Books and documentaries about polygamy: Let's gather them here!

[xwordfanatik]

I watched Gloriavale, and it was interesting.  The way they talk is different, like they say Heeven instead of Heaven.  I've never noticed Australians pronouncing it that way.

I'll suggest it over in the Duggar forum, but someone probably beat me to it.

[lindalouwho]

Just  watched an excellent documentary on Mormonism on amazon prime. Filled in a lot of my information gaps.

[CouchTater]

8 hours ago, lindalouwho said:

Just  watched an excellent documentary on Mormonism on amazon prime. Filled in a lot of my information gaps.

Cool!  What's the title?

[monagatuna]

On 2/22/2020 at 12:15 PM, xwordfanatik said:

I watched Gloriavale, and it was interesting.  The way they talk is different, like they say Heeven instead of Heaven.  I've never noticed Australians pronouncing it that way.

I'll suggest it over in the Duggar forum, but someone probably beat me to it.

NZ accents are nothing like Aussie accents after listening to both for awhile!

[suomi]

On 3/3/2020 at 8:46 PM, lindalouwho said:

Just  watched an excellent documentary on Mormonism on amazon prime. Filled in a lot of my information gaps.

IA, it is excellent. It presents the history and the facts in order and it's easy to follow.

I can think of only two things that weren't mentioned but I will save those for further discussion (if there is any).

If anyone wants to watch it, it's called Mormons.

[Sofa Sloth]

4 hours ago, monagatuna said:

NZ accents are nothing like Aussie accents after listening to both for awhile!

I’m a New Zealander living in Australia. I can confirm this is very true! 

[suomi]

8 hours ago, Sofa Sloth said:

I’m a New Zealander living in Australia. I can confirm this is very true! 

So our dear Sloth is a Kiwi, eh?!

[Sofa Sloth]

2 hours ago, suomi said:

So our dear Sloth is a Kiwi, eh?!

Sure am. I was born and raised in NZ, but dual citizen now. Have a foot in both countries as home 🇦🇺 🇳🇿 I’d never heard of Gloriavale until this chat, so I had to google it!  There’s plenty of very isolated rural areas in NZ where extreme sects could flourish, so it doesn’t really surprise me though. 

[lindalouwho]

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Sorry, can’t figure out how to quote. Amazon docu is “The Mormons”.  History and explanations of doctrine by ex Mormons.  Worth watching.

[Lovecat]

If anyone is looking for some escapist fiction with a polygamist theme during these odd times, I'm currently "reading" (via Audible) The Wives by Tarryn Fisher.  Thursday is in a polygamist marriage with Seth and two other women she only knows as Monday and Wednesday.  Insanity and intrigue ensue.  It's marketed as a thriller, and has been a fun listen during my daily constitutionals and house chores.

[LilWharveyGal]

4 hours ago, Lovecat said:

Thursday is in a polygamist marriage with Seth and two other women she only knows as Monday and Wednesday.  

Now I've got to read it just to find out where Tuesday went. 

[deirdra]

20 hours ago, LilWharveyGal said:

Now I've got to read it just to find out where Tuesday went. 

That is probably why he is keeping his options open for future wives Friday, Saturday & Sunday.  Though he may be naming them after the day of the week they were born on.

Edited April 3, 2020 by deirdra

[juicyfruit]

The 19th Wife, a novel by David Ebershoff. I read it a while ago and don't remember all the details, so I copied and pasted the plot summary from Wikipedia:

"Jordan Scott has been expelled from his fundamentalist sect in modern-day southern Utah, but returns to determine whether his mother killed his father. His mother is the 19th wife of his father. Interspersed with this murder mystery is a historical narrative about Ann Eliza Young, the 19th wife of Brigham Young, which takes place in the late 1800s."

Wife No. 19: A Life In Bondage, an autobiography by Ann Eliza Young, the 19th wife of Brigham Young as mentioned above.

