The Polygamist's Daughter
My father had thirteen wives and more than fifty children . . . This is the haunting memoir of Anna LeBaron, daughter of the notorious polygamist and murderer Ervil LeBaron. Ervil’s criminal activity kept Anna and her siblings constantly on the run from the FBI. Often starving, the children lived in a perpetual state of fear―and despite their numbers, Anna always felt alone. Would she ever find a place she truly belonged? Would she ever be anything other than the polygamist’s daughter? Filled with murder, fear, and betrayal, The Polygamist’s Daughter is the harrowing, heart-wrenching story of a fatherless girl and her unwavering search for love, faith, and a place to call home.
Reading through The Polygamist’s Daughter felt more like I was sitting in front of a friend who was pouring her heart out about what she had gone through; as if a dam of pain and anguish finally broke releasing all the poison from the abuse that had been heaped upon her. It has such a therapeutic sense about it, almost as if you’re sitting quietly in her counselor’s office listening to the lilt of her voice steadily compress an entire life’s existence into one therapy session.
Anna LeBaron writes with a shocking warmth considering who her father was and how her life was shaped by growing up in a polygamous cult. I chose this because I had been watching reruns of Big Love lately since Bill Paxton had been on my mind with his recent passing. Now I can’t help but wonder if that show, Sister Wives and anything else that paints polygamy in a positive light is doing untold damage to a far uglier reality.
Every time Hollywood attempts to paint this monogamy alternative in a positive light, extolling the virtues and benefits of one man having multiple wives with double digit number of children, is it taking something away from the experience LeBaron and her family went through? At least for those who don’t share the same positive viewpoints the followers of Ervil LeBaron and others like him? These are the questions that kept plaguing me as I read her poignant memoir because she writes in a way that leaves you feeling like you want to scream one minute, cry until you have nothing left the next or both at the same time.
Even though she’s an adult looking back from her childhood forward, there are times when she’s discussing those early days of her life when you forget this is not the voice of an adult because she’s managed to capture so delicately how a child would see the life around her.
This novel is just so poignantly brave and beautiful I can’t even comprehend the strength and bravery it took to survive what she has much less write about it. It’s definitely a must read if only so you can find a model of strength to follow.