I found this to be a very open and honest memoir. Now that does not mean that I believe that Solomon is giving the whole unpolished truth but I believe that to the best of her ability, she is telling the truth. Solomon talks about how hard it is to be honest about what her family is, was, will be, and even where they are going. She talks about how the first thing the children in the family learn to do is lie to outsiders. The world on the other side of the fence is evil and out to get you. She talks about how hard it was to learn that was not true. This is more than just one woman's memoir of growing up in polygamy but how her family started in polygamy. She traces her family from Europe to the America's on both sides. She gives records about her grandfathers and grandmothers. She also follows her siblings lives as much as she can. Solomon is an outsider to her life now. She is seen as the devil's seed and wants to lead others into hell. When she talks about that, I felt her sorrow that her family cannot understand her. If you are looking for an interesting memoir, give this one a try.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library. ( )

This was another in my private series on people who lived at the same time as me but in very different situations. the author was a child in a polygamous family living outside the law in the southwest US. Not so well written but It is fascinating how people can live in such atypical cultures and not question why (of course this author did).

http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2007/09/predators-prey-and-other-kinfolk.html ( )

I saw this on the discount table at the half price book store, and after reading the "Banner" book, thought I would try this. One woman's story of growing up as the child of a man with 7 wives. She has mixed feelings about her life - loving her father, but being forced to live as outlaws, seeing her various aunts contend with jealously, pain, poverty, so that the men in this particular fundamentalist Mormon cult could fulfill their own fantasies of being a member of the 'priesthood'. ( )

I read this after seeing her snippets in the Big Love backmatter. It's a heartbreaking read, fascinating and painful too the way that she still can't really bring herself to say much of anything really bad about her father even as she hints at some of his less savory activities. ( )