cover image Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman's Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond

Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman's Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond

Deborah Laake. William Morrow & Co Inc, $20 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-688-09304-4

Laake, raised as a strict Mormon, was taught from childhood that Mormon men were ``priesthood holders'' anointed with the authority to act for God on earth, and that her entrance into heaven could be assured only if she married a Mormon man who would be her master. As a 19-year-old sophomore at Brigham Young University, she became a Mormon wife. Laake's heartfelt record of this disastrous first marriage and the years of struggle that followed is at once autobiography and an expose of the repressive patriarchalism of the Mormon church. After her divorce, for example, Laake found that although her ex-husband retained his religious privileges, she was banned from the temple and condemned by Mormon elders. Torn between her loyalty to herself and to her church's teachings, she plunged into a second Mormon marriage; it, too, failed, and led to a mental breakdown. Laake, now executive managing editor of the New Times magazine chain, writes that she has emerged from her experiences as an independent woman, no longer in thrall to religious dogma. This is a haunting and candid memoir. (Apr.)