A Thousand Splendid Suns, a novel by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner).  Again, I copied and pasted the plot summary because I am lazy:

"Two women of different ages are married to the same man (Afghanistan is an Islamic Republic under Sharia law, which allows polygamy), and at first the older wife, Mariam, is competitive with the younger one, Laila. But as Laila increasingly offers to befriend and support Mariam, Mariam softens and they eventually become inseparable, forging a deep and lasting friendship... "

It is a heart-wrenching tale and not a "light read" by any means, but it is a beautiful book in a tragic way, if that makes sense.

[Sofa Sloth]

Ok so it’s not a book or doco but anyone watched any of ‘without a Crystal Ball’ on YouTube? This video was quite interesting and some of the content is insightful as to why Meri won’t leave (presuming they are still members of AUB). There were a few facts off and that makes her lose credibility a bit. For example she says Robyn was a Jessop so a pure blood line, however I thought she just married David Jessop? Also not ‘all’ the family has filed for bankruptcy - Robyn hasn’t, just a few examples. I think that her ‘source’ was probably Christine’s Aunt Kristin who appeared on the show. The details given about the source fit with her being the informant. 

[Sandy W]

8 hours ago, Sofa Sloth said:

Ok so it’s not a book or doco but anyone watched any of ‘without a Crystal Ball’ on YouTube? This video was quite interesting and some of the content is insightful as to why Meri won’t leave (presuming they are still members of AUB). There were a few facts off and that makes her lose credibility a bit. For example she says Robyn was a Jessop so a pure blood line, however I thought she just married David Jessop? Also not ‘all’ the family has filed for bankruptcy - Robyn hasn’t, just a few examples. I think that her ‘source’ was probably Christine’s Aunt Kristin who appeared on the show. The details given about the source fit with her being the informant. 

I have tried watching it but I found it difficult to follow her halting ramblings.  It seemed to me that she had gathered most of her information from 'In Touch' magazine or a similar source.

There are far more credible news scoops and summaries presented right here by our own intrepid detectives.

[Pickleinthemiddle]

4 hours ago, Sandy W said:

I have tried watching it but I found it difficult to follow her halting ramblings.  It seemed to me that she had gathered most of her information from 'In Touch' magazine or a similar source.

There are far more credible news scoops and summaries presented right here by our own intrepid detectives.

Agree.  I don't think she has watched the entire series to know what is really going on and probably doesn't have time to.  

Meri is only sticking around for the paycheck from TLC.  Once this show is done I believe she will move along.  From what I read from another person who said they were members of the AUB church the Browns once attended, is that they have been excommunicated from the church.  I think Meri's biological family doesn't care if she leaves Kody, they are all pretty mainstream.  I don't think they would want her to stay and be miserable.  Plus they have really changed since they left Utah.

[Pickleinthemiddle]

On 4/3/2020 at 3:36 PM, juicyfruit said:

A Thousand Splendid Suns, a novel by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner).

This is a very good book and I recommend it to someone who has time to sit down and read.  Or if you can get an audio copy, to listen to.

[Sofa Sloth]

4 hours ago, Pickleinthemiddle said:

From what I read from another person who said they were members of the AUB church the Browns once attended, is that they have been excommunicated from the church.  I think Meri's biological family doesn't care if she leaves Kody, they are all pretty mainstream.  I don't think they would want her to stay and be miserable.  Plus they have really changed since they left Utah.

Them being excommunicated would make a lot of sense given how public they are and how lax their language and morals now appear compared to first season.  I feel like that must have been a big blow to those like Christine raised Fundamentalist Mormon with family founding the AUB sect. Her mother Annie explained once that when she left she was cut off completely from everyone including her children, Christine decided she wasn’t ‘safe‘.  If there is no longer the religious aspect of polygamy holding them together, presumably these marriages are just solely about the show money now. Thanks for that insight. 

