So this does not happen often, but the NYTimes has run two articles featuring polygamy and “the lost boys phenomenon” in the last few days. Well, the reason why is that Mr. Warren Jeffs, leader of the Colorado Ciry polygamous sect, has a trial starting today an a whole variety of charges. The best part is the jail he is in is aptly titled Purgatory. Seriously.

Mr. Jeffs, 51, is in the Purgatory jail in southern Utah, his trial scheduled to start on Sept. 10 on charges of being an accomplice to rape, for his role in forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry an older cousin. He faces several other sex-related charges in Arizona. (via NYTimes article)

The first article I noticed Boys Cast Out by Polygamists Find Help is the usual sort of article about the “lost boys.” Young men are pushed out of these communites for “defiant” behavior like watching dvds.  The real side of it is that they are viewed as potential competition for the older men who want to court the young ladies.

The next article  is a lot more eye opening as to how the major town St. George, Utah which is close to Colorado City is adjusting and even accepting having polygamists in the their midst.

In the polygamist communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., which Mr. Jeffs presided over as a prophet of God, according to his followers, family-based construction companies dominate business. St. George, about 35 miles away, grew and changed, drawing more non-Mormons than ever before, and polygamist builders were often the ones framing rows of new homes and pouring concrete foundations.

And so the two sides got to know each other better. Some people here said that they hated what they had read about Mr. Jeffs, but that they had come to like some of the polygamists they had met.

I love how it always boils down to money.   This also brings up a difference in how Warren Jeffs has been portrayed in media in Utah and other close states compared to more national driven news.  The news there has almost been a bit more forgiving treating him as an understood, misunderstood son who got caught up in practicing their religion in the wrong way.  This is a lot harder for us gentiles to grasp.

So I think the Warren Jeffs Show is going to get real interesting before it gets real boring.  At least the media is catching on.

I read two fiction books this month which is almost unheard of.  I am mostly a nonfiction or historical study type of reader.

I checked out The Gates Ajar by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps from the library.  I decided to read this because I was curious about how Phelps addresses the idea of realizing heaven for Civil War Era America.  I was an American Studies workshop in Ireland this summer and one of my classmates had written a piece about the book.  What drew me in was the way the main characters, Mary and her Aunt Winifred, discuss what they think heaven will be like.  What they imagine is a material heaven not to far from what Mormons believe.

What I really enjoyed about this book was how accessible it was.  I haven’t read a book so quickly in a long time.  I used to think I wasn’t intelligent or patient enough to appreciate 19th century literature.  I was wrong.  The book also really plays with gender in an interesting especially in regards to mary’s relationship with her deceased brother.  It almost seems to fit into the romantic love ideology that was prevalent at the time.

The second fiction book I read was The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Prep.   I read Prep last summer and was equally drawn in and disgusted.  Sittenfeld’s language was so spot on for a high schooler it freaked me out. But then the book would just go on and on in certain parts that didn’t add to the overall story.

But Sittenfeld’s prose still stuck with me and this prompted me to buy her book.  After carting this around with me all summer, I finally read it over the last weekend.  Well, either she got a better editor or she edited herself but this is a lot tighter.  I didn’t like the way she ended the book, it felt very gimmicky.  However, the book is filled with so many truths about life as a young woman, it hit close to home.

One of my favorite quotes:

Being raised in an unstable household makes you understand that the world doesn’ t exist to accommodate you.

I love it when a writer is able to sucessfully sum up a feeling you have been carrying around with you for years, reading it is like a “duh” moment.

Sittenfeld wrote a short story in the This is Not Chick Lit collection I also really liked. She’s definitely coming into her own.