In My Father's House
A Memoir of Polygamy
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Texas Tech Press,U.S.
Published:30th Jan '09
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Before Big Love, before Eldorado, a groundbreaking memoir explored polygamy, not with outrage but with honesty and grace. In 1984, when polygamous groups knew little but the fear and pain of secrecy and hiding, Dorothy Allred Solomon, the twenty-eighth of forty-eight children, went public with her family's story. Descended from five generations of Mormon polygamy, Solomon evokes the fervor and dedication that bound the Allreds to living the Principle. She vividly renders the persecution and poverty she knew as a child, the joyous awe of a fathers too-rare presence, and an abiding hunger for autonomy. Confronting the paradox of a faith that seals loved ones as families for eternity but casts them as outlaws in the here and now, she traces the events that culminated in her father's 1977 assassination, a tragedy that rocked all Utah. Now, more than a quarter century later, Solomon revisits her story in a new preface and epilogue and in light of recent events that continue to rivet attention and spotlight our national struggle for understanding and fairness.
[Review excerpts from first edition] ""This is not an apologist's defense of polygamy, nor is it an expose of sordid, secret practices. It is, rather, a straightforward look at things as they were, for a girl growing up in unusual circumstances -- with seven ""mothers and some 47 brothers and sisters. More than that, it is the story of a woman at odds with her world, trying to come to terms with herself. And as such, it is compelling reading... With honesty and forthrightness, the author opens to the reader a closed world--a world filled with unusual people, perhaps, but people still the same who need empathy and understanding."" --Deseret News, c. 1984 ""A remarkable testimony to a religious faith that can take in the strangest and harshest of circumstances. It also attests to the universal hunger for order and community, the need to belong, that has sustained the Mormon church through years of persecution and poverty."" --Washington Post ""Mrs. Solomon's book is an honest, soul-searching presentation of her own life as related to her polygamous father... Her book is the outcome of an understanding with her father that the story of polygamy should be told. One has the feeling he would be proud of the story she has written."" --Wichita Falls Times, Dec. 30, 1984 ""An interesting look at an unconventional way of life"" --Booklist, Sept. 15, 1984 ""[Solomon's] autobiography gives us a glimpse into the conflicts, comforts, and daily life of this group of people, about whom most of us know little, and her book is of interest for that reason alone. The matter-of-fact style in her portraits of her extended family makes intelligible an extraordinary group."" --Library Journal, Sept. 1984 ""A vivid tapestry of experience and emotion... She writes poignant scenes, carefully constructed in sparing, elegant terms that sparkle like gems ... "" -- Jane C. Berry, _____ Standard-Examiner ""An eye-opening book ... Her sharing of her life is courageous and her style of writing will keep you turning the pages eagerly because she spins a web of interest and delivers a fine story."" --Ocala Star-Banner, Nov. 25, 1984 ""Mrs. Solomon's return from alienation to her family's tradition and faith is moving, for it expresses the impulse to retain and affirm a sense of the basic relationships of her life... She writes movingly and skillfully of the way in which an acceptance of the tradition from which she comes has been essential to building a new life in her own generation."" Mary Catherine Bateson, New York Times, Feb. 24, 1985
ISBN: 9780896726468
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 505g
328 pages