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| Escape | 
 enlarge | Authors: Carolyn Jessop, Laura Palmer
Creator: Alison Fraser
Publisher: Random House Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $16.17
You Save: $11.78 (42%)
New (29) Used (9) from $5.70
Avg. Customer Rating:  315 reviews
Sales Rank: 623508
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Abridged
Number Of Items: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.2 x 5.9 x 1
ISBN: 0739354574
Dewey Decimal Number: 289.3092
EAN: 9780739354575
ASIN: 0739354574
Publication Date: October 16, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.
When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn’s heritage: She was born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstood her husband’s psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy.
Carolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband’s whims. He decided where she lived and how her children would be treated. He controlled the money she earned as a school teacher. He chose when they had sex; Carolyn could only refuse—at her peril. For in the FLDS, a wife’s compliance with her husband determined how much status both she and her children held in the family. Carolyn was miserable for years and wanted out, but she knew that if she tried to leave and got caught, her children would be taken away from her. No woman in the country had ever escaped from the FLDS and managed to get her children out, too. But in 2003, Carolyn chose freedom over fear and fled her home with her eight children. She had $20 to her name.
Escape exposes a world tantamount to a prison camp, created by religious fanatics who, in the name of God, deprive their followers the right to make choices, force women to be totally subservient to men, and brainwash children in church-run schools. Against this background, Carolyn Jessop’s flight takes on an extraordinary, inspiring power. Not only did she manage a daring escape from a brutal environment, she became the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS. And in 2006, her reports to the Utah attorney general on church abuses formed a crucial part of the case that led to the arrest of their notorious leader, Warren Jeffs.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 310 more reviews...
 Stranger Than Fiction November 27, 2007
388 out of 404 found this review helpful
Escape is undoubtedly one of the most bizarre memoirs you are ever likely to read. It is small wonder that it quickly made its mark on the New York Times list of bestsellers. Written by Carolyn Jessop, a woman who was born into the Fundamentalist Lattery Day Saints (FLDS), the book describes what it is like to live as part of this cult which is distinctive primarily for its beliefs about polygamy. The FLDS, which emerged in the 1930s as a fundamentalist offshoot of the Mormon church, holds that God has ordained polygamy and not only that, but that it is a requirement for anyone who wishes to attain the highest level of heaven. Most men eventually have at least three wives, with more prominent members of the cult holding far more than that. Some of the leaders are believed to have fifty, sixty, or even one hundred wives. Women are generally placed with husbands at the whim of the cult's leader (who claims to receive divine guidance about which women belong with certain men). There are around 10,000 adherents to this cult living in the United States today.
Jessop was born into a family that eventually had two wives but one that, compared to others in the community, seemed almost normal. When she was just eighteen, though, she was assigned to become the fourth wife of a fifty-five year old man. While she was married to him he added two more wives and later went on to add five or six more. Through fifteen years of marriage, Jessop gave birth to eight children. Through her marriage she suffered constant abuse at the hands of her husband, his other wives, and other members of the community. Though for much of her life she believed the claims of the FLDS religion, she eventually began to see through its hypocrisy and decided that, for the good of herself and her children, she would need to escape from it.
Escape from FLDS is not easy. Their tight-knit communities have immense power and wealth. Even the local police officers are members of the cult and will not support a wife who seeks to emancipate herself or her family. Until Jessop, no woman had managed to escape the clutches of the cult with all of her children. Jessop, though, ran from the cult and fought against it in the courts, eventually winning full custody of her eight children. This was no small victory. In fact, it was worth telling in a book.
While the book is a definite page-turner (as both my wife and I can attest) it is not always easy to read. The descriptions of life in the FLDS are at times horrific. There were several areas that I found particularly interesting.
Jessop is frank (though not vulgar or graphic) in her discussions about sexuality within her plural marriage and well she needs to be, for sex plays a strange but crucial role in these marriages. Though the women generally hate their husbands, they still want to have sex with him--not for the sake of love or intimacy, but because sex is power. The wife who gains sexual favor with her husband is the wife who can use him to further her own desires. Often these desires pit her against the other wives. It is an odd situation where wives who hate their husband seek to have sex (which they hate) with their husband (whom they hate) so they can further their hate-filled plans towards each other. So much, then, for the idealized content of "sister wives" that the cult seeks to portray to the world.
