| Three years after her literary debut with PartyParty/Girlfriends, praised by Kurt Vonnegut as"strong, imaginative, spookily candid," Ronni Sand-roff gives us a powerful new novel. In Fighting Backshe takes us into the life, the feelings, the fears of ayoung woman entangled in- and trying desperatclyto get out of-a religious organization that has a totaland terrifying control over its members. The Church of All is in New York, its convertson the street corners-their faces shining withsincerity-stopping pedestrians, pressing leaflets onthem, speaking earnestly about the Church. ButJeanie Burger knows more about it than they do. She was there at the beginning, when the Church of All was only a small commune on Vancouver Island, a few young people trying a different way of living, held hy the presencc of the mystical Eli Zinger, his power of leadership almost beyond his own control, his serenc blue eyes seeming to promise all of them whatever they most wanted. What Jeanie wanted was great social transfor- marion. A girl from the Bronx, a third-generation radical (listening to her grandfather s stories, to the political discussions swirling above her head, figur- ing things out), she was raised to take on the world. And Eli Zinger wrapped her in her dream, gave her a mission, made her his political adviser. Until the dream began to dissolve: the commune becoming "the Church" (books forbidden, meditation en- forced), different forces taking control-people she didn t like, or trust. Her husband, Dennis, "the Brainstorm," always engaged in some kind of re- search she didn t want to know about. Until, finally, Jeanie walked out, taking her child with her. raking also certain letters, papers, documents: proof that the Church of All was getting money-from frightening sources-as "an experiment in social control." |
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