Shocking, but not so much....

books:

	• Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife Irene Spencer Center Street, 2007 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 93 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Shocking, but not so much....

I waited weeks for this book to be published and sent to me. I am a fan of the HBO show Big Love, though I realize most polygamists wives don't have it that easy. A few years ago I read a book called Under the Banner of heaven, by John Kraukauer. That book gave me a pretty good insight to the beliefs of the principle founded under the prophet Joesph Smith. I can't imagine what it is like to grow up under such a strong belief of ones religion. So strong that the only way you think you will be saved after death is to enter into plural marriages. But, seriously these people TRULY believe it. The men rule in this religion, the women simply obey.

While reading Shattered Dreams, which is about a woman who grew up born to a polygamist. Her mother got out of the marriage, but she still was involed with her family religion. At the age of 15, she married a man who had a wife. She had major reservations about this and her mother didn't want her to do it. She also had a boyfriend who wanted to marry her and only her. After going back and forth, she was CONVINCED she would not make it to heaven unless she married the other man. She became his second wife. During the course of her marriage (27 years), her husband had 7 wives and I think it was 36 children. She tried to leave him many times, she was very jealous of the other wives. They lived in extreme poverty and moved constantly. In the end, she stuck it out because she still believed it was her fate. When her husband died, she finally moved on her own, and found a different kind of love outside her religion and has never looked back.

This was a fast read, but not an easy read. You wanted to jump through the pages and ask these people what is wrong with them. Organized religion like this is dangerous.

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An interesting read

SHATTERED DREAMS is a interesting read. It tells of this womans horrible life growning up in a polygamist colony. I feel sorry for her and her family believing this is what the Mormon faith and God wanted. I am a mormon and their beliefs are far from the Mormon"s belief. There were a few years where the church praticed polygamy. When a law passed against it they no longer praticed it. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or Mormon's do NOT believe in this nor do they pratice it.

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Shattered but not broken...

Shattered Dreams is very engaging and well-written. Irene Spencer really makes you feel the poverty, loneliness, and despair that she suffered as a plural wife, but she is also a survivor - she came out of polygamy with her mind intact. She doesn't really flesh out Verlan's character or that of the other wives(she focuses more on what was happening with her own immediate family - herself and her children). Read His Favorite Wife by Susan Ray Schmidt (with whom Irene Spencer shared a husband) for more info on the other wives and what was happening within the polygamist group. I read Schmidt's book first and it's really fascinating to read about Verlan LeBaron's family from another point of view.

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Gripping

I agree with the other reviewers. Spencer is a talented writter. The included pictures are amazing! All those kids! For another take on polygamy, you might also like "His Favorite Wife", written by Irene's "sister-wife" Susan Ray Schmidt (Irene was wife number two, Susan was number six). It's sheds a different light on this polygamist's family life.

Shattered Dreams

This autobiography is heartfelt, beautiful, touching and nonjudgemental. It gives a clear and honost view of the trials and sacrifice that Irene Spencer had to endure and how she eventually gains peace within her life.

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

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