About book Faith And Betrayal: A Pioneer Woman's Passage In The American West (2005)
I'm fascinated by experiences and stories of Mormon pioneer women - accounts which are both sympathetic and unsympathetic to the LDS faith. Sally Denton presents her book as history and it appears that she has thoroughly researched and sourced her information. However, Ms. Denton sensationalizes and misrepresents some Mormon history. She seems to provide inaccurate and unreliable "facts" in her history, which quickly undermine her overall credibility. Unrelated:Some passages I underlined:p. xiv I found Jean Rio's crumbling gravestone in Antioch, California, and her magnificent piano in Salt Lake City--one of the few artifacts in the church-owned museum without an explanation notice of how it was acquired.p.12 Unlike reading, music was considered appropriate for pubescent girls as what a nineteenth-century writer called "the least thought-inspiring" avenue to "soothe the savage breast." Commonly, parents of this era who dissuaded their daughters from highbrow pursuits and development fostered by books thought it "no waste of time," as one observer noted, "for them to spend two or three hours a day at the piano."p.13 Child rearing was left to governesses, and the children were taught want one of them called "the pure Queen's English" by private tutors, as Jean Rio pursued her musical career throughout Europe. A cook and butler handled domestic matters and Jean Rio and Henry took their meals separate from the children..p. 14 As each child turned fourteen, he or she was invited to the family dinner table, having received training in etiquette. p. 15-16 Throughout the 1840s, the poverty and degradation brought about by the Industrial Revolution became more and more staggering, as depicted so famously by Charles Dickens in...novels of life in Victorian England... At the same moment, the Church of England was in a crisis of its own, as reformers increasingly sought a separation between church and state. ... Neither the church nor the government was adequately addressing the appalling social conditions... As the populace increasingly protested the church's corruption...politicians began pushing for reform to pacify a restless nation. The Church of England stubbornly resisted the oncoming changes, providing a wedge for the evangelicals who were transforming the European and American religious landscapes... The evangelicals "preached their way into the hearts of rich and poor, neglectful of parish boundaries, friendly with dissent." ... this faction encouraged believers to choose feeling over thinking in their path to God. ... The evangelicals brought poverty, corruption, and injustice to the forefront of the national dialogue as part of the New Age movement to elevate society, and advocated a Christian Socialism ... [whoa! that's a lot...]p. 17 in this era,one's faith was defining, and it was expressed fulsomely, without shame or embarrassment. Agnostics and atheists were rare.
Okay, I could not get through the first few chapters. I understand Mormonism is a religion that seems very weird and cultish. But I could not continue to read things that the author presented as facts that were just out and out lies. Her tone we degrading and insulting. I finally stopped reading when the author stated that Mormons practiced "blood atonement" (the killing of sinners). I prefer my nonfiction novels to be in fact, non fiction. I agree with some of the other reviewers that I would have found this book far more readable if I could have read Jean Rio's words. I would have liked to heard her input and reactions. I would have loved to hear the "faith and betrayal" that Jean felt in her words. Denton even bashes her great great grandmothers choice of writing in that she spends too much time writing about the weather and she is over descriptive. Since I couldn't even get through to Rio's baptism, this book only gets 1 star. I will be looking for a less biased account of Jean Rio's life.
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If you've read books by Erik Larson or Hampton Sides, then you were spoiled, like me, having read non-fiction that read as easily as fiction. So I did start this book with a similar expectation. Even though I found the history of the Latter Day Saints interesting, the writing style definitely reads like a textbook and the continual inserts of references sources was irritating. Considering the diary that was the foundation for the book had no entries while Jane Rio Griffiths lived with the Mormons in Utah, it was a stretch for Ms. Denton to convey her great-great-grandmother's life with a factual account. Rather than gleaning Jane's perspective on her life experiences, the book is primarily documents the orgin and culture of Mormon society during her Jane's lifetime. I don't regret reading the book, I'm just not sure how I'd feel about reading a follow-up of her work. Can't help but wonder if the book would have been more entertaining if it were written as fiction.
—Shirley (bknkck)
This was a very interesting book and I really enjoyed the in-depth history about the Mormons settling in Utah. There were a lot of things I didn't know and a lot of things that really amazed me, especially regarding Bringham Young and way he treated his people. Many things that you don't hear about from the mainstream Mormon Trail history. You could tell that the author was very against the Mormons which sometimes made it difficult for me to distinguish the facts from from her somewhat bitter opinion. But all in all, I really liked it. I like reading about this time period.
—Michelle Edwards
First of all, if you are a woman and you think your life is "hard" then read this book. Pioneering women had probably one of the most difficult lives in all of history and is well outlined in this book. Secondly, add to that the misery and disappointment of joining the fastest growing cult of the New World in mid 1800's-Church of Latter Day Saints--and now you have yourself doubly miserable. This is an eye opening tail of pioneering and of the depths of Mormonism and a woman's faith journey. I have not yet read the ending. It is a good book, but the writing is not excellent. Because the writing is based on journal entries the author often quotes the entries which can use repetitious metaphores. I also was surprised that she included much of the history predating our subject in order to draw a parallel between the French Revolution and pioneering. Interesting factoids, but not convinced it was important. Never the less, family trees seem to be important and therefor indepth ones find there place in this book. Its not a waste of time-and as I said-should be read by any woman who is in a stage of life that seems "hard".
—Elenareads
