Secrets and Wives: The Hidden World of Mormon Polygamy

by Sanjiv Bhattacharya

Overview

What do we really know about modern practicing polygamists—not fictional ones like the Henrickson family on HBO's Big Love?

We've seen the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the news, the underage brides in pioneer dresses on a Texas ranch. But the FLDS is just one of many groups that have broken with mainstream Mormonism to follow those parts of Joseph Smith's doctrine disavowed by the LDS Church.

Gaining unprecedented access to these communities, journalist Sanjiv Bhattacharya reveals a shadow country teeming with small town messiahs, dark secrets, and stories both heartbreaking and strange. Polygamy's dark side—incest, forced marriages, and physical abuse—is laid bare. But Bhattacharya also finds warmth in the fundamentalist diaspora and even finds himself taking an ideological stand for polygamy's legalization.

More than just an expose of Mormon polygamy, Secrets and Wives is the personal journey of a foreign atheist and liberal, a stranger in a strange land who grapples with hard questions about marriage, monogamy, and the very nature of faith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781593765217
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	07/09/2013
Edition description:	Revised Edition
Pages:	394
Sales rank:	876,294
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Sanjiv Bhattacharya has written for Details, Los Angeles Times Magazine, and Maxim. He has appeared as an expert on polygamy, discussing his Channel Four documentary, The Man with 80 Wives, on MSNBC Live, Montel Williams, and elsewhere. He lives in Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 Dropping In for Coffee 1

2 The Campaigners 13

3 Mormon Polygamy-The First Century 37

4 When the Saints Come Marching Out 53

5 Centennial Park 65

6 Texas 2008 111

7 To Be a God 121

8 Legalize It 131

9 The Order 141

10 The True and Living Church 257

11 Death by Rumor 301

12 Christopher Nemelka 307

13 The Rock 333

Editorial Reviews

Veteran journalist Bhattacharya builds upon his Marie Claire article and Chanel 4 documentary, The Man With 80 Wives, to arrive at a book-length investigation of polygamy that is as much about this fringe community as it is about Bhattacharya's efforts to get them to talk to him. From his telling beginning, a quote from Bob Dylan, Bhattacharya is amusingly off and running, and readers will want to follow his punchy magazine-trained voice wherever it may lead; "dating is verboten in Centennial Park. Only God decides who hooks up with whom." His access into polygamist compounds is impressive, and the subjects that accept him into their home are given ample room to make the case for or against the practice. Ultimately the author finds polygamists to admire, polygamists who are amusing "nutjobs," and polygamists who are utterly terrifying. He inserts himself into the narrative from page one, often voicing the skepticism he expects of most readers ("I believe that the title of this book has already pissed off several million people."). As the story unfolds, focus shifts more inward, and Bhattacharya examines his own spirituality in a move that feels less like a tangent than his obvious, if unexpected, destination.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Secrets and Wives

"Many of us recognize the stock images of polygamy: the child brides from isolated compounds, like the Yearning for Zion ranch, and the suburban homemakers on television, yearning for their husbands. In Secrets and Wives: The Secret World of Mormon Polygamy, British journalist Sanjiv Bhattacharya pushes past these caricatures to show what Mormon polygamists are really like." —Slate

"Though fundamentalist Mormon polygamy is portrayed in a benign light on TV (e.g., Big Love), the reality is for the most part much grimmer . . . This is a riveting read for both Bhattacharya’s wry and heartfelt style and the nature of the material." —LIbrary Journal

Praise for The Man with 80 Wives

“Sanjiv Bhattacharya, a likable reporter who smoothed over rebuffs (there were many) with charm, tracked [Warren Jeff’s] trail of destruction from Canada to Texas . . . Sanjiv seemed worried Warren might kill himself and his followers. He is, as I said, a nice young man.” —The Guardian (U.K.)

“A compelling portrait of a sex-obsessed, racist false prophet . . . [Sanjiv] has a nice manner for a documentary TV interrogator . . . slightly bumbling, ingenuous, soft-spoken, wide-eyed, innately self-critical.” —The Sunday Herald (Scotland)

From the Publisher

Though fundamentalist Mormon polygamy is portrayed in a benign light on TV (e.g., Big Love), the reality is for the most part much grimmer. Journalist Bhattacharya investigated several Mormon sects who practice "the principle" (not allowed in the Latter-day Saints church) and interviewed dozens of current and past members to get both sides of the story. It's not a pretty one. Clearly, he is more sympathetic to those who oppose polygamy; understandably because in many cases physical and sexual abuse, underage marriage, and incest are rampant. Some groups also display cultlike membership control methods and persecute members who have left. Interestingly, the author comes down on the side of legalizing polygamy, arguing that legalization would make it easier to prosecute abusers and open the practice to more "sunlight." VERDICT As at a car wreck, readers may be drawn to look but nauseated by what they see. Nevertheless, this is a riveting read for both Bhattacharya's wry and heartfelt style and the nature of the material. In a few places he has his facts wrong, but these are fairly minor. This journalistic account is appropriate for general and more serious readers with an interest in the subject.—David Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib., Philadelphia

Library Journal