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10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
 Torn by God Doesn't Tear the Reader Jun 05, 2009
By David R. Phillips
"Book Reader"
"Torn By God" touches on polygamy and the devastating effect it can have on families. The setting is the late 1950's and starts with a father searching for his own answers following a vision he had. He is carefully recruited into a group of polygamists and while he searches for his answers, his family struggles to stay alive. Described in a gripping way, the reader sees what it's like to live in a small, close-knit Mormon community that has no tolerance for a family like the Sterlings. The book touches on the LDS doctrine of excommunication, but doesn't delve deeply into Mormon dogma. It's not about polygamy; it's not about the LDS faith, but everything in the book surrounds it. It is the first book of this nature I have read, since my experience as an active Latter-day Saint is most books of this nature tend to tear down the LDS Church, or are written in a way to criticize the Church or its doctrine. I was ready to discard it should that happen, but surprisingly to me, I didn't find this to be the case in "Torn By God." I felt myself sympathizing with the Sterling family, who found themselves torn between loving their father, abiding his interest into a polygamist cult, and paying the price that comes from neighbors who are quick to judge. Couple this with the meager circumstances they find themselves living in as their father breaks promises and is lured away from home for a season. When you add to their disappointment, heartbreak and discouragement, the ever-present hypocritical attitudes of their pious neighbors, (many of whom are fellow church-goers), you find yourself thinking "There but for the grace of God go I." "Torn By God" is thought-evoking, and a real page-turner. It's a book you'll find yourself reading in one or two sittings!
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Torn by God Jul 12, 2009
By Laurie Hope
This is a timely and very human book. Murdock's attention to small details makes this a believable novel. I felt like I had a privileged view of a young girl's authentic and honest diary which helped paint a portrait of Mormon families caught between conflicting factions of their church.
Though handed a challenging family to grow up in, Beth (the 12 year old narrator) retains her openness and innate compassion and never becomes blaming or bitter - quite an accomplishment. Because of this, the book can serve as a wonderful jumping off point for further discussion that can help us understand the variety of psychological motivations that lead us to our worldviews. Because fundamentalism is inherently black and white, this book's compelling story brings us welcomed shades of gray.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Fictional story reveals significant truths Oct 08, 2010
By A. OConnell
"Torn by God" digs deep into the heart of the polygamy problem that the Mormon church cannot separate itself from. Through this story -- which is based on the author's personal experience -- you'll understand why the LDS church will always be linked to it, regardless of how hard they try to distance themselves. Murdock explores the root of Mormonism's doctrine of celestial marriage (aka polygamy) and reveals the reason why it has been practiced, and is still practiced, by many of Joseph Smith's followers. Through the story, we feel the confusion and heartache that has been suffered by so many families. If you are interested in understanding what truly drives people to practice this lifestyle, you will understand it after reading this novel. Once you start reading "Torn by God," you won't be able to put it down.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
A moving human story with important meaning. Jun 18, 2009
By Jeffrey Lawson
I found this family drama, by Zoe Murdock, to be a well-written, emotionally driven novel, dealing with several meaningful themes. Part of the power of the story comes from how it is told through the eyes and mind of the family's twelve year-old daughter, Beth. She sees the events of the story unfold and has enough insight to have serious thoughts about what is taking place around her, yet, as a child, she is helpless in changing her father's mind, when he decides that God wants him to have the family return to the older Mormon traditions of Polygamy.
The skill with which this novel is written keeps us in suspense. Beth sees her mother grow seriously ill from the psychic pain she suffers due to her husband's desire to have multiple wives. Beth also sees the disturbing possibility that she could be taken out of school and forced to marry an unpleasant, sex-obsessed older man. Even her younger brother, Mickey, can sense a feeling of doom arising from the path his father is taking. Meanwhile, the father, Michael, caught up in his fanatic religious obsession, remains blind to the affect it is having on those around him. In spite of how bad it gets, Beth doesn't lose her sense of love for her family and the desire for things to return to normal. That feeling of love she has and tells her story with provides part of the human quality of the novel.
While the story had significance for me in terms of how it deals with polygamy, and I learned a lot about Mormonism, I think that Murdock provides insights beyond those themes. The story relates to fanaticism as it exists in any religion, a type of destructive fanaticism which we see so much of throughout the world today.
As seen by his daughter, Beth, Michael doesn't come across as a bad man, he is more a man with weaknesses. He can be seen also as a man, who out of his own egotistical needs, takes too literally, and without question, things others have told him. For someone like myself, who previously knew little about the Mormon Church and had tended to view it from a negative view point, this sensitive portrayal of a Mormon family was enlightening and enabled me to understand the religion and it's members in a more complex, human way.
I fully recommend this novel especially since it can be appreciated on a number of different levels.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 In many ways a typical first book, but quite capably handled Jan 01, 2011
By wizardlizard
There's nothing unique about this book as far as writing ability and craftwork goes. In this way, it's a typical first novel by a capable author.
This isn't to say that the book is lacking or mediocre. I enjoyed it. The characters don't merely serve as paper cut-outs to express their assigned opinions and reactions, and you do feel for them. Beth's engagement with her father's religion is particularly humanely expressed. The family's problems are upsetting and worrying, but Murdock doesn't cheapen her work with tawdry drama or ill-inserted plot points. It's believable and immersive for those with an entirely different background to Beth, and particularly for these readers, gives an interesting insight to a different world.
In its actual plot details, however, this book is unique, and for that I think a bit of credit is due. So many times, a lonely book that centres on some previously unexamined social issue or theme ends up confused in its purpose, convoluted, poorly written or weakly held together. Due to the lack of other options, these books are held as the best there is, and recommended on the basis that there should be SOMETHING out there around this topic. For this book, this is not the case. You'd be hard-pressed to find another novel about a family in the Sterlings' situations, but if you did, I don't think it would be as good as this one.
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