"Fake Someone Happy"

[mcchatty]

So I just read "Fake Someone Happy". A book (new on Kindle) that tells the story of a British girl who became pen pals with a girl who turned out to be part of the patriarchy movement. The forward acknowledges that names have been changed but that the story is true.

I was able to pick out some VF folks - Mitch Snyder is Doug Phillips- Pat and Fiona are the Botkinettes. One of the main characters is "Laura" a young woman who is half of a sister duo that has recorded fundie music. "Laura" ends up running away to England for 6 months to get away from an abusive father and a mentally ill sister. and eventually is taken in by an American family- she never really functions as an adult by the books end. Her family maintains the illusion that Laura is still singing with "Anne" as long as they can.

Any guesses who the real "Laura" is?

It was a pretty good read, it alleges that in at least several of the families that follow "Mitch Snyder" incest, pornography and mental illness are rampant.

Anyone else had a chance to read it?

[Jezebel]

It's self-pubbed on Lulu (never an encouraging sign). The blurb on Amazon makes it sound really dubious. The author has no web page for the book with further info or previews, no blog, no interviews anywhere--who is this Charlie Newton, and how did s/he come to write this book? The only thing I do know about the author is that s/he is not the crime author named Charlie Newton.

From your description, it l sounds very sensationalistic, and that isn't lessened one bit by the use of "Marian Halcombe," plus Anne and Laura--all characters in Wilkie Collins' "sensation novel" The Woman in White. And cribbing names from the original Gothic potboiler seems really odd, given that this book's stated agenda is to "show what happens if we abandon the Word of God for the laws of men."

I read a lot. I used to be a bookseller, a book reviewer, and a slush-pile reader for a small press and a literary magazine. After all that, my marginally-useful superpower is being able to spot a bad and/or dubious book at a hundred paces. And I'm going to be perfectly honest: this book sounds like a real stinker, and as much of a "true story" as anything Razing Ruth wrote. (For example, one does not simply "run away" to England for six months--that alone just pinged my bullshit meter).

So. Given that there is absolutely zero "buzz" about this book whatsoever, how exactly did you find out about it in the first place? I'm curious.

[emiliawasframed]

I'm reading as many pages as Amazon will let me online. Supposed veracity aside, the prose style is downright juvenile. Don't think I'll stick around long enough to purchase that one.

ETA: Amazon let me read the first three chapters. They were dreadful. I admire the book's sociopolitical aims, but its author needs some more practice and a good editor.

[uber frau]

Possumama?

[mcchatty]

Agreed. The writing is awful. I tried to sound neutral in my initial post since I thought the writer might visit FJ. I did enjoy being able to spot the some of the families that are discussed here.

My Kindle is set to show me any new titles on "patriarchy" and it showed up the day it became available. Does anyone know of a sister singing duo in VF circles who split?

[Bookworm]

Thanks for the tip, I borrowed it (Prime account) and read it in two days. It was an interesting book, though it definitely needed better editing. It only takes a couple of minutes googling to figure out who "Marian Halcombe" is, I just wonder why they published it under the "Charlie Newton" name rather than her alias in the book? A lot of things in the book rang true to me, it's too convoluted and non-sensationalist to be made up, IMO. I do wonder who Laura is. In the middle of the book the author describes a comment convo she had with a fundie blogger and from the start it seemed kind of familiar, like something I read a few years ago. I did quite a bit of googling, typing exact quotes and then more general word combinations, but didn't find anything. When I read the quoted conversation I kept thinking of Stacy McDonald in the place of Mrs. Gilbreth, and I did used to read Stacy's blog and comments during the period of time this story takes place, but who knows. Anyway, an interesting read. I have some mixed feelings and am still thinking about it. I think "Marian" wrote it mainly as a self-therapy thing, wanting to sort through what happened and perhaps help a few other people.

ETA: I found it disturbing how "Anne's" problems were conflated with her sexual orientation. She was obviously miserable and trying to repress her lesbianism and, while she was definitely mentally ill, "Marian" and her family seemed to think her orientation is the result and cause of her mental illness. I tend to think of British people as more liberal and accepting than Americans, though I know there are people with bigoted beliefs everywhere, but still, in a book trying to encourage more love and less rules?

[thoughtful]

Bringing back this old thread because I just read the preview on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Fake-Someone-Happ ... B00DIFV91S

The writing is horrible, but the description of Doug is spot-on, especially knowing what we know now. :twisted:

From the preview, it seems the subject (author?) of the book was taken aback by the specifics of the VF way of going about things, the level of patriarchy, racism and hypocrisy.

But she is a Calvinist, Reformed, says the Bible is the infallible word of God, etc. -- very much in line with their beliefs.

I don't know if "outing" her would be appropriate, but it is very easy to find who she really is, from the story told in the preview.

[Dinorah]

I read the beginning on Amazon. It looks interesting, but the writing's incredibly poor, what's with writing dialogues ans scripts, for one thing. Plus I couldn't help being a little suspicious, maybe I'm missing something, but the English girl describes herself as "ordinary", how did she get caught inVF stuff? Also who has penpals anymore, unless she means online friends of some sort?

[thoughtful]

I read the beginning on Amazon. It looks interesting, but the writing's incredibly poor, what's with writing dialogues ans scripts, for one thing. Plus I couldn't help being a little suspicious, maybe I'm missing something, but the English girl describes herself as "ordinary", how did she get caught inVF stuff? Also who has penpals anymore, unless she means online friends of some sort?

