Under the Banner of Heaven

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

Krakauer details the horrific murder of a young woman and her baby girl through a lens of fundamentalist religion. Dan and Ron Lafferty killed their sister-in-law and niece on the basis of “divine revelation.” He also offers an intriguing look at FLDS in America, going back to the early 19^th century. He is a talented story teller and I was sometimes absorbed in the tale. But…there is a big problem here. The book really lacks focus. It is a lot of small stories strung together in a haphazard way.

Kraukauer definitely doesn’t do the story of the murders justice. It seems that he started to tell that story, but then he diverts into the history of Mormonism. I think he should have stuck to one subject or the other. The fact that these men were members of FLDS, in my opinion, had little to do with their crime. Every religion has nuts. Not sure how to say that in a more PC way… generalizing a large religion around a few nuts is just disappointing and short sighted.