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A review by heyreadingpants
Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith by Martha Beck
3.0
I can't lie: I researched this book as I was reading it, and some of the controversy around whether Martha's account is true has affected my opinion. Slight spoilers ahead!
I lean toward believing victims of abuse as a default, so I don't really doubt her accusations of abuse. However, I am trained in creative writing and know that non-fiction is not always as free of some fiction as we expect. Things I'm not sure about - her account of some Mormon quirks, Mormon's reactions to Martha and her husband leaving the church and her recollections of conversations.
Several Mormons have come out against this book. Ok, that's an understatement - Mormons seem to broadly hate this book. While Martha herself explains that this could be because her father's high position makes them not believe her story, what bothers me is that they disagree with some of her other characterizations and stories about how Mormons behave. I picked up this book because I'm obsessed with Mormonism as an outsider - I wanted to know more about the Mormon culture and how they view the world. Because of the other reviews I've read of this book, I'm now doubting that Martha's story is a true view of Mormonism.
Martha's now ex-husband has publicly given her a 1-star review of this book on Amazon, primarily because he disagrees with her depiction of their Mormon friends' and his family's reactions to them leaving the church. He says he never saw their Mormon neighbors turn their backs on his family, never saw the threats Martha claims to have received. This feels huge - he is the only other person who was there for this. His dissidence seems very significant and casts doubt, for me, on the whole story.
Finally, I know - I KNOW - that people recreate conversations for memoirs as well as they can, and that they shouldn't be taken word for word. But Martha presents some of them as such strong evidence for her story, the word-for-word account seems to feel very important. Additionally, her conversations with her daughter throughout the book seem very age-inappropriate. She describes her daughter as very precocious, but I have never heard a child talk in the ways she has her daughter talking (particularly in the epilogue). Again, this casts doubt for me on the whole of the book.
So. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Do I believe it is a true and impartial account of her life? Absolutely not - I don't think any memoir ever is.
I lean toward believing victims of abuse as a default, so I don't really doubt her accusations of abuse. However, I am trained in creative writing and know that non-fiction is not always as free of some fiction as we expect. Things I'm not sure about - her account of some Mormon quirks, Mormon's reactions to Martha and her husband leaving the church and her recollections of conversations.
Several Mormons have come out against this book. Ok, that's an understatement - Mormons seem to broadly hate this book. While Martha herself explains that this could be because her father's high position makes them not believe her story, what bothers me is that they disagree with some of her other characterizations and stories about how Mormons behave. I picked up this book because I'm obsessed with Mormonism as an outsider - I wanted to know more about the Mormon culture and how they view the world. Because of the other reviews I've read of this book, I'm now doubting that Martha's story is a true view of Mormonism.
Martha's now ex-husband has publicly given her a 1-star review of this book on Amazon, primarily because he disagrees with her depiction of their Mormon friends' and his family's reactions to them leaving the church. He says he never saw their Mormon neighbors turn their backs on his family, never saw the threats Martha claims to have received. This feels huge - he is the only other person who was there for this. His dissidence seems very significant and casts doubt, for me, on the whole story.
Finally, I know - I KNOW - that people recreate conversations for memoirs as well as they can, and that they shouldn't be taken word for word. But Martha presents some of them as such strong evidence for her story, the word-for-word account seems to feel very important. Additionally, her conversations with her daughter throughout the book seem very age-inappropriate. She describes her daughter as very precocious, but I have never heard a child talk in the ways she has her daughter talking (particularly in the epilogue). Again, this casts doubt for me on the whole of the book.
So. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Do I believe it is a true and impartial account of her life? Absolutely not - I don't think any memoir ever is.