[Sandy W]

Things were so strained when Annie left the AUB that Christine wasn't able to have her at her wedding to Kody.  It may have been Annie's choice to stay away in order to not make waves but I have a feeling that she was not welcome.  She had made Christine's wedding dress and obviously had not been able to make fittings and adjustments.  As tragic as the wedding dress was, it still was 100% better than the Renaissance Faire number she wore for the commitment ceremony.

[Kohola3]

Is Annie the one that Christine had a meltdown and locked herself in a bathroom to avoid being tainted by her?

[suomi]

I think Christine hid from one of the women mentioned in this article. Kristyn is Christine's aunt. 

Kristyn Decker previously appeared on TLC’s Sister Wives in a university panel that asked former and current polygamists, including the Brown family and Kollene Snow from Lifetime’s Escaping Polygamy, to debate the ethics of plural marriage.

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/sister-wives-christine-browns-aunt-calls-the-brown-familys-religion-a-cult-system.html/

[Joan of Argh]

I'm watching this documentary on HBO called "BELIEVER"...  It's about the band "Imagine Dragons" and their front man Dan Reynolds that explores how the Mormon church treats it's LGBTQ members, the rising suicide rate amongst teens in the state of Utah, his concerns with the church's policies etc.....Very interesting.. 👍

[Jeanne222]

22 minutes ago, Joan of Argh said:

I'm watching this documentary on HBO called "BELIEVER"...  It's about the band "Imagine Dragons" and their front man Dan Reynolds that explores how the Mormon church treats it's LGBTQ members, the rising suicide rate amongst teens in the state of Utah, his concerns with the church's policies etc.....Very interesting.. 👍

And I'm just finishing up a book called The 19th Wife!  It goes long ago with Brigham Young and flips to modern day problems within the church.  Really good book!

[monagatuna]

Okay so I finished the Gloriavale documentary and read Lilia Tarawa's book and I think the Prime video documentary got a REALLY charitable edit. They made the place look positively idyllic! From the book and the founder's crimes, you know that's not even close to accurate.

 

Edit: Note Gloriavale residents do not practice polygamy, but there are forced marriages, subjugation of women, and many other elements of a religious cult similar to FLDS.

Edited April 12, 2020 by monagatuna

[ginger90]

The Sister Wives book was mentioned in another thread. I know some have probably seen this already, but here is an excerpt:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Sister-Wives-Unconventional-Marriage/dp/1451661215

[suomi]

On 4/11/2020 at 11:23 PM, Jeanne222 said:

And I'm just finishing up a book called The 19th Wife!  It goes long ago with Brigham Young and flips to modern day problems within the church.  Really good book!

I bought it after I read your post, it was almost $6, more than I usually like to pay but I wanted it and I knew I would like it.

Today I got Ann Eliza's book that the novel was based on, Wife No. 19, for a dollar. So it evened out!

Spoiler

What I didn't get was why the novelist wrote that Ann Eliza's last years were a total mystery because I was googling as I was reading - and I found when and where she died, cause of death and where she was buried. I felt better after finding that because otherwise ... jeez.

I also saw photos of her at various ages and I always enjoy finding those.

Joseph and Brigham and their minions were a bunch of lying, crooked, horny, thieving bastards weren't they? 

 

[suomi]

If anyone is looking for a long read here are three books that in a roundabout way are about polygamy; bear with me. 

The first and most basic tenet of faith and membership is that you must believe in Joseph Smith. His visions and revelations (including the restoration of polygamy) are the cornerstones of the church's founding. If you believe this, that and the other but do not believe in Joseph Smith you will never qualify, you will never be worthy and you will never be a Saint. 

Selling old and rare documents is a very lucrative and very specialized way to make a living. 

I moved to northern Utah in July 1985 so I was fresh off the boat when a series of three bombs went off in Salt Lake City in October 1985. 

Solving that case led to a master counterfeiter and forger of rare documents, a Salt Lake City native named Mark Hofmann who lost his faith when he was a teenager but went on a two-year mission in England to please his family.

