Kim Taylor (3)

At the end of her excellent memoir of growing up in a fundamentalist Mormon enclave, The Sound of Gravel, Ruth Wariner mentions that her aunt, Kim Taylor, has written a memoir as well. I chose to read Daughters of Zion based on this reference. Unfortunately, Ms. Wariner's aunt is not nearly as engaging a writer as Ms.Wariner is, and Ms. Taylor's story, weighed down as it is by too many characters and descriptions of insignificant things, is not nearly as compelling. Despite the subtitle, there is little in the book about the family's "conversion", which took place when Ms. Taylor was very young (the family moved to Colonia LeBaron in rural Mexico when Ms. Taylor was seven years old). Even more remarkably, Ms. Taylor did not grow up in a polygamous household; her parents were monogamous and her mother, who never really gave up her Baptist beliefs, was an outspoken critic of what fundamentalist Mormons call "the Principle".

To her credit, however, Ms. Taylor does discuss her experiences with polygamous courtship LeBaron-brothers style. That part is interesting.

This book could have been much improved by judicious editorial trimming and copy editing. As it is. I recommend this book only for those so fascinated by the Church of the Firstborn/Colonia LeBaron that they want to read everything they can find about it.… (mer)