Review: Love Times Three by Joe, Alina, Vicki and Valerie Darger

Title: Love Times Three: Our True Story of a Polygamous Marriage

Author(s): Joe, Alina, Vicki, and Valerie Darger and Brooke Adams

Genre/Audience: Non-fiction, memoir, adult

Publication: 2011

Source: Library

When I first saw this book at the library, I was like "holy smokes, things are about to get crazy up in this book!" Mehhh, kind of, but not so much.

Love Times Three is the story of the Darger family, Joe and his three wives Alina, Vicki, and Valerie (who are twin sisters) and their approximately two dozen children. They are Independent Fundamentalist Mormons who embrace polygamy, despite society shunning their culture.

I'm a huge fan of memoirs and have been fascinated by polygamy ever since I read Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall when it first came out several years ago (HIGHLY recommend. Elissa's story is fascinating). Since reading it, I have read several more titles about the FLDS and their corrupt leader, the infamous Warren Jeffs. The Darger's make it clear they do not associate with Jeffs and that while all of them are Mormons, as Independents, they are much different than the FLDS.

I enjoyed reading about how this polygamous marriage worked and how they care for so many children all in one home. This memoir touches on a lot of things such as their childhoods, religion, jealousy, individual relationships with Joe, and relationships with each other, as sister wives. Each of the four adults take turns narrating (sometimes telling the same stories and growing repetitive), and even some of their oldest children narrate small sections at the end.

I did like that the book touches on so many topics. What especially intrigued me about this story is that Joe married two twin sisters - Vicki and Val. Vicki and Alina (cousins) courted then married Joe together, then ten years later, they invited Val to join the marriage. Sound strange? It is... to me, but not to them. I'm quite baffled, but I do like trying to understand other lifestyles. They state that Joe loves them all equally. They also state that all three women love each other's children as much as they love their own biological children. I'm not sure how I feel about these statements and if I believe them, but ah well, it's a nice thought.

I did have some problems with this book though. I felt that the Darger's were extremely guarded in telling their story. I was hoping for a much more revealing and forthcoming memoir. They are probably guarded due to the fact that polygamy is illegal; however, they are already making their polygamy public by publishing this book, so they may as well have just dived right in, you know? Oh well. I also was kind of sickened by how the three wives treat Joe like he's some kind of god. They all seem to worship the man and think he can do no wrong. I don't know if that's really how they feel, or if they just wanted to portray him in such a light in this book, but either scenario is kind of disturbing to me. Yes, there were some instances where they talked about fights they had with him or whatever, but for the most part, their worship-like relationships with him made me pretty uncomfortable.

All in all, this was quite an interesting book, but not as forthcoming as I would have liked it to be. It was worth the read, but in the future, I'll be on the lookout for similar memoirs that are more in depth and revealing. I'm hoping the Darger's will have started a trend, and that more polygamous families will open up and really share their stories, which was the case with the FLDS after Stolen Innocence was released.

My Rating: 3/5