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A review by bittersweet_symphony
Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith by Martha Beck
3.0
A fascinating case study on how we internalize traumatic or difficult experiences to create our own bildungsroman. Beck makes sense of Mormonism as it's colored by her family culture, specifically as it's filtered through the sexual abuse she believes (more on this below) she encountered at the Abrahamic hands of her famous Mormon apologist father.
While Beck gets many of the factual details about Mormonism right, it's worth noting that there are MANY Mormonisms. Not only are there hundreds of Mormon sects or groups whose doctrinal lineage dates back to Mormonism's founder Joseph Smith in 1830, but were you to ask a Mormon what Mormonism is, you'd get an idiosyncratic answer every time.
All this to say, her particular framing and narrative surrounding Mormonism and the cultural practices of its people are informed by her own experience, as it would be for any of us.
In other words, her portrayal of Mormonism in Utah County involves Beck emphasizing and de-emphasizing events and language to fit the story she needs to tell. To be clear, this isn't to say her account is historically inaccurate, but to bring to the foreground my own view of history: Any single set of experiences or historical events can be weaved together to reveal a wide-ranging variety of relatively justified narratives about "what actually happened," contingent upon the storyteller's end goals and personal temperament.
As it is said, "We see the world not as it is, but as we are."
Beck makes it abundantly clear early on why the memoir exists. She's experienced some psychologically devastating things throughout her life, again, largely flavored by her family's religion and the culture that extends from it. While probably true of most memoirs, Leaving the Saints is a fierce act of therapy, a means for Beck to work through the demons that have tormented her since she was at least 5 years old.
She raises many fair criticisms of Mormonism, both about the history, its gerontocratic leadership, and the community itself. Beck gives the reader much to think about regarding academic freedom, dissent in high-demand religious communities, gender roles, victim-blaming, why institutions protect sexual or domestic abusers, dysfunctional families, ecstatic experience, and perhaps most importantly, the challenging nature of memory and past traumas.
The primary conflict in the book centers around Beck, as an adult, suddenly remembering an instance from her childhood in which her father rapes her. He denies ever doing it. None of her siblings believe her, rejecting the possibility that their spiritual giant of a father would "defile her" in that way. Having only Beck's account available, and in memoir form, the reader is left in a challenging spot to fairly or conclusively judge the situation.
Leaving the Saints will definitely trigger many people, especially women, who have been sexually abused, disbelieved by friends and loved ones, or had their experiences completely disregarded. I hope those who are, continue reading, and are able to mine some meaning and peace with regard to their own traumas. This book can be a profound cathartic and revelatory read for them.
Ultimately, I'd give this book something closer to 3.5 stars. Beck is a very capable writer and engaging, so long as you can overlook the condescending posture that occasionally shows its unattractive head in her prose. Reading Leaving the Saints back-to-back with Tara Westover's Educated exposes some troubling social dynamics in the Mormon community that are more common than many Mormons would like to admit.
Fortunately, changes can be made, if enough reform-minded folks speak out AND are able to get into those positions of influence that are currently hoarded by more regressive and less sensitive voices.
While Beck gets many of the factual details about Mormonism right, it's worth noting that there are MANY Mormonisms. Not only are there hundreds of Mormon sects or groups whose doctrinal lineage dates back to Mormonism's founder Joseph Smith in 1830, but were you to ask a Mormon what Mormonism is, you'd get an idiosyncratic answer every time.
All this to say, her particular framing and narrative surrounding Mormonism and the cultural practices of its people are informed by her own experience, as it would be for any of us.
In other words, her portrayal of Mormonism in Utah County involves Beck emphasizing and de-emphasizing events and language to fit the story she needs to tell. To be clear, this isn't to say her account is historically inaccurate, but to bring to the foreground my own view of history: Any single set of experiences or historical events can be weaved together to reveal a wide-ranging variety of relatively justified narratives about "what actually happened," contingent upon the storyteller's end goals and personal temperament.
As it is said, "We see the world not as it is, but as we are."
Beck makes it abundantly clear early on why the memoir exists. She's experienced some psychologically devastating things throughout her life, again, largely flavored by her family's religion and the culture that extends from it. While probably true of most memoirs, Leaving the Saints is a fierce act of therapy, a means for Beck to work through the demons that have tormented her since she was at least 5 years old.
She raises many fair criticisms of Mormonism, both about the history, its gerontocratic leadership, and the community itself. Beck gives the reader much to think about regarding academic freedom, dissent in high-demand religious communities, gender roles, victim-blaming, why institutions protect sexual or domestic abusers, dysfunctional families, ecstatic experience, and perhaps most importantly, the challenging nature of memory and past traumas.
The primary conflict in the book centers around Beck, as an adult, suddenly remembering an instance from her childhood in which her father rapes her. He denies ever doing it. None of her siblings believe her, rejecting the possibility that their spiritual giant of a father would "defile her" in that way. Having only Beck's account available, and in memoir form, the reader is left in a challenging spot to fairly or conclusively judge the situation.
Leaving the Saints will definitely trigger many people, especially women, who have been sexually abused, disbelieved by friends and loved ones, or had their experiences completely disregarded. I hope those who are, continue reading, and are able to mine some meaning and peace with regard to their own traumas. This book can be a profound cathartic and revelatory read for them.
Ultimately, I'd give this book something closer to 3.5 stars. Beck is a very capable writer and engaging, so long as you can overlook the condescending posture that occasionally shows its unattractive head in her prose. Reading Leaving the Saints back-to-back with Tara Westover's Educated exposes some troubling social dynamics in the Mormon community that are more common than many Mormons would like to admit.
Fortunately, changes can be made, if enough reform-minded folks speak out AND are able to get into those positions of influence that are currently hoarded by more regressive and less sensitive voices.