During his mission he discovered and became interested in rare books. He secretly read Utah native and UCLA professor Fawn Brodie's (quite good) 1945 Joseph Smith biography No Man Knows My History and that book cemented his doubts. 

Brodie's family tree includes patriarchs who were church bishops, apostles, a BYU president and the ninth church president. Needless to say, Fawn McKay Brodie was excommunicated.

(Her 1974 Thomas Jefferson bio An Intimate History was the first deep dive into Jefferson's relationship with his slave Sally Hemings, which was later validated by DNA). 

After Hofmann returned home from his mission he started buying and selling legitimate rare books and documents. Then he began to make a very, very good living forging and selling rare bibles, and signatures and letters belonging to many of America's Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Boone, Mark Twain and many others -  along with a previously unknown poem "written" by Emily Dickenson. 

The kicker is that, among his other customers, he was forging and selling documents and holographs to the church which showed that Joseph Smith was a liar and a charlatan, and the church was buying them as fast as Hofmann could produce them - not to add them to its massive archives but to conceal them. It progressed to where he was bypassing the church's historical department and selling directly to the First Presidency ... 

... because the church's foundation rests on Smith's veracity. 

At one point Hofmann set up a bidding war between the mainstream church and the RLDS (Reorganized LDS) over a document indicating that, upon Smith's death, according to his divine revelations his successor should be his eldest son Joseph Smith III - rather than Brigham Young, who sent the body of the church to the Utah Territory and later headed the church there (in the theocracy known as Deseret).

Joseph Smith's eldest son and his followers formed the break-away RLDS church when Joseph was killed and it is still today the largest second-tier sect. 

The salamander reference comes from a forged letter which revealed that in Joseph's visions he was visited by a talking salamander and not by an angel, which caused some major interpretation gymnastics in the bowels of church headquarters.

The first two titles are available as ebooks, the last one is not. It was an intricate case and these are very detailed books, similar in scope and style to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Vince Bugliosi's Helter Skelter. 

It may sound like I have totally spoiled you but I haven't because there are many more layers and this is just an outline so you can decide if you are interested.

I read all three books but it was so long ago that I can't remember which I liked the best and none were returned after the final time I loaned them. Bastards!

The Mormon Murders: A True Story of Greed, Forgery, Deceit and Death (1988 - 590 pages)
by Steven Naifeh

Salamander: The Story of the Mormon Forgery Murders (1988 - 556 pages)
by Linda Sillitoe and Allen D. Roberts

A Gathering of Saints: A True Story of Money, Murder and Deceit (1988 - 416 pages)
by Robert Lindsey

[AZChristian]

5 hours ago, suomi said:

The salamander reference comes from a forged letter which revealed that in Joseph's visions he was visited by a talking salamander and not by an angel, which caused some major interpretation gymnastics in the bowels of church headquarters.

I can't take ANY of this history seriously.  Sometimes it's fun to develop a "dream movie cast" who would play the various parts in a story.  I picture the Geico gecko as the salamander.  I wonder if he can speak without that Aussie accent, like Hugh Jackman can.

[suomi]

9 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

I can't take ANY of this history seriously.  

I hear ya, LOL

Before the church caught on that the Salamander Letter was a forgery they hurriedly were gathering "experts" who if called upon could explain that in some neighborhoods in the olden days the translation from Reformed Egyptian (LOL) of the word salamander was spirit, so technically still an angel, and that would preserve the "truthiness" of Joseph's original visions in the woods.

Also, again keeping in mind they were unaware that Hofmann was a forger, for all they knew there were more copies of or references to the Salamander Letter that another source could bring forward. If that happened all their buying and hiding of documents would be for nothing. 

There was much fretting and burning of the midnight oil while they did all they could to prepare for the reveal they feared would come at any moment.

