Beth F
Sandy
bermudaonion (Kathy)
Stephanie
Trisha
Lost Boy by Brent Jeffs
Brent Jeffs was part of a family of polygamist royalty as the grandson of FLDS prophet Rulon Jeffs. Unfortunately, this did not translate into an easy life. Brent’s father Ward was the only one of Rulon’s sons to go to Vietnam and he returned with PTSD. Add to this the fact that two of Ward’s three sister-wives were actually sisters who had never gotten along and the third was a supremely messed up teenager who married him to get away from a controlling mother and didn’t seem to know how to interact with other people, particularly children, and you can start to see why Brent’s life may not have been very easy.
However, things did not stop there. When Brent and some of his brothers were around 5 years old, they were molested by their uncle Warren Jeffs, the man who would later take over his father Rulon’s position as FLDS prophet. Warren molested them only from about ages 5-7, but afterwards seemed determined to make life difficult for them – not a hard task since he was the principal of their school. This led Brent and many of his brothers, all of whom seem to have initially repressed these memories, to become rather troubled adolescents.
This was a very interesting book. It seems that most books dealing with polygamy and FLDS explore the effect this life has on women. In “Lost Boy,” we see the effect it can have both on the boys who are pushed out and the men who are more fully integrated into the polygamous adult male life style, like Brent’s father. The writing isn’t the best – there are far too many exclamation points! in some places – but it is serviceable. This is not the sort of book you read looking for lovely prose anyway, you read it to learn what is happening perhaps only miles from where you live. By that metric, I think this book succeeds. I found it to be an interesting and informative read, and one I would recommend to people interested in this topic.
Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookseller via Indiebound.
Amazon.
Related posts:
- The Lost Symbol – Book Review The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown After “The Da Vinci...
- The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O’Connor McNees – Book Review The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly...
- The Madness of Queen Maria – Book Review The Madness of Queen Maria by Jenifer Roberts Maria...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Having just read The 19th Wife, and having The Chosen One ahead of me, it’d be interesting to add Lost Boy to the mix. 19th Wife to an extent deals with the effects of polygamy on children and boys, in particular. But what makes this book different is that it’s a true account.
Great review, I wouldn’t have though about the writing of the book, so thanks for adding that caveat
.-= The Kool-Aid Mom´s last blog ..BTT ~ The Best Place After the Womb! =-.
[Reply]
This book seems to have mixed reviews, but I’d still like to read it since I’ve read most of the FLDS books written from the female perspective.
.-= Kathy´s last blog ..Review: Love Walked In =-.
[Reply]
I think this book is interesting in the respect that it is a boy’s view of growing up in this world. Good review!
.-= Staci´s last blog ..Everything Austen Challenge- Of course I signed up!! =-.
[Reply]
I think that even with the flaws, I still want to read it. As you said, most books about polygamy or the FLDS are about the females.
[Reply]
This is on my TBR pile. Its nice to see it as a male perspective this time. For some strange reason I have been picking up alot of pologamy books, just have to read and review them now. Thanks for the review Jen.
.-= Cindy´s last blog ..What’s the best you can do? Review =-.
[Reply]