Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People

Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People
by Tim Reiterman

Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People
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Book Summary Information

Author: Tim Reiterman
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-11-13
ISBN: 1585426784
Number of pages: 688
Publisher: Tarcher

Book Reviews of Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People

Book Review: Diary of a Madman
Summary: 5 Stars


Reporter Tim Reiterman was one of the people who managed to survive the Poart Kaituma shootings that claimed the life of Congressman Leo Ryan and so many others. It is perhaps understandable why he wished to write about the man who connived at his murder in his own search for "understanding" Jim Jones and his People's Temple Agricultural Project, the location of what would come to be called "The Jonestown Massacre."

Reiterman barely knew Jones, only introduced to him the one time the day prior to the dreadful slaughter. So, everything he writes about Jones is second-hand information, but second hand information expertly corroborated by the extensive "paper trail" the People's Temple left behind in the many years of its existence from California to the middle of "God's Own Nowhere" in western Guyana. Further, with Jones' death, still something of a mystery after all of these years, former members of the People's Temple and the handful of Jonestown survivors, including Jim Jones' own son, talked. And while there is no universal agreement on minor details as will always be the case with such events, the broad outlines of the story are firmly grounded by Reiterman's completely professional and praiseworthy detached fact and cross-checking. Had I been in Reiterman's shoes, I am not sure I could have achieved the calm dispassion that makes "Raven" such a credible analysis. And the picture that emerges in the six-hundred terrifying pages of this book is a story of sociopathic, narcissistic madness ensnaring not only Jones but the poor people he resolved to take with him on his macabre odyssey, his "death trip."

But, Reiterman's dispassionate reporting does not obscure in the slightest the men, women, and children of the PTAP. They come across as human beings who, in search of a better life for themselves, followed a man they trusted into the green hell of the jungles. And through Jones' systemic terror and ham-handed - but effective - "brainwashing" techniques, they became shadows of what they were, but in far too many instances hardly the "brainless zombies" described in mass media. Reiterman's humanization of these lost souls so easily dismissed as zany, addled fools is a work of redemptive power. Plain and simple, they were victims undeserving of their horrid and outre endings, an ending Reiterman almost shared.

This is not a lurid, red-covered "true crime" penny dreadful, but a serious work of investigative journalism. It is likely the closest we will ever come to comprehending the "why" of Jonestown, assuming for a moment that such a thing is even possible.

Recommended, but on the understanding that this work is distressing and profoundly sad. Not for the faint of heart.

Summary of Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People

For the first time in paperback, Tim Reiterman?s Raven provides the definitive history of the Rev. Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and the murderous ordeal at Jonestown three decades ago. This PEN Award?winning work explores the ideals-gone-wrong, the intrigue, and the grim realities behind the Peoples Temple and its implosion in the jungle of South America. Reiterman?s reportage clarifies enduring misperceptions of the character and motives of Jim Jones, the reasons why people followed him, and the important truth that many of those who perished at Jonestown were victims of mass murder rather than suicide.

This widely sought work is restored to print after many years with a new preface by the author, as well as the more than sixty-five rare photographs from the original volume.

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