Are we all aware of what a whistleblower in the church's financial department leaked last year? After years and years of funneling "extra" tithing into an investment fund the current value of the church's bank account is right at one hundred billion dollars. One hundred billion. And there are properties and businesses worldwide outside of the investment fund.

You can read all about it in the Salt Lake Tribune but not so much in the other Utah newspaper, the one owned by the church, The Deseret News. 

That is quite the rags to riches story in less than 200 years. Ya done good, Joseph!

They said they kept the cash a secret because they didn't want members to think they could skimp on their tithing. They said that! Widows and orphans are still being told if it's your electric bill or your tithing, pay your tithing. If it's groceries or tithing, pay your tithing.

Does it make more sense now, why polygamy openly thrives in Utah?

See, we can think all we want that the mainstream church and the AUB and FLDS and  RLDS and the other sects are separate and distinct but they all share the same hive mentality, the same way of looking at things and doing things. The more you know the better you understand the Browns.

Utah ain't called the Beehive State for nothin'.

[AZChristian]

It's not just the Mormons.

My screen name is AZChristian because I am a Christian who lives in Arizona.

But we don't go to church any more.  After 50+ years of trying to accept what church leaders in various denominations were spouting, we realized that men (church leaders) were blocking our view of God.  Now we just go straight to the Source when we have questions or concerns.  Nobody tells us whether it's appropriate to trust His leading . . . including Him.  

[Kohola3]

Let me preface this with saying that I envy people of faith because they have the comfort of their beliefs. 

But I have no use for organized religion because of the thousands of years of persecution and death because of worship of one god or another.  Every single religion on earth has the creed of "do unto others" yet uses their deity as the excuse for killing anyone who doesn't believe what they do.  And you have to admit, some of the religious stories are just the stuff of fairy tales. I especially hate the picking and choosing of what passages in their religious texts the believers decide to follow - the Browns are prime examples of that hypocrisy.

To each his own and, again, your beliefs are your own.  I am firmly in the agnostic category.

[xwordfanatik]

If this hasn't already been posted, Amazon has the book Love Times Three, by the Darger family, for free if you have Kindle Unlimited.  Becoming Sister Wives is still $12.99 on Kindle.  I shame-on-me bought it when it first came out.  

[DakotaJustice]

2 hours ago, xwordfanatik said:

If this hasn't already been posted, Amazon has the book Love Times Three, by the Darger family, for free if you have Kindle Unlimited.  Becoming Sister Wives is still $12.99 on Kindle.  I shame-on-me bought it when it first came out.  

wow. Pricey for a Kindle, and such a shitty book too. 
(The Brown book I mean)
I'm always gonna recommend waiting until after quarantine and getting it from the library - better yet if your library has an app or website check to see if you can borrow the ebook or audible book. 

If you have a little time to kill, go over to Goodreads and read the reviews. Some are quite insightful and some are downright amusing. But I'm one of those people who love reading book reviews. 

Edited April 18, 2020 by DakotaJustice

[xwordfanatik]

2 hours ago, DakotaJustice said:

wow. Pricey for a Kindle, and such a shitty book too. 
(The Brown book I mean)
I'm always gonna recommend waiting until after quarantine and getting it from the library - better yet if your library has an app or website check to see if you can borrow the ebook or audible book. 

If you have a little time to kill, go over to Goodreads and read the reviews. Some are quite insightful and some are downright amusing. But I'm one of those people who love reading book reviews. 

I like book reviews, too.  I usually read them on Amazon before I order an eBook.  Now I'm headed over to Goodreads to see their reviews on a couple of books I'm considering buying.  Thank you, Dakota!

 

[laurakaye]

I am currently binging Big Love and LOVING it.  We never had HBO when it was on but I just discovered it on Prime.  So interesting, and the similarities between the characters and the Browns are pretty fascinating!  (I am only midway through season two so no spoilers!)

