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Book Review of Predators, Prey, and Other Kinfolk: Growing Up in Polygamy

Predators, Prey, and Other Kinfolk: Growing Up in Polygamy
Grnemae avatar reviewed on + 451 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


Using personal journals as well as her own experience as a child of polygamy, Ms Solomon tells the story of how polygamy came to be a part of her family in the 1890's. She chronicles the overriding fear of the government raids which imprisoned the fathers and some of the mothers and placed the children into foster care. Others fled and poverty followed them as they learned to live with little of the basics of life and always with fear, lies and secrecy. Ms Solomon's father was the head of one group of polygamists and in the 1950's other polygamist groups began questioning who was the "most right" in their beliefs and practices. This conflict between these groups would ultimately lead to murder and more lies and secrecy.
As Ms Solomon matured out of childhood she longed for a "normal" life and she left the polygamist society but at great personal loss. Disowned by many members of her family she still decided to tell the truth and she lives today with the consequences of that truth.
This was a spell binding book and while I find polygamy a hard concept to understand, this book gives a very detailed explanation of why her father and others feel justified to practice this way of life.