Julia ScheeresCritiques

It took me a couple days to actually get into this book but once I did I couldnt put it down. It was sometimes unbelievable that this was a memoir! The torment and torture that children were put through in inconceivable....and to know that this particular thing is still going on in the Dominican Republic is appalling!

I can only give this 4 stars because of the pain it caused my soul. I am sensitive to tales of mental torture and anguish caused to humans, particularly when it is inflicted for no good reason. And this memoir is rife with it: racism, family violence, sexual exploitation, and of course, religion. I suppose I should be astonished by the resilience of the human spirit in the face of such terrible injustices, but I can only think that "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger" is bullshit. We shouldn't have to gain strength through such violent adversity. Surely we can be strong, whole, healthy people without having to endure abuse and pain? I had a pretty soft upbringing in comparison to Julia Scheeres: my parents love me, nobody ever tried to force me to do or believe anything I didn't want to do or believe, nobody injured my body or my soul. And yet I have turned out to be a strong and smart person, without being subjected to exile and alienation from my family. This book is painful but gripping-- I pretty much had to read through it in order to convince myself that people are essentially good. I more or less succeeded.

I read this as part of a history book club otherwise I might never have seen it. I remember the story in its finale and my parents discussing it. Reading the details as an adult and parent was stunning. the fraud, deception and finally murder is a stark reminder of how delicate real trust is.

You know, I could almost give this book a heart because I could NOT put it down. It's compulsively readable.

Julia tells us about her unique childhood being raised by very strict Christian parents in the Midwest. Her parents have four children of their own, and they adopt two African American boys. One of the African American boys, David, is the same age as Julia, and this memoir relates their story of growing up together as siblings.

Unfortunately, this tale is not a pretty one. Julia's parents are largely absent, in the case of the father, physically, and in the case of the mother, emotionally. Julia and David truly only have each other, and even their relationship is under a lot of stress as their parents treat them differently, and David struggles as one of the only African Americans at his school.

This memoir is to some degree in the same vein as Mommy Dearest or Dave Pelzer's books. Not quite as graphic and horrible - - but definitely the situation is not good, and you feel Julia's pain throughout the story. The parents really seem to have NO redeeming qualities whatsoever . . .so I didn't find it quite as strong as The Glass Castle where the writing really goes so far beyond a mere characterization and really develops the family dynamics.

Nonetheless, Jesus Land is pretty gripping. You want so badly for things to take a turn for the better for these two children. Unfortunately, things by and large get grimmer and grimmer . . .but underneath all the pain, Julia and David's love and loyalty to one another takes center stage and makes the book more than a parent bashing session.

For those of you who do not like much in the way of sexual content, it should be noted that there is some here. Not unduly graphic and not gratuitous - - but it's there.

A haunting story about the evils some parents inflict on their children in the name of religion

It never crossed my mind that this was unrealistic, some people just deal with a lot of shit. I liked it.

"I feel that as long as there's life, there's hope. That's my faith....I look about at the babies and I think they deserve to live, you know?...I think we all have a right to our own destiny as individuals."
--Christine Miller, the only dissenting voice heard on a tape recorded during mass-murder suicide in Jonestown.

How could the Holocaust have happened? Why did people kill one another so easily during the reign of the Khmer Rouge? Why would someone blindly follow a person or an ideology enough to want to kill or die for the cause?

Jonestown is an important lesson in how how groups of humans can start down a very slippery slope which leads them to places unimagined. Jim Jones, faith healer and cult leader, grew a group of followers and lead them down to Guyana to start a new socialist society and in the process convinces close to a thousand people to murder their own children and babies and then kill themselves.

This book by Julia Scheeres focuses on materials released by the FBI and on the stories of a few of the survivors at Jonestown. They include a young African-American man who was taken off the streets by the cult, a father and son who joined and then was torn apart by the cult, and an elderly woman who along with her sister had been followers of Jim Jones for years. Not everyone profiled here makes it out--a good deal of information about what happened was from Edith Roller, a secretary and recorder of events. Scheeres did an outstanding job of blending story and hard research.

This book will break your heart. You'll see how people's hope and community which started out with big ideals could be twisted by a leader. You learn how families turned against one another and how Jones kept people in line through intimidation, punishment and lies. How he manipulated people towards his ultimate goal of "revolutionary suicide." You'll learn about the failed and successful escapes from Jonestown.

I grew up in Northern California and remember the events from the news. The cult--the People's Temple was not that far away in San Francisco. I learned in this book how many politicians in San Francisco turned a blind eye to Jones because of what he could do for them. He was even given a political appointment in the city. No one at the time could fathom what ultimately unfolded.

