LEAVING THE SAINTS How I Lost the Mormons and Found my Faith

Scholar, teacher, wife, and mother (her handicapped child is the subject of her previous book, EXPECTING ADAM), Beck is once again challenged, this time by memories of having been sexually abused as a small child by her father, a well-known Mormon writer. Her struggle to confront him as she shucks a lifetime of dogma brings her into conflict with her church, her siblings, and her neighbors. Beck reads well for a nonprofessional. Her pace is a little fast at the beginning, but the listener adjusts. Her diction is clear, and her determination is even clearer; she would be no one to confront in a debate. Neither her prose nor her delivery invites pity, but the listener gets plenty of insight into what makes Beck--and the eponymous Saints--tick. J.B.G. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 05]