Under the Banner of Heaven

A Story of Violent Faith

By: Jon Krakauer

Narrated by: Jon Krakauer

Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Jon Krakauer’s literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In Under the Banner of Heaven, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders.

At the core of his audiobook is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon Fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a revelation from God commanding them to kill their blameless victims. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this "divinely inspired" crime, Krakauer constructs a multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. Along the way, he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America's fastest-growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.

Krakauer takes listeners inside isolated communities in the American West, Canada, and Mexico, where some 40,000 Mormon Fundamentalists believe the mainstream Mormon Church went unforgivably astray when it renounced polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the leaders of these outlaw sects are zealots who answer only to God. Marrying prodigiously and with virtual impunity (the leader of the largest fundamentalist church took seventy-five "plural wives," several of whom were wed to him when they were fourteen or fifteen and he was in his eighties), fundamentalist prophets exercise absolute control over the lives of their followers, and preach that any day now the world will be swept clean in a hurricane of fire, sparing only their most obedient adherents.

Weaving the story of the Lafferty brothers and their fanatical brethren with a clear-eyed look at Mormonism's violent past, Krakauer examines the underbelly of the most successful homegrown faith in the United States, and finds a distinctly American brand of religious extremism. The result is vintage Krakauer, an utterly compelling work of nonfiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behavior.

©2003 Jon Krakauer (P)2003 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Krakauer lays the portent on beautifully, building his tales carefully from the ground up until they irresistibly, spookily combust." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Krakauer presents details that indeed sound stranger than fiction." (The New York Times)

Disappointing

I wish it were more obvious that this version was abridged. As other reviewers mentioned, many details were cut out making this reading feel choppy and incomplete. I was excited to hear the author read his own work, but if I had realized this was organized so poorly I wouldn’t have purchased it.

Should be classified under Fiction

This book completely misses the mark. It seems the only way the author could claim some legitimacy to his novel is to loosely associate it with Mormonism. Writing a book about polygamy is fine, there are thousands of them already penned, however, the only ones that get any publicity try to link the practice with Mormons. The fact is that polygamy is against the law in the US and has been banned by the Mormon church since Utah became part of the union.

Pass on this book, don't waste your time.

Good writer, poor historian

This is a hard book to rate. Krakauer is a good writer. I think most people will find this book is both interesting and entertaining. However he had to stetch things quite a bit to support his basic thesis by using source material that seems to lack credibility.

If you want to know something about mormon history, this account is neither factually accurate nor balanced, so you'll want to look elsewhere for that.

A history of the Mormon Church

I read "Into the Wild" and "Into Thin Air" - really liked the first, the latter was ok. "Under the Banner of Heaven" was a disappointment. Instead of discussing the crime, the book is really about Mormon history. It was so dry that I stopped listening after 2 discs. If you're looking for a book on Mormon history, this is a good book. If you like true crime stories (that's what I thought this was), then this isn't the story for you.

Boring

I was expecting a story about the actual events that led to the tragic deaths. The whole book is about the history of the Mormons.

Unfortunate misstep for otherwise competent writer

One wonders if Mr. Krakauer did any research from actual historical documents and newspapers or if he relied entirely on secondhand accounts, in this unfortunately error-laden book.

Even on the story that is the focus of the book, he fails to get the town the murders took place in instead placing them nearly 50 miles away. That is only one of many many factual errors, and if he is that sloppy and or misinformed about the murder case that is his centerpiece how many more lapses may be found with serious research.

While the premise sounds interesting, he fails to support his thesis. By using highly unusual cases of people who are on the fringe of their religious communities, Krakauer completely undercuts his argument that religion causes this kind of violence. The people that are highlighted would be just as likely to wreak violence in an athiest community as a devoutly religious one. In fact, by their very acts they reject the religious communities that they nominally do come from.

I wanted to like this book as I have enjoyed other of Krakauers work but I was unable to find much that was redeeming. Unless you simply want to believe that religion causes violence I suggest you look elsewhere, this book certainly won't change any minds.

Don't mistake for Mormon

The publisher says this is a book about Mormon fundamentalists. Mormons have not practiced polygamy since the 1800's. The people are not Mormons! They are groups totalyy unrelated to the LDS church.

Mormon expose sells books but isn't true

How can a person who admits to being "nearly atheistic" become an authority on a specific church and, indeed, on whether people who believe in God are even right to believe in God? He tries to couch his disdain for religion in "exposing the underbelly" of a religion that I have found to be quite "normal" and far from intrusive. His sensationalism for describing the horrible acts of these two brothers may be accurate, but his willingness to associate freaks with the mainstream body of this church is irresponsible. I heard a NPR interview with the author and found myself becoming angry with his hipocrisy. One moment he was a detached, yet educated scholar. The next, he was criticizing a religion and people he really does not understand. It is a disappointment that this book has become a big seller....but sensationalism sells books, I guess.

disappointing

A very disappointing book. I absolutely loved "Into thin Air". This time however, I quickly got annoyed by the monotonous voice of the speaker and the jumping from topic to topic. I cannot recommend this book at all.

Subjective, lopsided depiction of religion

I think that Mr. Krakauer has over-extending himself on this one, doing only cursory research from the most biased and subjective sources, obviously hoping to drum up an interesting novel, but not necessarily an accurate depiction of the facts. Just as we saw after "Into Thin Air" came out (where Jon's portrayal of the story was criticized by those who knew the facts) this book is so lop-sided and full of historical conjecture that it is a shame to see it placed in the "Non-fiction" section. (In the paper text there are suspiciously few source materials referenced.) In addition, the fundamental premise that authoritative religion has caused submissiveness and thus led to horrible acts such as murders clashes with:
1. The main story of the book about the Lafferty brothers. Brenda Lafferty was clearly thinking for herself and standing up to the fundamentalist fanatics in her family, contrary to the author's depiction of most LDS members.
2. The most fundamental Christian teachings of the LDS church to love one another, not kill, not steal, etc.

Using historical anomalies and fundamentalist heretics is no way to depict a specific religion, or a religion in general. Once again, Jon Krakauer is twisting the facts and making a profit at the expense of others. Does that sound like someone qualified to be writing about religion?