Stories from Jonestown

by Leigh Fondakowski

The saga of Jonestown didn’t end on the day in November 1978 when more than nine hundred Americans died in a mass murder-suicide in the Guyanese jungle. While only a handful of people present at the agricultural project survived that day in Jonestown, more than eighty members of Peoples Temple, led by Jim Jones, were elsewhere in Guyana on that day, and thousands more members of the movement still lived in California. Emmy-nominated writer Leigh Fondakowski, who is best known for her work on the play and HBO film The Laramie Project, spent three years traveling the United States to interview these survivors, many of whom have never talked publicly about the tragedy. Using more than two hundred hours of interview material, Fondakowski creates intimate portraits of these survivors as they tell their unforgettable stories.

Collectively this is a record of ordinary people, stigmatized as cultists, who after the Jonestown massacre were left to deal with their grief, reassemble their lives, and try to make sense of how a movement born in a gospel of racial and social justice could have gone so horrifically wrong—taking with it the lives of their sons and daughters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, and brothers and sisters. As these survivors look back, we learn what led them to join the Peoples Temple movement, what life in the church was like, and how the trauma of Jonestown’s end still affects their lives decades later.

What emerges are portrayals both haunting and hopeful—of unimaginable sadness, guilt, and shame but also resilience and redemption. Weaving her own artistic journey of discovery throughout the book in a compelling historical context, Fondakowski delivers, with both empathy and clarity, one of the most gripping, moving, and humanizing accounts of Jonestown ever written.

• ISBN10: 0816678081
• ISBN13: 9780816678082
• Publish Date: 1 February 2013 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: University of Minnesota Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 312
• Language: English

Reviews

[wcs53]

I was only 12 years old when, on November 18, 1978, over 900 people died in northwestern Guyana, in a settlement known as Jonestown. Most of the people who died were members of Peoples Temple, a group founded and led by Jim Jones, who also died in Jonestown on that day, however not from the lethal concoction, but by gunshot. A number of people, including US Congressman Leo Ryan, died during a gunfight that took place at a nearby airstrip.

I remember when the news reports came through, but really didn't understand the situation, or why so many people on such a large scale would take a poisonous drink to end their lives. Over the years since I've read fleeting accounts of the events, have become familiar with the phrase 'they took the Kool-Aid', but have never really taken the time to try to get a grasp or understanding of what happened on that fateful day in 1978.

Fortunately, reading Stories From Jonestown, by Leigh Fondakowski, has helped to change that. Reading this book has helped change my perception that all the people who died willingly followed their leader, James Jones, to their death. I also discovered that there were survivors - some from the Jonestown community who weren't there on that fateful day, as well as some who survived on the ground at the site.

This book, written by Emmy-nominated writer Leigh Fondakowski, who is best known for her work on the play and HBO film The Laramie Project, is well worth taking the time to read. It contains over three years worth of interviews with various people connected with Peoples Temple. Some of these people were ones who were not there on that day, others were ones who had left the Peoples Temple prior to these events. Members of Jones' family, as well as family members of others who died on that day, were also among those who were interviewed.

Fondakowski treats her interviewees with utmost respect. For some, it is still hard to talk about, even as the events fade further into the past. For others, it is all about people knowing what really happened there, and getting beyond much of the sensationalism that still surrounds the happenings of that day. There are also some who just don't want to talk about it and only want to move on and away from it all. Even in the midst of talking about the tragedy, some of those interviewed feel that their time with Peoples Temple and later, Jonestown, were some of the best times of their lives. There's almost a sense from some that if Jones himself hadn't been there in the end that the community could have survived and thrived.

There are obviously things that can be learned from reading a book such as this. One thing is that the situation was a lot more complicated than it seemed at first. Another is that when one seems to have little or no hope in life, it is tempting to follow someone who seems to offer a better and hopeful life, even if in the end what is offered turns out to be false, or even deadly.

The author initially conducted these interviews as research for a play she was involved in writing surrounding the events of the Jonestown tragedy. This play, The People's Temple debuted in 2004, and it is from this that this book came into being. What comes through in many of the stories is that, in spite of the tragedy, there is also a feeling of hope. Although there are some who feel they should have been there to die with the rest of the people, many of the others are grateful for the opportunities of life and hope that have become theirs as a result of their survival.

This book is well worth reading, especially as it helps to bring clarification to one of the biggest tragedies and losses, outside of major conflicts, in the 20th century. It also shows that things are not always what they seem - before reading this book I didn't even realize that there were any survivors. I am glad I was given the opportunity to read this book and heartily recommend it to anyone looking to understand this tragic event from fairly recent history.

(Disclaimer: I received a free ARC copy of this book from NetGalley, but this in no way influenced my opinion or review)