Anna LeBaron

I feel like my heart was broken and stitched back together during the reading of this book.

Polygamy has been much in the news in the past few years, with the popularity of the TV show Sisterwives, and the widely-anticipated raid and subsequent imprisonment of cult leader Warren Jeffs. Memoirs of life inside these religious groups have been popular over the past years, and I've read a bunch of them. But I don't think I've read one that felt so deeply personal, and yet so universally show more hopeful.

LeBaron's story includes serious deprivations, abuse, actual murders - this is like a CSI case on steroids, and yet it's completely true. And yet the author's ultimate message is freedom - it's not a story of how bad her life was, or how sorry we should all feel for her. It's a story of redemption - of overcoming - of walking a hard road, and coming out the other side truly free.

This is a hard, brutal, beautiful story. Don't miss it. Highest of recommendations.

(I received an advance copy from Tyndale House in exchange for my honest opinion - but then I pre-ordered my own copy. It's that good.) show less

Reading through The Polygamist’s Daughter felt more like I was sitting in front of a friend who was pouring her heart out about what she had gone through; as if a dam of pain and anguish finally broke releasing all the poison from the abuse that had been heaped upon her. It has such a therapeutic sense about it, almost as if you’re sitting quietly in her counselor’s office listening to the lilt of her voice steadily compress an entire life’s existence into one therapy session.

Anna show more LeBaron writes with a shocking warmth considering who her father was and how her life was shaped by growing up in a polygamous cult. I chose this because I had been watching reruns of Big Love lately since Bill Paxton had been on my mind with his recent passing. Now I can’t help but wonder if that show, Sister Wives and anything else that paints polygamy in a positive light is doing untold damage to a far uglier reality.

Every time Hollywood attempts to paint this monogamy alternative in a positive light, extolling the virtues and benefits of one man having multiple wives with double digit number of children, is it taking something away from the experience LeBaron and her family went through? At least for those who don’t share the same positive viewpoints the followers of Ervil LeBaron and others like him? These are the questions that kept plaguing me as I read her poignant memoir because she writes in a way that leaves you feeling like you want to scream one minute, cry until you have nothing left the next or both at the same time.

Even though she’s an adult looking back from her childhood forward, there are times when she’s discussing those early days of her life when you forget this is not the voice of an adult because she’s managed to capture so delicately how a child would see the life around her.

This novel is just so poignantly brave and beautiful I can’t even comprehend the strength and bravery it took to survive what she has much less write about it. It’s definitely a must read if only so you can find a model of strength to follow. show less

Anna LeBaron’s dad was Ervil LeBaron; he was high up in the heirarchy of the Fundamentalist (polygamist) Mormons during the 1970s. Anna, her mother, and siblings (and many half siblings) moved often and on short notice. It was later Anna found out that her dad was trying to avoid the FBI; though they mostly didn’t live with him, anyway, they were also trying to stay away from authorities. Anna did manage to get away from her mother (and the “cult”) by the time she was 13 when she show more went to live with a sister, her husband, and their children. But Anna’s background still had a lasting effect on her life. It turns out her father had ordered a list of people killed. Even with her father gone (after he died), life was somewhat dangerous.

Another very good FLDS biography, with a different perspective – this time it was not the perspective of a child bride, as this was before the girls who were forced to marry were really young (even for Anna’s age group, though, they were often married at 15 years old (but it got worse later on)). Not that Anna’s life was good, either. There was a lot of fear and loneliness, and knowing her father barely knew who she was, nor really cared (though she tried to convince herself with any morsel that hinted he might). show less

In The Polygamist’s Daughter Anna LeBaron details her life in a polygamist cult of the Mormon church. She describes herself as: “... memoirist, book launch expert, dynamic speaker and life coach, an avid reader, and mum to five grown children” but I see her as an enormously courageous and strong woman who endured atrocities that no-one should ever have to face. Her story is one of hope and encouragement.

When I first started reading this book I found it very depressing, so it delayed me show more in really getting started. I then made a point of continuing, and found it hard to put down. Whilst the story was very depressing there was something within it that drove me to continue reading to find out what transpired. I was wanting her life to improve so she could live without being cloaked in “... fear, chaos, and insecurity...” not helped by her mother’s extended absences and her being moved from one strange family to another. I was continually struck by the abject poverty to which Anna and her siblings were subjected through no fault of their own. I have seen documentaries about this extreme Mormon cult and how wives, who weren’t in favour, and their children, were so poorly treated, but to read a first-hand account caused me great sorrow and pain. I was also left with the thought that if this was the behaviour of a family in Australia Social Services would be stepping in extremely quickly to get the children to safer houses where they could be nurtured and cared for properly. It made me rethink whether we need much of what we think we do in order to survive. It was reaffirming to read that the non-extremist Mormons don’t acknowledge or recognise the polygamist branches of their faith, confirming a comment made to me many years ago by an ex-Mormon.

The brainwashing that went on in the cult was a very powerful tool to keep all members under control. Anna’s father (Ervil LeBaron) was in jail for murder, and if any other cult members were put in prison for killing people the explanation given by those on the outside was that they were being punished for doing God’s work. This reasoning leaves me asking which God are they worshipping as He is very different from my own experience of God, Who doesn’t. ask his followers to kill people to prove their allegiance to Him. Ironically, it was this same God who helped Anna heal, live and become free in the real sense of the word. It was wonderful to read that after all she went through, and the painful healing process she endured, she has come out of the experience a much happier and stronger person, when it could easily have gone the other way. I was glad that she was able to have something positive come out of her horrific experiences. I also admire the courage that it would have taken to write this book in the first place.

I received a complimentary copy of the book for review purposes from Tyndale House. show less