[DakotaJustice]

1 minute ago, laurakaye said:

I am currently binging Big Love and LOVING it.  We never had HBO when it was on but I just discovered it on Prime.  So interesting, and the similarities between the characters and the Browns are pretty fascinating!  (I am only midway through season two so no spoilers!)

I still think the SW production company has stolen plot lines from Big Love.

[laurakaye]

1 hour ago, DakotaJustice said:

I still think the SW production company has stolen plot lines from Big Love.

This would not surprise me one iota.

[xwordfanatik]

1 hour ago, DakotaJustice said:

I still think the SW production company has stolen plot lines from Big Love.

I agree that some of the stuff is copy-catted by TLC.

Big Love fan here, from "day one."  I kept HBO just for that show and one or two others.  

[xwordfanatik]

There was a Dateline NBC that aired last night past my bedtime.  I'm watching it On Demand now.  It's about Rulon and Warren Jeffs.  A former wife of Rulon's appears, and tells about her life in Short Creek.

 

[AZChristian]

2 hours ago, xwordfanatik said:

There was a Dateline NBC that aired last night past my bedtime.  I'm watching it On Demand now.  It's about Rulon and Warren Jeffs.  A former wife of Rulon's appears, and tells about her life in Short Creek.

 

It was an awesome show.  

[Just Wondering]

On 4/12/2020 at 6:12 AM, ginger90 said:

The Sister Wives book was mentioned in another thread. I know some have probably seen this already, but here is an excerpt:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Sister-Wives-Unconventional-Marriage/dp/1451661215

This excerpt is incredible in light of Kody’s complaints about Meri this season.  He either suffered a serious case of alienation of affection to the point where he rewrote history, or he honestly only realized after the addition of new “wives” that his “lover” was not as “spiritual” as he had believed.  He blames Meri, not his errant religious choice.  He blames Meri, not polygamy.  He blames Meri, not the lies they were fed.  He blames Meri, not their ridiculous circumstances.  He blames Meri, not himself.  Their chosen faith makes no allowances for being what they are - just humans.  The women must strive for perfection with nothing but the raw materials of their own human selves and the ability to produce children.  The only way to achieve any sense of accomplishment is to successfully follow so many uncomfortable rules that you can look down on others.  Meri’s unpleasant personality was/is the least of their woes.  

 

[deirdra]

17 hours ago, xwordfanatik said:

There was a Dateline NBC that aired last night past my bedtime.  I'm watching it On Demand now.  It's about Rulon and Warren Jeffs.  A former wife of Rulon's appears, and tells about her life in Short Creek.

 

Thanks, I'll look for it On Demand too.

[xwordfanatik]

On 11/17/2019 at 7:59 AM, xwordfanatik said:

A number of years ago, a documentary was on cable.  It's on YouTube, called Personal Polygamy.  It talks about a fundamentalist Mormon community in Manti, Utah.  

I read a book titled, "It's Not About the Sex, My Ass" on my kindle a year or so ago.  The author references the Manti sect, that she, husband, and sister wife were a part of.  It's worth reading, to get a sense of what it's like when one's husband "gets a calling" to take other wives. 

Christine Brown's aunt Kristen wrote "50 Years in Polygamy."  I recommend it, too.

Quoting myself here.  I saw something interesting on Reddit the other day.  There was speculation that in the documentary I saw ages ago, Personal Polygamy, that one of the women, Ruth Ann Stephens, was Christine's mother Annie.  I viewed the clip and it did look like it could have been her, in the 90's.   Hmmm.

[Sandy W]

24 minutes ago, xwordfanatik said:

Quoting myself here.  I saw something interesting on Reddit the other day.  There was speculation that in the documentary I saw ages ago, Personal Polygamy, that one of the women, Ruth Ann Stephens, was Christine's mother Annie.  I viewed the clip and it did look like it could have been her, in the 90's.   Hmmm.

I saw that too XWord, and I'm very sure it is Christine's mom.  She could be using her middle name Ann/Annie and Christine's middle name is Ruth.  The most confirming aspect to me was the very strong physical resemblance to the Christine we knew when the program first started.

