Stories from Jonestown by Leigh Fondakowski, with spoilers
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Elizabeth Rogers 47
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Stories from Jonestown by Leigh Fondakowski, with spoilers
This is a book about the survivors of the Jonestown tragedy of November 1997. Each chapter of the book represents an interview with one of the survivors. Also interviewed were relatives of some who died and formers members of People's Temple. Also interviewed were Investigators, Journalists and politicians.
Each individual interviewed has a distinct story. They are talking about the same events, but each person experienced them in a unique way.
Before the main body of the book there are 2 brief essays followed by a list of the interviews. The first essay was titled: "Two Days in November", which depicted the visit of U.S Congressman Leo J. Ryan to Jonestown. The atmosphere when Ryan arrived with his entourage, to investigate claims of abuse, and of people being held against their will, was a mixture of tension and excitement. The community seemed happy and joyful, excited to show off what they had accomplished in this jungle to turn it into a vibrant community. They held a concert, that apparently was enjoyed by all. But there was a sense of foreboding, and things were going to unravel quickly.
The second essay discussed how Jonestown is usually perceived:
To produce this book, Leigh Fondakowski and three collaborators, Greg Pierotti, Stephen Wangh and Margo Hall spent many hours in the archive of California Historical Society in San Francisco, examining internal documents, letters, clippings and photographs. Then they began a three and a half-year process of interviews with survivors, coming up with about 300 hours of taped material.
Before this book they produced a play "The People's Temple, which premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theater in Berkeley, CA in 2005. Only a small portion of their research was used in the play.
Finally, before the main body of the book, there is a list of the interviews, in three groupings: (1) survivors, (2) families of some who did not survive, and who had impressions and information to add to our understanding of events, (3) investigators, journalists, including Jack Palladino, who investigated the events and was part of Larry Layton's defense team.
I found the interviews with Jack Palladino particularly informative. He had visited Jonestown in 1981, and he had a huge volume of material from court transcripts and taped interviews. He sugarcoated nothing. He laid out story after story about Jones --loves, punishments, drugs, sex and power.. He came to believe that Temple members were not fools, but that the people who died there, and the people who've been left behind, may represent some of the best and most fundamental impulses in American culture."
The author questioned Palladino about how things could have been as good as some described and as tragic as it ended at the same time. Jack told Leigh that he always asked interviewees the same question at the end.
I give this book four out of four stars. It is fascinating, and full of facts that many do not know, such as that Jonestown was really a political movement and not a religion at the end. And that almost all of the 900 dead were murdered, and didn't commit suicide.
Each individual interviewed has a distinct story. They are talking about the same events, but each person experienced them in a unique way.
Before the main body of the book there are 2 brief essays followed by a list of the interviews. The first essay was titled: "Two Days in November", which depicted the visit of U.S Congressman Leo J. Ryan to Jonestown. The atmosphere when Ryan arrived with his entourage, to investigate claims of abuse, and of people being held against their will, was a mixture of tension and excitement. The community seemed happy and joyful, excited to show off what they had accomplished in this jungle to turn it into a vibrant community. They held a concert, that apparently was enjoyed by all. But there was a sense of foreboding, and things were going to unravel quickly.
The second essay discussed how Jonestown is usually perceived:
The point is to tell the ;history of Jonestown and People's Temple through the mouths of survivors and former members of People's Temple.survivors portrayed as mindless victims--cultists if you will--with Jones as mastermind and perpetrator...
To produce this book, Leigh Fondakowski and three collaborators, Greg Pierotti, Stephen Wangh and Margo Hall spent many hours in the archive of California Historical Society in San Francisco, examining internal documents, letters, clippings and photographs. Then they began a three and a half-year process of interviews with survivors, coming up with about 300 hours of taped material.
Before this book they produced a play "The People's Temple, which premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theater in Berkeley, CA in 2005. Only a small portion of their research was used in the play.
Finally, before the main body of the book, there is a list of the interviews, in three groupings: (1) survivors, (2) families of some who did not survive, and who had impressions and information to add to our understanding of events, (3) investigators, journalists, including Jack Palladino, who investigated the events and was part of Larry Layton's defense team.
I found the interviews with Jack Palladino particularly informative. He had visited Jonestown in 1981, and he had a huge volume of material from court transcripts and taped interviews. He sugarcoated nothing. He laid out story after story about Jones --loves, punishments, drugs, sex and power.. He came to believe that Temple members were not fools, but that the people who died there, and the people who've been left behind, may represent some of the best and most fundamental impulses in American culture."
The author questioned Palladino about how things could have been as good as some described and as tragic as it ended at the same time. Jack told Leigh that he always asked interviewees the same question at the end.
Another very good interview was with the only biological child of Jim and Marcelene Jones: Stephen Jones. He tried to explain the many sides of his father. He did quite well at explaining what drew people.He figured that at some point, Jones gave people joy, and you could not put a price tag on that. That's why they stayed. Because no matter how bad it got, they were still holding out fo find that joy again. They wanted that ecstasy back. Once they experienced it, they stayed out of hope.
My father could preach up a storm. And what he was talking about was integration, social change. Sometimes he would even hint at revolution...the congregation is mostly black, and we're singing spirituals: the place is booming, stomping, rocking, vibrating when we were singing.
This book is story after story from many people. Their lives in People's Temple, many of the stories starting out in Indiana, before moving to San Francisco in a convoy of Greyhound-style buses. For a long time it had been a happy life for many.I had a very loving mother and a loving father. Dad wasn't around much. And his life was pretty full up with his life...And in many respects so was Mom's life, filled up with him. My dad was a raging addict...into power, sex, food, drugs, whatever he needed to fill that hole, he was using...but most of all he was addicted to adulation. My father was a pretty sick man. --very sick at the end. But he also had a real beauty about him, for lack of a better way of putting it...even when he was pulling the wool over on people, he was tapping into something that was real. He could light you up. He could light me up. I could be sitting there hating his guts, and he could light me up.
I give this book four out of four stars. It is fascinating, and full of facts that many do not know, such as that Jonestown was really a political movement and not a religion at the end. And that almost all of the 900 dead were murdered, and didn't commit suicide.
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sabrina1643
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I am so thankful to the survivors that took the time to write the book and do many interviews. This happend when I was 12 years old and even as a child I knew that them people did not commit sucide they was murder.. Jim Jones moved the people to Jonestown in order to isolate torture starve and murder them
Its hard breaking that the people came together as one. They loved one another and Jim Jones deceived so many people.
He wasn't parnoid he had plan to do what he did. The people did not took sucide they was forced to by armed guards .
Armed guards circle the camp surronded them with guns its so much more to this story
Its hard breaking that the people came together as one. They loved one another and Jim Jones deceived so many people.
He wasn't parnoid he had plan to do what he did. The people did not took sucide they was forced to by armed guards .
Armed guards circle the camp surronded them with guns its so much more to this story
