Stories from Jonestown is a unique oral history. I’m used to Studs Terkel type books where the interviews stand alone. The author isn’t a part of the story and the focus is solely on an individual’s story. This book was different in that you also witness the process of research that was completed for a play that was created and staged by the author and collaborators. The book was almost a by-product of that research and set of interviews.

As a writer and editor—I appreciated this take. The author uses research through the California Historical Society and through meeting of survivors and makes a good survey of the information that is out there about this American tragedy. I think this book will serve future generations of scholars as a good place to start. Information about what is maintained by the Historical society—photos, tapes, and items. There is also a cataloguing of sorts of the information left behind—the Temple’s own historian interviewed members before the end about their lives and what drew them to the Temple—and this was included.

One focus of the book is the reluctance of former African-American members and their families to talk. Read this book for their story. I found the interview with Reverend Arnold Townsend who talked about the history of progressivism in Fillmore where the Temple was located especially insightful and sad. He laments the loss of the 900 souls who wanted change and are now no longer around when they would be of a mentoring age. “I’m not a conspiracist,” he said. “But, man, Jonestown ripped out the heart of the most progressive community in America.”
I’ve read other books on Jonestown and in addition to this book I also highly recommend A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown.
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Very dry. The book is presented as a series of interviews, which made t very hard to get into the book. ( )

With the phrase "drink the Kool-Aid" part of our lexicon it behooves us to go back and look at where that phrase originated. In Stories from Jonestown by Leigh Fondakowski we learn that it wasn't Kool-Aid, but was, in fact, poisoned Flavor-Aid that was used in the mass suicide/murder of over 900 followers of Jim Jones People's Temple agricultural project in Guyana on November 18, 1978. About half of those who died were children. Included in the 918 people who died were U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan and three journalists who were accompanying Ryan on a fact-finding mission to Guyana.

Jim Jones group began as a Christian church in Indiana. He moved to San Francisco in the 1960s. While the group began as a integrated group who wanted to help the community, it soon changed into a much less altruistic socialist experiment. But this book is not about Jim Jones. It is about the survivors. Some of them still think the Peoples Temple was wonderful, others wonder at their blindness to the warning signs that there were problems and Jones was no longer the man or leader they thought they were following.

There are already numerous accounts written about Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple murder/suicide. In Stories from Jonestown, author Fondakowski focus is on interviewing the survivors. She points out that only they "can truly know what it means to survive a tragedy of this magnitude. These are the stories of the survivors. It is a privilege to tell them." Fondakowski, a playwright, spent over three years interviewing survivors, reviewing documents, and collecting letters trying to compose a complete picture of what happened while gathering material in order to write a play about their experiences. The book is a compilation of the many interviews and stories she collected.

Very Highly Recommended - but not an easy book to read

Since Stories from Jonestown is composed of interviews and materials gathered for Fondakowski's play, "The Peoples Temple," this book does not include extensive research or a complete chronological record into all the details of Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple. Readers who don't have previous knowledge of Jim Jones and what happened in 1978 might want to look into some other works that cover that information. This book is about the survivors, what they remember and how they are handling dealing with those memories. Recommended books by those who know include: A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown by Julia Scheeres; Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People by Tim Reiterman; Understanding Jonestown and Peoples Temple by Rebecca Moore.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Netgalley for review purposes.

http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
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Most of my prior knowledge of Jonestown had come from short segments on TV or quick passages in books, as the massacre took place before I was born. Stories from Jonestown filled in huge gaps for me; much more than I would have been able to find in random curious internet searches.

While I enjoyed the interview format of the book, the structure was a serious drawback for me and actually made it somewhat difficult to sort through some of the information. Though the copy I was reading was an uncorrected proof, it seemed to be divided into chapters - however, the chapters were not quite thematic. I would have loved to see some of the interviews grouped together more closely by theme or even time period and collected into chapters to make the narrative a bit less jumpy. Without this, I felt like some information was being repeated while bits may have been omitted. ( )

I don't think I need to give a history lesson on what happened in Jonestown, Guyana in November, 1978. Most everyone I know either watched the evening news stories as one of the biggest human tragedies unfolded before their eyes or have seen the documentaries and made-for-TV movies. Some have even read a book or two on the subject. We know what happened. Or do we?

Stories from Jonestown is amazing. It is difficult to read but it is absolutely essential if you want to get a sense of what really happened, how, and most importantly, why over 900 members of Peoples Temple died at the order of Jim Jones.

The book chronicles stories of life before, during and after Jonestown, but it is as much a book about the gathering of those stories as it is about the stories themselves. The author got the stories in preparation of writing a play about Peoples Temple and she felt that it was essential to hear from living voices of some of those left behind. And what voices they are. The different perspectives are powerful.

These are the stories of the survivors, those who were spared simply because they were away from Jonestown when the curtain fell. These are the stories of those who were part of the Peoples Temple in San Francisco, some of whom planned to join family and friends in the jungle utopia. These are the stories of the followers who, over time, realized that their haven was nothing more than a crumbling illusion and fled.

This is not speculation. These people don't have to wonder what happened. They know. They were there. They were a part of it. We hear their stories, their experiences. Some of them want the world to know their side of the story. Others are reluctant to become involved but they tell their stories anyway because it is important that they be heard. We hear from Jones' sons. We hear from a man who was unable to stop the deaths of his wife and infant son. From outside of the Temple community, we hear from members of the press who followed and wrote about Jones. We hear from an investigator who works with death row prisoners, one of whom is a former Temple member.

They tell about the good times as well as the bad. They talk about the sense of family and community and belonging. They talk openly about it all falling apart. They talk of the stigma of being labeled as "cult members" even as they grieved their losses and reintegrated into the world.

I think the one interview that struck me the most is this. One survivor, when asked how such a madman could have held such power over so many, responded that everyone wanted something from Jim Jones. If you needed a job, he had something for you to do. If you were afraid that your child would be drawn in by the crime infested neighborhood where you lived, he offered your entire family a safe place. If you were bored by life, he gave you a reason to be. They were, after all, going to change the world.

The book is sad and horrifying but it is also a testament to the human spirit and will to live. Recommended. ( )