In My Father's House - (Voice in the American West) by Dorothy Allred Solomon (Paperback)

About the Book

Before Big Love, before Eldorado, a groundbreaking memoir explored polygamy, not with outrage but with honesty and grace. In 1984, when polygamous groups knew little but the fear and pain of secrecy and hiding, Dorothy Allred Solomon, the twenty-eighth of forty-eight children, went public with her family's story. Descended from five generations of Mormon polygamy, Solomon evokes the fervor and dedication that bound the Allreds to "living the Principle." She vividly renders the persecution and poverty she knew as a child, the joyous awe of a father's too-rare presence, and an abiding hunger for autonomy. Confronting the paradox of a faith that seals loved ones as families for eternity but casts them as outlaws in the here and now, she traces the events that culminated in her father's 1977 assassination, a tragedy that rocked all Utah. Now, more than a quarter century later, Solomon revisits her story in a new preface and epilogue and in light of recent events that continue to rivet attention and spotlight our national struggle for understanding and fairness.

Book Synopsis

Before Big Love, before Eldorado, a groundbreaking memoir explored polygamy, not with outrage but with honesty and grace. In 1984, when polygamous groups knew little but the fear and pain of secrecy and hiding, Dorothy Allred Solomon, the twenty-eighth of forty-eight children, went public with her family's story. Descended from five generations of Mormon polygamy, Solomon evokes the fervor and dedication that bound the Allreds to "living the Principle." She vividly renders the persecution and poverty she knew as a child, the joyous awe of a father's too-rare presence, and an abiding hunger for autonomy. Confronting the paradox of a faith that seals loved ones as families for eternity but casts them as outlaws in the here and now, she traces the events that culminated in her father's 1977 assassination, a tragedy that rocked all Utah. Now, more than a quarter century later, Solomon revisits her story in a new preface and epilogue and in light of recent events that continue to rivet attention and spotlight our national struggle for understanding and fairness.

Review Quotes

"[Solomon] writes movingly and skillfully of the way in which an acceptance of the tradition from which she comes has been essential to building a new life in her own generation." -- New York Times "New York Times"

"A remarkable testimony to a religious faith that can take in the strangest and harshest of circumstances. It also attests to the universal hunger for order and community, the need to belong, that has sustained the Mormon church through years of persecution and poverty." -- Washington Post "Washington Post"

Deeply worthwhile for both its content and its compassion, expressed in terms of real human lives.

About the Author

Dorothy Allred Solomon's most recent book is The Sisterhood: Inside the Lives of Mormon Women. She lives, writes, and blogs in Utah, where she and her husband also design communication seminars.