This book and its description of life within plural marriage shows that marriage--marriage as given to us in the Bible--serves as protection for women. When people ignore biblically-ordained marriage, women immediately lose the protection it affords. They quickly become subservient to men. The women always lose out.
Perhaps the most shocking thing to remember while reading the book is that it takes place in twenty-first century America. This is not fundamentalist Islam in the Middle East; this is not the earliest days of Mormonism. This is happening in the very heart of America--women are treated like cattle, used to breed children and bought, sold and traded like so many goods. In America. It is almost unbelievable.
While the FLDS is hardly an accurate representation of average religion and bears little resemblance to Christianity or even to Mormonism, this portrayal is increasingly what people think of when they think about religion. More and more people are becoming convinced that all religion tends towards extremism and a book like this may just fuel those fires. This story is awful to read, but it is written well and is for some reason quite fascinating.
 Perfectly produced audiobook does justice to a harrowing tale of survival October 16, 2007
74 out of 81 found this review helpful
When a memoir is turned into an audiobook it seems especially important that the narrator sound as if she could be the author. Narrator Alison Fraser accomplishes that and much more. She voices an accurate and believable Carolyn Jessop, the remarkable woman who escaped with her eight children from the grips of a violent and abusive cult - the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). Carolyn's true story is one of survival. Born into a polygamist society, Carolyn is married off at age 18 as the fourth wife of Merril Jessop, a prominent leader in the FLDS community. As Carolyn becomes pregnant nearly every year, she struggles against oppression by her husband, his other wives, and the violently misogynistic community. Narrator Alison Fraser is able to perfectly capture both Carolyn's vulnerability and strength, along with her naivete and cunning intelligence, which makes Escape a gripping and believable audiobook. Listeners will feel as if Carolyn herself is telling this story, which is the sign of a perfectly produced audiobook.
-Jessica Teel
Excellent, buy it, borrow it, but read it! November 8, 2007
64 out of 70 found this review helpful
It took me only 2 days to read this book. The language is smooth and flowing, easy to follow. The book itself is chilling. Is this REALLY going on in mainstream America? Is our government, let alone the citizens of this country, allowing these abuses to thrive in this modern day and age? This book is moving and eye-opening. The real people who should be reading it are those locked into the FLDS who, sadly, will probably never even have access to a library in their lifetime. I hope the author will one day write a sequel to this book, I'd be very interested in knowing how this amazing woman's life has 'turned out'. Especially in regard to her daughter Betty, and in light of the exposure of Warren Jeffs and newly, "the lost boys".
A Must Read! October 28, 2007
36 out of 39 found this review helpful
Yesterday I started Escape by Carolyn Jessop and I couldn't put it down. What an incredible story! Ms. Jessop is a hero and an inspiration. I must admit that had I not had the experience of living in St. George, Utah for the past 5 years I would find her story hard to believe - however I am sure that every word is true. My heart goes out to Ms. Jessop and her children and I wish them the best and hope that they overcome their years of programming, abuse and adversity and live long, free, happy and healthy lives. Ms. Jessop's story is distrubing and frightening - to think that there are so many hopeless people enduring a life of horrible abuse, all in the name of God. I praise Ms. Jessop for her role in bringing down the evil criminal Warren Jeffs and I pray that the other evil heartless criminal Merril Jessop will also find his just rewards in this life. A lifetime in jail is a fitting punishment for both of these despicable men. Hurray to you Carolyn, you are a brave woman and my new hero.
 Escape February 26, 2008
33 out of 74 found this review helpful
I thought the story was good, however I found the writing to be painfully elementary. I struggled to finish it, whenever I picked the book up it put me to sleep. This was a pick for my boook club so I wanted to see what the reviews were like, wondering why anyone would chose this poorly written memoir. I was surprised to see so many positive reviews. The story was truly compelling and the writing was truly awful.
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