By the way, while the People's Temple started as a Holy Roller Faith Healing Christian cult--Jones himself saw contradictions in the Bible and while he claimed to be God on Earth, he later tied his cult to Socialism. I find it interesting to wonder if this Cult were around today if it would lean more towards a Tea Party agenda as at the time it sort of grew up out of the sixties. Either way--the lesson here is to watch your step lest you find yourself with a cup of koolaid in your hand wondering how you got there.

One of the best books I've read this year.

the writing here is really excellent and this story is an important one to tell. she tells it really well; i'm impressed by her writing.

i am super uncomfortable with parts of this book that equate the white author's lived experience with that of her black adopted brother. she says things like "we are black" and while i don't discount the bullying and ostracizing she surely faced for her close relationship with her black brother, it certainly isn't the same as what he endured. not in society, not in her community, not in her school, not in her church, not in her family. i know she does this to show us how close they were, and i don't doubt that they were, that maybe even she was david's only lifeline (limp as it was) in all of those places. and that because she did choose david over those things (usually, except in high school), that she suffered, too. i'm not saying she didn't. i just don't think she could ever understand how his blackness felt and was used against him, especially as they so studiously avoided any real discussion of race or of their parents and what the hell was happening there. (what was happening is that her "christian" parents adopted 2 black boys so they could look righteous and holy but abused them physically and emotionally and made a terrible life for them.)

i am so disgusted with these so-called christians who use religion as a shield to hide such awfulness in behavior and character. i'm sure other religions have people like this, and atheists and agnostics as well, but it seems so overwhelmingly christian to claim belief in god and goodness and then to brutally abuse people - children, most especially - in the name of that belief. it's so ugly and gross and i hate it so fucking much. i appreciate, in fiction, when it's the christians who are hypocrites, but in nonfiction like this, it just makes me want to be a vigilante and turn violent. but none of that is about this book specifically. so: the parents in this book are bad enough, and then the christian reform school they are sent to was so over-the-top i would think it was unbelievable if this was fiction. (and i looked up the place. there are other books written and a documentary about the abuses that took place there.) in spite of that, i raged at the very end of the book when the author says that she thinks the worst injustices that david was victim to had occurred at this place. her worst injustices may have been there (and maybe not; i'm not here to rank her sufferings) but david's were so clearly in her own family that rejected and used him for the 14 years of his life before being sent to that place. to almost completely ignore this abuse (except for the time her dad broke david's arm) shows she either never really understood him or perhaps wasn't emotionally willing to delve into that or to risk further fracturing whatever relationship she has left with her family. but it's tone-deaf to make the statement she did. and it shows what is missing from this book: a real excavation of what her parents did to him - and yes, even to jerome, in spite of (or maybe because of) who he became - and the misery they made him live with. she may have been david's only light, but she never shone that light on any of the real issues that he was dealing with, and it seems like she still isn't willing to do that where her family is concerned.

when she tells her own story is when this book is strongest, for me. because i can overlook the assumptions she makes that she can tell us about david in a way that i just don't believe she can. but she can tell us what she felt and went through, and what she thought of growing up with david and jerome and the small town and religion and abuse and so forth. her story weaves in with david's, and that's when this book really resonates. david's story is told through hers, and if she had left off the proclamations about him and his life, and left us to make our own conclusions, this would be an even stronger book, and my main issue with it would probably not exist.

even with this huge (to me) problem, this book is still pretty incredible. maybe it shows my own privilege or whiteness or something to be able to still rate a book this highly in spite of this issue. (i'm also surprised and disappointed that she used the words "gypped" and "retarded" when neither were at all necessary.) without these things, i'd probably be rating this book 4.5 stars for the writing alone.½

Memories can be tricky, but if even half this book is accurate, people should have gone to prison. A “Christian” couple adopts a couple of Black kids because it's the Godly thing to do. And that is where the true Christianity ends, but not the self-righteous piety. A biological child of the couple (the author, Julia Scheeres) and the younger adopted child become such good friends, in this together, but occasionally betraying each other. There is lots of violence and abuse, including sexual abuse, and no parental love. The older adopted child, Jerome – well, there is not as much about him in this memoir but what is there is so sad, so unnecessary. David has so much potential, so much heart, and is given little in return.

And when you don't want to bother with beating your kids at home, ship them off to an expensive institution where someone will abuse them for you.

Even the dog didn't do well, chained outside in freezing weather. But what more can you expect of someone who treats children like these parents do?

There was mention of a person whose voice rose “several octaves.” Really? Several octaves? And the author used an offensive term for gay people, which was jarring to me, and didn't seem right for the person she was becoming.

