A riveting, deeply affecting true story of one girl s coming-of-age in a polygamist family.RUTH WARINER was the thirty-ninth of her father s forty-two children. Growing up on a farm in rural Mexico, where authorities turn a blind eye to the practices of her community, Ruth lives in a ramshackle house without indoor plumbing or electricity. At church, preachers teach that God will punish the … that God will punish the wicked by destroying the world and that women can only ascend to Heaven by entering into polygamous marriages and giving birth to as many children as possible. After Ruth s father the man who had been the founding prophet of the colony is brutally murdered by his brother in a bid for church power, her mother remarries, becoming the second wife of another faithful congregant.
In need of government assistance and supplemental income, Ruth and her siblings are carted back and forth between Mexico and the United States, where Ruth s mother collects welfare and her stepfather works a variety of odd jobs. Ruth comes to love the time she spends in the States, realizing that perhaps the community into which she was born is not the right one for her. As she begins to doubt her family s beliefs and question her mother s choices, she struggles to balance her fierce love for her siblings with her determination to forge a better life for herself.
Recounted from the innocent and hopeful perspective of a child, The Sound of Gravel is the remarkable memoir of one girl s fight for peace and love. This is an intimate, gripping tale of triumph, courage, and resilience.
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A story that needs to be told! Amazing what is done in the name of religion! Very scary in lots of ways!!
This book was a compelling read that caught my attention and held it for a two-day read. The opening words set the scene: “I am my mother’s fourth child and my father’s thirty-ninth. I grew up in Colonia LeBaron…in Mexico..” It is written from the viewpoint of a young girl growing up as the daughter of wife #2 in a Mexican community of American polygamist Mormons in the 1980s. They lived on food stamps and Medicaid, girls didn’t need to stay in school, and the author’s mother never could leave or stand up to their dangerous and abusive stepfather, Lane. Even more incomprehensible, the author’s mother selected “wife #3 – Susan” “because Lane would have anyway, so this way I can choose my next sister-wife.” These are highlights – the theme is of a young girl growing and surviving through a life few people have experienced, or understand.
The Sound of Gravel (published in 2015) has many similarities and parallel themes to Tara Westover’s Educated, (published in 2018). I am not listing them to avoid spoilers. If you read Educated, you will also like this book. This would make a great book club read, and it is a recommend.
It’s a memoir that you forget is a true story. I often had to remind myself that these things happened. They happened to a girl that grew up at the same time I did.
Ruth was born on a fundamentalist Mormon commune. One of 39 children. Her father, The Prophet, murdered. She didn’t know him. Her mother remarries and continues to have babies with a monster. Why? Because according to their beliefs, this is what gets you Goddess status. The evil that religions cause is mind boggling to me. But I’ll leave that alone.
This is a look into polygamy and authorities turning a blind eye and what happens when predators are given power (by God). It was heart wrenching, but also a story of unbelievable love and what lengths we go to in order to protect those we love. Ruth is a hero in my eyes….and I’m sure a hero in the eyes of her siblings.
The writing is beautiful. She doesn’t sugar coat people or paint them as all “bad”. The story is genuine and many times I felt it right in my gut. Thanks for this book, Ruth Wariner. It’s a treasure.
@shelovesthepages highly recommends this book.
True story of the very brave author and her brothers and sisters as well.
Hard to believe what goes on in these cults. Why anyone would stay is beyond me.
AMAZING story!!!
Riveting story that I couldn’t put down. The author pulls you in with the first line: “I am my mother’s fourth child and my father’s thirty-ninth.” This is a heartbreaking memoir that made me sad and mad over and over again. But well done that the author never writes from a place of self-pity (though Lord knows, she had every right to.) Just a great read.