Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife - Irene Spencer

This was a book I had to read. My father has a much older sister. As a child the only things I knew about her were that she had stayed in Mexico when the rest of the family had immigrated to the states and that her children had blue eyes. That never made any sense to me because everyone else in my family has brown eyes. When I was a teenager my mother told me that previously to be married to my grandfather my Grandmother had married a white man originally from the states, a Lebarron. When her father found out that members of his family had started to live as polygamist he came in with her brothers and took his daughter and her little baby back home. He then helped to have the marriage annulled. Irene Spencer also married a LeBarron only she lived with him 28 years as his second wife, one of seven. I couldn't help thinking while I was reading this story that if it wasn't for a foreseeing great grandfather this could have been my grandmothers story. It could have been my story. It was just to much of a draw.

On the five star scale

Sap Factor (*) - Irene Spencer became a second wife at sixteen. She spent much of her life begging for love and affection. She lived in extreme poverty and spent much of her life trying to come to terms with what she had been raised to believe God wanted her to do and a healthy future.

Naughty Bits (**) - Irene isn't shy about the details of a polygamist life, of the scheduling dilemmas and of her own desires that were never met.

Readability (****) - 400 page, interesting biography.

Final notes (****) - There has been a lot of news out lately about polygamist. This gives you a in depth look at what goes on in a society like this and what the woman in these groups may be thinking.