Love Times Three: Our True Story of a Polygamous Marriage

Book Description

He runs his own business and coaches Little League. She drives a minivan, and she’d be lost without her trusty BlackBerry. They go on date nights. Their kids attend public schools, play sports, and take music lessons. They live in a roomy house in the ’burbs. They’re about as mainstream as families come….They’re also polygamists.

For decades, polygamous families have been forced to hide their lifestyle. Men risk prosecution and economic blacklisting, and women face social isolation and faulty assumptions about what it means to live as a sister wife. But Love Times Three, the first-ever memoir of a polygamous family, is a riveting inside look at a world most of us can hardly imagine, revealing the extraordinary workings of the Dargers’ day-to-day life.

Independent Fundamentalist Mormons, the Dargers grew up in polygamous families, and by the time they were in high school, they knew they wanted to live the Principle themselves. But in a highly unusual situation, even for their culture, both Alina and Vicki expressed interest in Joe at the same time. They ultimately courted him together, and married him on the same day. Valerie, Vicki’s twin sister, joined the marriage ten years later.

The Dargers move the conversation away from child brides, Warren Jeffs, and the FLDS to more mainstream polygamists who willingly enter into plural relationships as adults. Rather than living in isolated communities, Independent Fundamentalist Mormons are similar to an average American family—except for their family structure.

In this intimate, inside story, the Dargers explain why they chose this path despite the pressures of keeping their relationships secret and the jealousy and personal challenges that naturally ensue, why they believe polygamy should be an accepted lifestyle, and, ultimately, why they hope that by revealing their way of life in public, laws that criminalize their lifestyle might change.

Written in the voices of the four parents, Love Times Three is the story of one man, his three wives, and their twenty-four children as they live out their faith in a world of prejudice, misconception, and fear, including a chapter on the sister wife dynamic, one from Joe on how he juggles his three distinct romantic relationships, and a chapter from three of their children, called “My Three Moms.” Despite the risk of legal action, the Dargers know that it’s time to counteract Hollywood’s sensational interpretation and correct the general public’s misunderstanding of polygamy with the truth. Now, for the first time, Joe, Alina, Vicki, and Valerie Darger lift the veil on their so-called taboo way of life.

中文：

书名：爱情时代三：我们一夫多妻制婚姻的真实故事

他经营着自己的企业，并担任少年棒球联盟的教练。她开着一辆面包车，如果没有她值得信赖的黑莓手机，她会迷路的。他们会在约会之夜约会。他们的孩子上公立学校，参加体育运动，上音乐课。他们住在郊区的一栋宽敞的房子里。他们和家庭一样是主流，也是一夫多妻制的人。

几十年来，一夫多妻制家庭被迫隐瞒自己的生活方式。男性面临被起诉和被列入经济黑名单的风险，女性面临社会孤立和错误的假设，即作为姐妹妻子生活意味着什么。但 《爱情时报3》这是有史以来第一部关于一夫多妻制家庭的回忆录，它是对一个我们大多数人几乎无法想象的世界的引人入胜的内部观察，揭示了达吉斯夫妇非凡的日常生活。

作为独立的原教旨主义摩门教徒，达吉斯人在一夫多妻制的家庭中长大，到他们上高中时，他们知道自己想要过这种原则。但在一个非常不寻常的情况下，即使是在他们的文化背景下，Alina和Vicki也同时表达了对乔的兴趣。他们最终一起向他求婚，并在同一天嫁给了他。维基的双胞胎妹妹瓦莱丽十年后加入了这场婚姻。

达吉斯夫妇将话题从童养媳、沃伦·杰夫斯和FLD转移到更主流的一夫多妻制者身上，后者愿意在成年后进入多元关系。独立原教旨主义摩门教徒不是生活在与世隔绝的社区里，而是类似于普通的美国家庭–除了他们的家庭结构。

在这个私密的内幕故事中，达吉斯夫妇解释了为什么他们不顾保密的压力和随之而来的嫉妒和个人挑战选择了这条道路，为什么他们认为一夫多妻制应该是一种被接受的生活方式，以及最终为什么他们希望通过公开他们的生活方式，将他们的生活方式定为犯罪的法律可能会改变。

用四位父母的声音写下， 《爱情时报3》 讲述了一个男人、他的三个妻子和他们的24个孩子在一个充满偏见、误解和恐惧的世界中实现自己的信仰的故事，其中一个章节讲述了妹妹妻子的动态，一个章节讲述了乔是如何处理他三个不同的浪漫关系的，还有一个章节来自他们三个孩子，名为《我的三个妈妈》。尽管面临法律诉讼的风险，但达吉斯夫妇知道，是时候反击好莱坞耸人听闻的解读，纠正公众对事实的误解。现在，乔、艾丽娜、薇琪和瓦莱丽·达格尔第一次揭开了他们所谓的禁忌生活方式的面纱。