rulon Allred and Ervil LeBaron. I have known women in both families and know some of the very interesting story..
but.. this book is just too much suffering and self-sacrifice to the point of making me.. ill!!! On and on.. child after child, death after death, marriage after marriage.. A martyr is not the word for this author~~ Irene Spencer.
And only on the last page does author declare the book doesn't ...more
but.. this book is just too much suffering and self-sacrifice to the point of making me.. ill!!! On and on.. child after child, death after death, marriage after marriage.. A martyr is not the word for this author~~ Irene Spencer.
And only on the last page does author declare the book doesn't ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2008
The good: this book is a window into the life of Polygamy. I had no clue how Pologamy worked or the dynamics and reasoning for it. This book provided me lots of answers and a much better understanding of the "why and how". I am glad I read this book. Something I was suprised about is that this book showed me that even when the plural wifes and the most oppresed in this live style, it is not an easy road for the men either. Your heart breaks reading about this woman' mental and phy...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in September, 2007
This is an excellently written memoir of a terrible life. Born into a polygamist family, Irene becomes a man's second wife at the age of 16. This book tells her story over the course of three decades and 13 children. She moves countless times, meanwhile being forced to welcome 8 or 9 additional wives into her husband's life. It is unbelievable what she goes through emotionally, physically, spiritually, sexually, culturally, and socially as she strives (and fails) to be the faithful fundamentalis...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
Not great but not terrible, mostly it was just frustrating. The writing was pretty bad, but Spencer never even graduated from high school (though she should have had a more heavy handed editor). She often focused too much on unimportant details that were not integral to the story (and more often than not these detail were just gross ... bodily fluids and filth). She seemed a bit judgmental through parts of it and in the end when she says she converted to Christianity it is obvious that she looks...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
A fascinating look at a world most people couldn't even conceive of, from the poverty striken living conditions to the crazy religious beliefs. It was amazing to me that anyone would put up with what she put up with for so long when she was so unhappy and unfullfilled. While she constantly threatened to leave her Mormon fundamentalist husband (who married 10 women and fathered 58 children) in the end she always swallowed her pride and anger and hung in there until he was killed in an auto accide...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Shattered Dreams is Irene Spencer’s story of being married to a polygamist, and of being part of a Mormon fringe group. She was a fourth-generation participant in polygamy and one of her husband’s ten wives. Throughout this book, Spencer details her struggles in her marriage and her faith.
I was surprised at how well Spencer pulled me in to her life. When she first describes her jealousy at sharing her husband with his other wives, I thought, “Well, what did you expect?” Bu...more
I was surprised at how well Spencer pulled me in to her life. When she first describes her jealousy at sharing her husband with his other wives, I thought, “Well, what did you expect?” Bu...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
To be honest, I did not totally complete this book. I started it, skimmed my way all the way through, but really found that I didn't love the writing style, or find the story particularly interesting. I was really expecting more of a story about complicated relationships, women trying to live with each other, and coping mechanisms, perhaps a deeper reflection on male oppression, but felt that it just tended towards recording day to day mundane details. Also, the book ended in a preachy tone, ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in November, 2007
This book was just heartbreaking. Shattered Dreams is the story of a woman who is trapped in a polygamous marriage. Raised in the Fundamentalist Mormon church, she was brought up to believe that a man needed as many wives as he could get so that he would become a god of his own planet in the afterlife, and his wives would become goddesses. This woman fell in love with a man who was not a fundamentalist when she was very young, and her family pressured her to marry into polygamy. This is a...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