Check my post, above, for why she liked VF to start with. I don't think she was an "ordinary" English girl, as one of us might picture what that means. But she was not living like those deeply immersed in VF.

I think the story might be typical of people who only see the pretty surface of one of these groups, maybe buy some of their materials, then find out more and are not happy. In her case, she had the real picture shoved in her face all at once, because she entered a film in SAICFF.

It could be interesting, if only it were well-written.

She does loosely explain how she ended up in touch with people far away -- not fitting in socially at school, finding penpals who were like-minded (and it sounds like her parents may have guided her a bit to "our kind of Christian").

And I think "penpal" is just using a traditional word for the electronic version (as in desktop, file, etc.). She does talk about writing and receiving emails with her penpals.

[mrs]

Homeschoolers Anonymous reviewed the book. ( homeschoolersanonymous.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/fake-someone-happy-a-book-review-by-rebecca-irene-gorman/ )

[Diana]

I read the beginning on amazon too,it seems a real story, i searched in google for a british girl who was a winner in the SAICFF and was easy to find her.

[mrs]

The "Authors Note" at the begining of the book is very interesting. Especially now that Doug Phillips affair is public. The author, Charlie Newton, writes:

Many of the perpetrators of abuse in this book are known to keep lawyers handy. These people do not suffer criticism and so, regrettably, their anonymity must be maintained as much as the victims'. If the guilty recognise themselves within these pages, they should repent and make amends. Though the world does not know their deeds, God is their judge. This is not an academic study of abuse, whether emotional, mental, physical or sexual. This is the story of how a little English girl made pen friends in the U.S.A. and how all of them kept dark secrets, darker than she had ever imagined.

(Source: Fake Someone Happy, Authors Note, amazon.com/Fake-Someone-Happy-daughters-patriarchy-ebook/dp/B00DIFV91S/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=#reader_B00DIFV91S )

[thoughtful]

BTW, the author name, I'm pretty sure, comes from the Hitchcock movie Shadow of a Doubt, rather than trying to pass herself off as the other author of that name.

Charlie Newton is the heroine of the film, who goes from idolizing her very charming uncle, to realizing he is a cold-blooded killer.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036342/?ref_=nv_sr_1

[hoipolloi]

Missed this thread the first time so I'm glad it's resurrected.

I brought up the book the other day on the Doug Phillips Is A Tool 3 thread after seeing mention of it over at Jen's blog. Mind you, Jen's BFF, T.W. Eston, praised the book as being an accurate portrayal of how things were/are in VF-land.

Since you can borrow it for free on Kindle as a Prime member, I'll be reading it over the next few days & report back.

[thoughtful]

I brought up the book the other day on the Doug Phillips Is A Tool 3 thread after seeing mention of it over at Jen's blog.

Ah, thanks. I knew I'd just read about it here on FJ, but couldn't remember who to thank!

[hoipolloi]

Ah, thanks. I knew I'd just read about it here on FJ, but couldn't remember who to thank!

And thank YOU for the decoding of the author's nom de plume!

ETA: Will have to do some online digging (if things haven't been scrubbed), but I recall a brother & sister from the UK who were featured in one of the SAICFFs several years ago.

[thoughtful]

And thank YOU for the decoding of the author's nom de plume!

ETA: Will have to do some online digging (if things haven't been scrubbed), but I recall a brother & sister from the UK who were featured in one of the SAICFFs several years ago.

You are welcome. I highly recommend the movie -- Hitchcock often said it was his favorite.

You are on the right track for finding her real name.

Not that it matters much, but it is how I learned that she is, in fact, very aligned with VF types, religiously.

[hoipolloi]

I read a lot. I used to be a bookseller, a book reviewer, and a slush-pile reader for a small press and a literary magazine. After all that, my marginally-useful superpower is being able to spot a bad and/or dubious book at a hundred paces. And I'm going to be perfectly honest: this book sounds like a real stinker, and as much of a "true story" as anything Razing Ruth wrote. (For example, one does not simply "run away" to England for six months--that alone just pinged my bullshit meter).

Several chapters into this I have to disagree with you, respectfully.

While there isn't an author alive who can't use an editor, this book is worth reading, particularly if you have access to it for free via Amazon Prime. What it may lack in writing finesse, it makes up for in terms of being a "roman a clef."

Will try to post a "who's who" when done.

[mrs]

I have found this book to be (sadly) fascinating.

(Edited to remove question)

[debrand]

I read what I could on Amazon. The book sounds fascinating and it surprised me how easy it was to pick Doug Phillips out.

Is the writing bad? Yep. Does the author still hold troubling beliefs? Yep. However, just as in the case of Jen's Gems, the insider knowledge is interesting and a glimpse that none of us would have without these two flawed people.

[Seven Severn]

A commenter at The Wartburg Watch linked to this by the author: http://www.christiannatureofmusic.com/r ... pjHndglN1E (apologies if it's already been linked elsewhere).

[mrs]

Thanks for the link!

Did you read the blog post titled "Music When We Are Afraid (christiannatureofmusic.com/reflections/2013/11/4/music-when-we-are-afraid.html)?"

[mrs]

Wow. This book has left me feeling frustrated for Marian and family, as well as the young fundamental woman, Laura. I did not grow up in Christian fundamentalism. Perhaps someone here can answer my questions?

Are most fundie daughters unable to make decisions? How does one leave if they do not have support from outsiders?

Laura’s family was well off. They could afford to travel to England. How would life in a poor fundie family differ from life in a family like Laura’s?

I wonder if the mods could invite the author to FJ for an “Ask Me Anything?â€