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Still, the book’s home base is a scrubby North London borough, where we encounter Smith’s unlikely heroes: prevaricating Archie Jones and intemperate Samad Iqbal, who served together in the so-called Buggered Battalion during World War II. In the ensuing decades, both have gone forth and multiplied: Archie marries beautiful, bucktoothed Clara–who’s on the run from her Jehovah’s Witness mother–and fathers a daughter. Samad marries stroppy Alsana, who gives birth to twin sons. Here is multiculturalism in its most elemental form: “Children with first and last names on a direct collision course. Names that secrete within them mass exodus, cramped boats and planes, cold arrivals, medical checks.”

Big questions demand boldly drawn characters. Zadie Smith’s aren’t heroic, just real: warm, funny, misguided, and entirely familiar. Reading their conversations is like eavesdropping. Even a simple exchange between Alsana and Clara about their pregnancies has a comical ring of truth: “A woman has to have the private things–a husband needn’t be involved in body business, in a lady’s… parts.” And the men, of course, have their own involvement in bodily functions:

The deal was this: on January 1, 1980, like a New Year dieter who gives up cheese on the condition that he can have chocolate, Samad gave up masturbation so that he might drink. It was a deal, a business proposition, that he had made with God: Samad being the party of the first part, God being the sleeping partner. And since that day Samad had enjoyed relative spiritual peace and many a frothy Guinness with Archibald Jones; he had even developed the habit of taking his last gulp looking up at the sky like a Christian, thinking: I’m basically a good man.
Not all of White Teeth is so amusingly carnal. The mixed blessings of assimilation, for example, are an ongoing torture for Samad as he watches his sons grow up. “They have both lost their way,” he grumbles. “Strayed so far from what I had intended for them. No doubt they will both marry white women called Sheila and put me in an early grave.” These classic immigrant fears–of dilution and disappearance–are no laughing matter. But in the end, they’re exactly what gives White Teeth its lasting power and undeniable bite. –Eithne Farry

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Daniel and Jeannette D’Haene emigrated to Canada from Belgium in 1957 where they settled in a rural area and had four children. Ronny the eldest was followed by Donald, the author of this book, then Marina and Erik in turn. On arrival in Canada both Daniel and Jeannette were Roman Catholics, she more devout than he. Daniel felt constrained by a diktat by the church in Belgium the faithful should not read the ‘Bible’ which would confuse them. This must be peculiar to the clergy at that time and place, since the same was not true then in UK. Daniel was attracted by the Jehovah Witnesses who actively encouraged religious study and became a pillar of the local community group. Eventually he persuaded his wife with a mixture of rhetoric and beatings she should change her faith too.

Whatever the expectations and demands of the Witnesses, Daniel believed in his own home he was the master, and his wife and children, his property. They were expected to be obedient to every whim and caprice. At the age of four Donald was introduced to ‘The Game’. This involved masturbating his father and was merely the beginning of ten years of prolonged abuse, during which more serious assaults occurred. In time the children would pool their knowledge and learn each of them were initiates in ‘The Game’. Daniel informed his elder sons he would expect them when they were older to perform incestuously with their sister, after he finished with her. Each child was intimidated into silence and their innocence of moral certitudes exploited. When they learned what was happening to them was wrong, their father foisted the illusion of mutual culpability upon them. It was only when Erik, aged five, told his mother what his father had insisted on doing she became aware of the abuse. Daniel promised to get help, but continued molesting his children.

In 1973 Jeanette and her children approached the Elders of the Witnesses to gain protection for themselves. Their reaction was to ‘excommunicate’ Daniel without telling his family he had also confessed to bestiality. When the situation at home deteriorated still further, Ronny and Donald persuaded their mother to leave with all the children. Daniel, meanwhile, joined the Baptists and after a divorce, remarried and once again became a pillar of his community.

Without exception all four children suffered immense psychological damage. Ronny, temporarily became a ‘control freak’ like his father and left home before worse effects would be felt. Donald, by chance, reading a newspaper article discovered his father had actually committed a crime for which he could be charged. By then, at least thirty people in authority, knew the family’s story and none had advised them of their legal position or alternatively to seek legal advice. Finally getting this from a policeman from Ontario, Donald instigated criminal proceedings against Daniel and obtained therapy for himself, Marina and Erik.

When Daniel came to trial, it was a complete travesty informed by incompetence, ignorance and plea-bargaining. He was sent down for two years in a reformatory, having sentenced his family to years of miserable flashbacks and psychological trauma. The severity of damage is evidenced in that it took twenty years before Donald could face his memories and write this detailed account of his childhood. To many fellow victims it will appear to be classical in the methods used by Daniel to control his family and the secrecy and shame they endured. It also highlights the confusion of sexual identity which often results exacerbated by the normal raging hormones of adolescence.

There is very little literature on the subject of father/son sexual abuse which is still for some a taboo subject. This well written and fluent book should be required reading for all engaged in the protection of children and the victims of today. These may care to know Donald more than survived his past and is today a successful art journalist, actor and TV presenter. Lawyers should also view the last chapters of the book as a textbook summary of how not to prosecute a case and judges can gain a refresher course on what poor administrative services can do to ‘justice’. In this instance, Donald and his family were the victims of secondary rape by the very system which allegedly should have redressed their wrongs and protected them.

Although this matter came to trial in the early 1980’s in Canada, whilst there is a better understanding of the evils of sexual abuse today, there are still errors of judgement by social workers and laxity in prosecution on both sides of the Atlantic.

