Book Alert / Stolen Innocence

Stolen Innocence -- My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs by Elissa Wall with Lisa Pulitzer, Morrow '08, $25.95, 438 pages, ISBN #0061628018. Grouping of glossy color images.

"You may kiss the (14 year-old) bride," Uncle Warren directed. Reflexively, I backed away as Allen leaned in to kiss me. The tears were falling freely, and I had to keep my shoulders from shaking. I lowered my head and shook it. 'Please don't make me do this,' I pleaded in my mind. Uncle Warren looked at me pointedly, almost hissing the words: 'Kiss Allen.'"

This passage from Elissa Wall's memoir gives a hint of the power struggle waged by Warren Jeffs in virtually holding prisoner a whole Utah community of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Unlike too many subjugation narratives, this one ends with a measure of justice, as Elissa summons the will to cooperate with authorities and testify against Jeffs, becoming the key witness in his conviction.

Towards the end of her rocky journey, Wall had a chance meeting with a stranger named Lamont Barlow. Their friendship blossomed into love and marriage. She now lives with him and her two children.