5/1/2009 6:00:00 AM 'Torn' takes close look at polygamy Author raised as a Mormon in Warren Jeffs’ neighborhood
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Zoe Murdock of Ojai, Calif., grew up half a mile from Warren Jeffs. Her book, “Torn by God,” is the story of a 12-year-old girl whose father considers polygamy. Murdock’s father, a mainstream Mormon, briefly considered practicing polygamy when she was 8.
KINGMAN - There are any number of news stories, magazine articles and books on polygamy and its history, but there are very few on what living such a life can do to a family.
Zoe Murdock of Ojai, Calif., attempted to answer that question in her first novel, "Torn by God." It's fiction, but it's based on her own life as a child growing up Utah, half a mile down the road from Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs.
Murdock was raised as a mainstream Mormon. She knew very little about the practice of polygamy until she was about 8, when her father considered becoming a polygamist.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints practiced polygamy, a man marrying more than one wife, until 1890. The church denounced polygamy in response to pressure from the federal government and in hopes of achieving statehood.
In recent years, the church has tried to distance itself even further from its polygamist past, Murdock said.
"The Mormon church is moving away from its own history," she said. Many of the leaders of the church, including Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, had multiple wives, but the church doesn't talk about that now. Murdock's own great-grandfather hid Young during a federal raid before 1890.
She doesn't believe that all men who practice polygamy are evil, but she is concerned about men, such as Warren Jeffs, who can take a man's wives from him and marry them to someone else or squeeze money out of his followers.
Murdock was too young to really understand what was going on when her father started to investigate living a polygamous life. She believes a lot of the conversations between her parents about the topic took place behind closed doors.
Her father never did convert to polygamy, but her father's research did affect her life.
Mother devastated
"It was very destructive to my mother," she said. Her mother sank into a deep depression and eventually died of colon cancer when Murdock was 25. It wasn't until much later in life that her father realized how much her mother loved him and how greatly the idea of living a polygamous life had affected her.
When Murdock's father died of Alzheimer's a few years ago, she decided to try and find out more about that part of her life. Using her parents' journals, she was able to reconstruct some of the conversations her parents must have had, but not the entire story. She turned to fiction in order to give readers a better idea of what may have happened.
Pre-teen's viewpoint
The book is told from the viewpoint of 12-year-old Beth, whose father has a vision and believes that God wants him to practice polygamy. Beth's father tries to explain the vision to his wife and the bishop of his Mormon church. The bishop doesn't believe him. Beth's mother is torn between her love for her husband and her inability to accept polygamy.
Beth's father starts to lose family friends and his income as a carpenter. He runs into the town leader of a polygamous sect of the church, Brother Ruben, and begins to associate more and more with the group.
Brother Ruben seems to be very interested in Beth and turns out to be a very power hungry and controlling man.
Beth's mother falls into a deep depression, leaving Beth to help take care of both her mother and her little brother.
Available at Hastings
It took Murdock more than a year to write the novel, her first full-length piece of fiction. Most of Murdock's writing experience comes from her career writing technical novels with her husband.
"Torn by God" was published by HOT Press, a small Los Angeles-based publisher and is available on Amazon.com and for order at Hastings.
Reader Comments
Posted: Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Article comment by:
Zoe Murdock
Did you live in polygamy when you grew up? Are you now? What do you think of that lifestyle at this point?
Posted: Saturday, May 02, 2009
Article comment by:
Kathleen
Interesting. When a Specialist told me that I would be disabled as an adult, I was determined to live in polygamy when I grew up. I insisted on keepig my hair long and wearing long frilly dresses.
All three of my grandmother's close friends were married in polygamy.
It was the time of the "New Woman" when she married and she wore a shortish, low waisted wedding dress. Her childhood friend, Anne Sudweeks, was the midwife in
Shartcrick and died soon after
wwii.
