Dear People: Remembering Jonestown
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Book Reviews of Dear People: Remembering Jonestown
Book Review: The Bad and the Beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars
This book has been lying around our place ever since we went to see a dramatization of the Peoples Temple story last year over at Berkeley Rep. The other day I picked it up and haven't stopped reading since.
Jim Jones could have been a figure of great historic importance, and the accounts in this book (and elsewhere of course) attest to an admirable, and early, anti-racism which manifested itself in many forms. The tragedy of what happened to him can never be fully explained. How did so many give up their lives to the control of one man, no matter how gifted? The testimonies of the survivors, and the voices of those who died at Guyana, are eloquent and really shine to the sharp editing skills of Denice Stephenson and the California Historical Society staff who assisted her in this project. And yet there's still no answer.
Seems to me there are two types of person, and Jim Jones had them combined in his personality likje a hybrid. There was the man of empathy, the fellow who tries to make everyone feel at home. Marceline Jones tells the story of some poor folk, shabbily dressed, who apologized to Jones for coming into the Temple with patches. He just bowed and acknowledged them with a nod of his head, a kindly smile, and in a stage whisper he said, "Just to make you feel better, I'll have you know there's a huge hole in the seat of my pants right now." And then the other man who loved the sound of his own voice even when it was ranting nonsense like over the squeaky loudspeakers of Jonestown. (Like, why name it "Jonestown" unless you're really looking to shore up your ego?) How did these two personalities wind up bound in the same brain?
Book Review: Dear People
Summary: 5 Stars
I think Jonestown survivor Michael Carter sums it up quite nicely near the end of "Dear People: Remembering Jonestown." He says "I have had the good fortune to meet a number of wonderful people during my lifetime, but I have never encountered such a concentration of outstanding human beings as I did in Peoples Temple. When I hear 'drinking the Kool-Aid,', I will continue to remember their dedication for what they believed in. It is easy for people to believe that we were mindless and spineless, but nothing could be further from the truth. I hope that someday there will be a few more people who will understand what depths are attached to such a trivial statement." If you have only a casual interest in the story of Jim Jones and Jonestown, it's easy to overlook the fact that Jonestown was populated by hundreds of wonderful, dedicated, hardworking, loving human beings. Denice Stephenson needs to be commended for doing a great job editing "Dear People", sifting through what I'm sure is a myriad of archives at the California Historical Society, and showing us the human side of this fascinating story. We're shown that there's so much more to the story than a mad dictator and his following of zombies drinking tainted Kool Aid. This book would be a great place to start if you want to learn about Jim Jones, his followers, Jonestown, and the unfortunate end.Book Review: Reminded me of The Killing Fields
Summary: 5 Stars
After having read Deborah Layton's book about Jim Jones, I thought I wanted a somewhat more objective book so I ordered this one. And it didn't disappoint me. Dear People is a compelling presentation of personal stories, official documents and fascinating photos which really gave me the information I was looking for. No drama or ethos, just the plain facts. I've read many books about the Pol Pot era in Cambodia, and frankly this book fits right in - only in another setting with another crazed leader (both utopian communists, by the way). It baffles me still every day how intelligent and otherwise sane people can fall for crazed lunatics like Jim Jones.
By the way, I think that that very impressive farewell note (the Last Words), which starts off the book, supposedly from an unknown PT member who wrote it during the mass suicide, was prepared way in advance. I simply can't believe anyone can have the clear state of mind to write a letter like that while hundreds of people are dying around you, including more than 200 small children. But if it is true, it just goes to show how utterly brainwashed and inhuman these cult-members had become.
Book Review: Dear People Remembering Jonestown
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read so many books regarding Jonestown/Jim Jones and I will never understand why this tragedy happened. Dear People, Remembering Jonestown brings you so much closer to the people that were in Jonestown on that tragic day. I loved the personaL letters and interviews. I specially like the personal letters from Carolyn Layton and Maria Katsaris, two of Jims closes and very personal assistants. I loved this book! If you are thinking about reading this book I recommend you read first, Seductive Poison and Six Years with God. These two books are two of the most personal stories I have read about those that were the closes to Jim Jones. I highly recommend Dear People, well put together.
A.M.O
Van Nuys, CA
Book Review: Miss you dad..
Summary: 5 Stars
What a great collection letters, photos and memories from the life and times of the Peoples Temple.
I found it to be an easy read, the chapters have a nice flow, and it does something different than other PT books I've read. It does not show the PT members as crazied followers of a madman, but as a family. A family that was genuinely trying to create a better world. That is, until things got bad and people from the states wouldn't leave them alone.
I blame the 'concerned relatives' for more than 900 deaths on November 18th, 1978.
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