This was a hard book to read, and should make everyone with even a semi-normal family grateful for what they have. I read the author's book A Thousand Lives, about Jonestown and that helped me understand why people join cults, and the heartbreaking story of Jones's followers. Jesus Land is another eye-opening look at what humans can do to one another.

The moving survival story of a girl and her adopted brother's journey through an extremely dysfunctional and extremely religiously conservative family, the second half of the book being concerned with their survival in a hellish Christian "private school" run in The Dominican Republic. The "school" reminded me of Jonestown, and I've heard that the author's next book will actually be on Jonestown, which I think is fitting.

3.5***

This is a memoir of growing up with parents who adhered to a religious fundamentalism but who were abusive to their children. Scheeres was the youngest child in the family, and the last biological child born to her parents, who subsequently adopted two African American boys. David, was practically Julia’s twin, with only a month or so difference in their birthdates. They grew up as brother and sister, and shared dreams of one day growing up and moving to Florida together. When David and Julia were teens, they rebelled against their strict upbringing with the result that their parents sent them to a school in the Dominican Republic – a sort of “boot camp” to get them right with Jesus.

The first half of the book details their childhood and early school experiences. The racial prejudice aimed at David, and from which Julia tried to protect her brother, with the result that she was also ostracized in their small midwestern town.

The second half of the book focuses on the time they spent at Escuela Caribe, and what they had to endure there to “prove” to the people running the school and to their parents that they “deserved” to return to their home in Indiana.

Their mother was clearly neglectful, ignoring the children’s complaints of mistreatment at school, and barely providing them with food, shelter and clothing. But their father. He may have been a surgeon, but he was physically abusive, particularly to the adopted boys. Why was he never prosecuted!?!?!

Yet the love she and David shared, the unbreakable bond of brother and sister, shine through. Towards the end of their time at Escuela Caribe, she writes:
We are young, and we have our entire lives ahead of us. Together, we have survived racism and religion. Together, we are strong. Together, we can do anything.
Life may not be fair, but when you have someone to believe in, life can be managed, and sometimes, even miraculous.
After everything else falls away, we shall remain brother and sister. Family.½

Julia and her two adopted brothers don't have it easy. Her parents are ultra religious and take it out more on the boys than Julia. They don't know that every time they beat her older brother, he repays Julia for their abuse. While she adores her younger brother, they have their differences too. She is white and both brothers are black. Eventually, the parents send Julia and her younger brother, David, away to an incredibly strict camp to have the righteousness brought back into their lives.

Incredible book, very sad ending.

Wow, what a heartbreaking story. I have read articles and watched documentaries about Jonestown, but for some reason this book really brought the tragedy to the forefront of the mind. I don't understand how this type mind control happens but was truly fascinating reading about it. Scheeres had a hit with Jesus Land and this one follows in those footsteps. Very well researched and written.

I heard about this book in an article calling people out for using the phrase "drinking the Kool-aid" without knowing the full story of its origins. The article must have been convincing because I put this book on my to-read list and it ended up being a part of my Fenner fundraiser shopping spree.

This book broke my heart in a thousand ways. It made me angry. It made me despair. It made me swear threats and epithets as I slammed the book down on the table, as if my bargaining could still somehow influence the outcome of events. To the point where for a while my husband avoided me while I was reading, because if I talked about it, he would get too angry.

Well written, sympathetic characters (not including Jim Jones, of course, whose head you never get into). My only complaint about the book is that I wish it were footnoted, and not just endnoted. This book was incredibly well researched, and when I got to the end and saw the notes I finally realized to what extent. But while I was reading, I kept wondering, "How does she know that?" It probably should have occurred to me to check for endnotes, but it didn't, and I would have appreciated footnotes, okay?

The untold story of hope, deception, and survival at Jonestown

Well worth reading, whether you remember the event or not. The author makes an excellent effort to be respectful to the people who died at Jonestown, while exposing the most gruesome and unbelievable facts about the events and what led up to them.

All I can say is this woman is a survivor!