Finally, the author should be commended for his courage in writing this book. To discuss the unspeakable acts committed by a parent and expose the induced guilt and shame created with undoubted finesse is a triumph of talent and the will over adversity.

Book Review by Book Publicity Limited

For more info visit the autor’s website.

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Certainly, her story is sad, particularly the part about being encouraged to shun her own daughter for several months, but it is hardly a balanced or even very perceptive book. (One of the most interesting elements of the narrative is that Wilson seems to have transferred the near-divine authority that she once vested in her church to her therapist, whose words are sometimes reprinted here in boldface.) Sadly, few objective accounts exist about the Jehovah’s Witnesses; little stands in the middle between polemic and apologetic. Readers are left with classic studies such as M. James Penton’s Apocalypse Delayed, a rare book that seeks not just to discredit and refute the Watchtower, but to understand it.

This book was banned, even before it was written.

The author, Raymond Franz, had been under ban by the Watchtower Society since 1981, when he was excommunicated for eating a meal with a previously banned individual, his landlord. Three million Jehovah’s Witnesses are now forbidden to speak to Franz, read his book, or even say “Hello” if they pass him on the street.

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And the Watchtower does well to shield its followers from this man — if they are to remain followers. Nephew of the organization’s 94-year-old president Fred Franz, Raymond spent nine years as a member of its top-secret Governing Body. The inside information Franz now reveals in his book is sufficient to shake any Jehovah’s Witness’s faith — not in God, but in the organization claiming to be God’s mouthpiece.

Can little Johnnie receive an organ transplant, or must his parents refuse? Can Mrs Smith do as her husband wishes in bed, or must she say “NO” to him? Can Jack accept hospital work as an alternative to military service, or must he refuse and go to jail?

If little Johnnie’s parents, Mrs. Smith, and Jack are Jehovah’s Witnesses, their answers come from Watchtower headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. And the final word rests with the Governing Body. As a member of that elite group, Ray Franz had to share in making these decisions for Witnesses worldwide. As the Body’s votes swung this way and that — and millions of Witnesses’ family life or very lives swayed in the ballance — Franz became more and more conscience stricken at what he saw happening.

One chapter details how the Governing Body decided that certain conduct between husband and wife in bed would be grounds for divorce and disfellowshipping (formal excommunication and shunning). After the edict was issued (The Watchtower 12/1/72, pages 734-736) numerous marriages broke up as a result. Then, seven years later, the Governing Body changed its mind and reversed the policy.

In the same way, the Governing Body was legislating other personal matters for Jehovah’s Witnesses: medical treatment, family relationships, etc. Rank-and-file J.W.s accepted the Governing Body’s decisions as “God’s law”, but Ray Franz knew that each decision was a mere product of the human whims, opinions and prejudices of his peers as they tossed ideas around and put them to a vote. Franz called to mind Jesus’ words to the Pharisees: “Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition…their teachings are but rules made by man.” (Matthew 15: 6,9 New International Version)

Like Quakers, Mennonites, Seventh Day Adventists and others, Jehovah’s Witnesses have long refused to bear arms as soldiers. But, unlike these others, the Witnesses have also refused civilian “alternative service” work in hospitals. (Witnesses tell the judge that their decisions are the result of personal conscience, but, in reality any Witness not following the organization’s instructions would be “disassociated” — cut off from friends and family the same as if disfellowshipped.) This practice came into question in a series of Governing Body meetings in 1978.

A motion was made at each one of those meetings to allow J.W.s to accept civilian hospital work. In each meeting a majority of the Governing Body (Franz names them) voted in favor of the change. But the resolution never passed because a two-thirds majority was required. So, young men among Jehovah’s Witnesses continued to refuse civilian work in hospitals — and thus faced jail sentences — even though a majority of the Governing Body felt there was no objection to such work.

Another “conscience” issue for Witnesses involved political party membership cards. When the ruling element in the African country of Malawi demanded that citizens purchase “party cards”, the Watchtower Society took a stand against it. In adhering to this position Malawian Witnesses faced imprisonment, beatings and severe mistreatment at the hands of government loyalists.

Meanwhile, in Mexico Witnesses were in the habit of bribing officials to obtain cards identifying them as members of the reserves who had fulfilled a year of military service. Not having the cartilla would result in some inconvenience, but not the sort of suffering Witnesses faced in Malawi

Franz relates in detail how Watchtower headquarters gave its approval to both policies leaving African J.W.s to face brutal persecution while permitting Mexican Witnesses to buy cards ‘under the table’. This caused much suffering in Africa. And it helped cause the “crisis of conscience” Raymond Franz experienced as a member of the Governing Body whose votes enforced these contradictory rulings.

The final portion of Crisis of Conscience is devoted to the events surrounding Ray’s removal from the Body and subsequent expulsion from the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses. If it were not for the modern setting and doctrinal issues peculiar to J.W.s the story would sound much like any ‘heresy’ trial from the medieval Inquisition. Or, again, the evidence based on rumor and hearsay could have been taken from the Salem witch trials of colonial Massachusetts.

True, the Inquisition’s victims were burned at the stake, and the “witches” of Salem were hanged, while Raymond Franz was merely deprived of his livelihood, publicly disgraced, and cut off from family and lifelong friends. Still, one is left with the feeling that the only reason why Franz is an author today, instead of a corpse is that the Watchtower Society can not administer capital punishment. From the standpoint of Jehovah’s Witnesses, though, Franz is a dead man

Crisis of Conscience will be of particular interest to J.W.s—the few who dare read it. But it gives all of us food for thought about our personal relationship with God and our attitude toward men who claim religious authority.