[lindalouwho]

Just finished the Darger book. Never so bored in my life.  Makes Becoming Sister Wives seem like a page turner. Joe is a big jock and  very religious. Courted Alina and Vickie at the same time. Married them on the same day. Alina gets the legal status because she’s the oldest. Vickie’s twin Val left a bad marriage. Married her too. HER oldest kids had a hard time adjusting. Everybody gets along beautifully now. Snore. Joe used to have anger and control problems. He prayed and fasted, now he’s better. We all live in one house and work together. Kumbaya. Move along, nothing to see here. Child sevices investigated them when one of the children died not long after birth. Persecution cause we’re Plygs. None of the kids are nterested in plural marriage. Browns with less drama. That’s three hours I’ll  never get back.

[DakotaJustice]

8 hours ago, lindalouwho said:

Just finished the Darger book. Never so bored in my life.  Makes Becoming Sister Wives seem like a page turner. Joe is a big jock and  very religious. Courted Alina and Vickie at the same time. Married them on the same day. Alina gets the legal status because she’s the oldest. Vickie’s twin Val left a bad marriage. Married her too. HER oldest kids had a hard time adjusting. Everybody gets along beautifully now. Snore. Joe used to have anger and control problems. He prayed and fasted, now he’s better. We all live in one house and work together. Kumbaya. Move along, nothing to see here. Child sevices investigated them when one of the children died not long after birth. Persecution cause we’re Plygs. None of the kids are nterested in plural marriage. Browns with less drama. That’s three hours I’ll  never get back.

No wonder they only got one show along with one appearance with the Browns on vacation. Which is one of the more interesting episodes (it might have been 2) what with Meri getting all turned on by Joe's organizational skills and his kanoodling with one wife on the beach while the others looked on seemingly unbothered. Of course the Brown wives had a cow. 

I remember at the beginning of the episode Christine was going on like they were such good buds with the Darger fam and the D's were like, "we barely know them"...

[laurakaye]

Joe Darger was scary, IMO.  I got the feeling that his wives and kids knew better than to ever undermine his authority and that he ruled with an iron fist.  Compare and contrast him to Kody the Klown, who prefers to exist in a state of perpetual chaos because then it means that he really doesn't have to actually do anything.

Edited May 21, 2020 by laurakaye

[xwordfanatik]

Christine said she thought dating between the Brownies and the Dargies would be a good thingk.  Yes, and Meri was quite impressed with scary, bald Joe's dictatorship style "family management."  I believe the Browns got the idea for the family mission statement from the Dargers, and then it morphed into that commitment ceremony, with those hideous dresses.

I rilly think Meri was like that with the kids (except of course, Snowflake, and spawn of Robyn.)  I doubt Maddie is the only one resentful of being chastised by bonus mom Meri.

[Pickleinthemiddle]

On 5/20/2020 at 11:03 PM, lindalouwho said:

Just finished the Darger book. Never so bored in my life.  Makes Becoming Sister Wives seem like a page turner. Joe is a big jock and  very religious. Courted Alina and Vickie at the same time. Married them on the same day. Alina gets the legal status because she’s the oldest. Vickie’s twin Val left a bad marriage. Married her too. HER oldest kids had a hard time adjusting. Everybody gets along beautifully now. Snore. Joe used to have anger and control problems. He prayed and fasted, now he’s better. We all live in one house and work together. Kumbaya. Move along, nothing to see here. Child sevices investigated them when one of the children died not long after birth. Persecution cause we’re Plygs. None of the kids are nterested in plural marriage. Browns with less drama. That’s three hours I’ll  never get back.

For sure one of the Darger's daughter married a man who was planning on becoming part of a polygamist family.  Not sure if they took on another wife or not.

[lookeyloo]

Remember "My Five Wives" with the Brady Williams family?  They were a train wreck