I'm old enough to remember this horrible news story. Scheeres uses thousands of pages of letters, memos and diaries to look beyond the sensationalism and try to understand what drew people into the situation in which they would commit "mass suicide." In doing so, she completely changed my view of what happened. The people who followed Jim Jones to Guyana did so for many reasons; some were concerned with racial and gender discrimination in the U.S., some were socialists, some were so poor and/or forgotten by society that this was their first taste of affection, belonging and order in their lives. The group Jones started in Indiana and consolidated and grew in California emphasized equality and justice. But Jones deliberately moved the group to Guyana to separate them from any social safety net and gain complete control. The book emphasizes how completely isolated the Jonestown group was from civil society. Jones controlled what they ate, whether they ate, whom they could write to. They had no phone connection to the outside world and their mail was censored. Most did not want to die, and many resisted Jones' commands right to the end. Many drank the poison believing it was just another "loyalty test" like those Jones had conducted before. Jones had used violence, drugs and starvation to completely remove the will to live in those who seemed the most strong and resilient. This book actually reminded me of "The Fear," a book I read recently about Robert Mugabe's attempts to terrify and manipulate his own people. Scheeres also emphasizes the Guyanan govts attempts to intervene. Neither the Guyanans nor the Americans did everything they could to help the people who were essentially prisoners in Jonestown, but the Guyana govt. comes off better than the Americans and much better than they are usually portrayed in popular versions of this story.

This started just a little slow for me, but within a couple of chapters, I was riveted. The book is very well-written, with a steady, honest voice -- so honest, in fact, that it was like having a new friend open up to you about her terrible, tragic-in-some-ways-but-funny-in-others childhood.

I highly recommend sitting down with this book and a few glasses of wine on an evening when you've got a few free hours.

Horrifying.

A traumatizing memoir about a traumatic childhood in the American mid-west. It's like watching a high speed car wreck in very slow motion. With every safety mechanism failing passengers before your eyes and you can't do anything to stop it. Everyone who should have been there for the author failed her and her brother. Even the justice system should have done more for her. Her family and their faith was the source of the hell in her life. Reform school reminded me of a light version of concentration camps just without the goal of extermination or producing anything. Lots of mind games and soul crushing in the name of Christianity.

Compelling and heart-wrenching.


I will say one small defense of the American mid-west, while I'm sure there are hateful people that live here (they can be found most anywhere), I've lived in the mid-west for over 20 years and I've never heard any of the hateful racist comments similar to those used against the author or her brother in real life. I'd like to think that things have improved since the 70s when much of this book took place.

I chose this book because my own family is transracial – my husband, my two boys and I are white and my daughter is African American. Because of that, I’m interested in hearing the stories of other transracial families. Good god – I’m glad my family couldn’t be more different from Julia’s family. Julia’s parents adopted her two black brothers because it was the Christian thing to do. It’s another story – this time true – of white people thinking that they can save the black children by immersing them in white society and not acknowledging their race. Julia’s parents are this and worse. They are “spare the rod and spoil the child” Dutch Calvinists. Julia’s mother is cold and distant. Her father, a surgeon, seems to be mostly absent. He is mainly mentioned in relation to beating one of her two black brothers as punishment.

The family lives in a small town in Indiana. It’s mostly white and the use of the n-word is common. David and Julia are best friends but even she distances herself from him when dealing with the issues surrounding his race become too much for her. To ease her guilt she turns to drinking and sex. David and Julia’s parents end up sending them both to a reform school in the Dominican Republic called Esculea Caribe, where life is even harder and more brutal than it was at home. I researched Escuela Caribe a bit after reading this and it appears that as unbelievable as the treatment Julia and David endured sounds, it was true. The school could get away with a lot more being in a loosely regulated foreign country than they ever could have in the United States.

Julia writes her story in a detached manner almost devoid of emotion. It works though because I think when she was experiencing these events as a teenager, she detached herself and became numb to the abuse just to get through it. Reading this book was like listening to the teenage Julia telling you her story directly. Much like The Glass Castle, this book was difficult memoir to read but I’m glad I did.

I was a kid when this happened but remember being stunned by how many died. I never really thought much about the people who died except as crazy cultists. This book helped me see them as real people and feel compassion ... so many were idealists who yearned for a better world and believed Jones would provide that. I doubt I will ever be able to hear the phrase "don't drink the Kool-Aid" again without feeling sick.

Jesus Land is one of those books where I think the situations portrayed within the book need to be brought to light and known, but I don't find the book itself well-written. Meandering and confusing at times.

If you care even a whit about the plight of young children of color and women, you'll be outraged by this book. I was. Julia Scheeres's childhood was marred by horrific racist and sexist acts, including numerous acts of violence against her and her brother. Her parents, devoted to Calvinist but lukewarm at best toward their children, were no help.

This book includes a frightening inside look at Christian "reform schools" for "troubled teens" -- you know, the ones who drink and talk back in reaction to the sexual abuse they've had no emotional support in dealing with. Perhaps the most outraging part was the epilogue, where Scheeres notes that these schools are still operating today.

This is not an easy book to read, but it's an eye-opening look at the dark side of fundamentalist evangelical Christianity.½

incredibly haunting - this story stuck with me for many weeks after I finished reading it.