Overview

In Flunk. Start., Sands Hall chronicles her slow yet willing absorption into the Church of Scientology. Her time in the Church, the 1980s, includes the secretive illness and death of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and the ascension of David Miscavige. Hall compellingly reveals what drew her into the religion-what she found intriguing and useful-and how she came to confront its darker sides. As a young woman from a literary family striving to forge her own way as an artist, Hall ricochets between the worlds of Shakespeare, avant-garde theater, and soap opera, until her brilliant elder brother, playwright Oakley Hall III, falls from a bridge and suffers permanent brain damage. In the secluded canyons of Hollywood, she finds herself increasingly drawn toward the certainty that Scientology appears to offer. In this candid and nuanced memoir, Hall recounts her spiritual and artistic journey with a visceral affection for language, delighting in the way words can create a shared world. However, as Hall begins to grasp how purposefully Hubbard has created the unique language of Scientology-in the process isolating and indoctrinating its practitioners-she confronts how language can also be used as a tool of authoritarianism. Hall is a captivating guide, and Flunk. Start. explores how she has found meaning and purpose within that decade that for so long she thought of as lost; how she has faced the flunk represented by those years, and has embraced a way to start anew.

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9781538556788

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Reviews

An intriguing, beautifully written memoir...She toggles between her family and the church, digging deeply into the dynamics of power and control, love and compassion, before coming to a surprising resolution. -- ""Literary Hub"" [An] impassioned, wonderfully constructed memoir...Hall reflects with brutal honesty on her decisions throughout this meticulously crafted book, which explores her negative experiences with Scientology and how her desire to please led her to believe in the unbelievable. -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" A beautiful memoir...What sets this account apart from so many recent 'leaving Scientology' narratives is that the author has no ax to grind...An early candidate for memoir of the year, this is a thrilling story of one woman's search for truth and her place in the world. -- ""Library Journal (starred review)"" A memoir of a life filled with joy and tragedy, and readers will appreciate the author's candor. -- ""Booklist"" A significant behind-the-scenes look at this cultlike religion. Frank and edifying information on Scientology from a woman who experienced it firsthand. -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" A vivid portrait of how we find a place in our family and find a path through chaos...It is a triumph, a work of great honesty and insight. -- ""Karen E. Bender, author of Refund"" In this unflinching and nuanced self-portrait, Sands Hall examines a decade of entanglement with the cult of Scientology and her circuitous process of liberation. -- ""Elizabeth Rosner, author of Survivor Cafe""

An intriguing, beautifully written memoir...She toggles between her family and the church, digging deeply into the dynamics of power and control, love and compassion, before coming to a surprising resolution. -- Literary Hub [An] impassioned, wonderfully constructed memoir...Hall reflects with brutal honesty on her decisions throughout this meticulously crafted book, which explores her negative experiences with Scientology and how her desire to please led her to believe in the unbelievable. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) A beautiful memoir...What sets this account apart from so many recent 'leaving Scientology' narratives is that the author has no ax to grind...An early candidate for memoir of the year, this is a thrilling story of one woman's search for truth and her place in the world. -- Library Journal (starred review) A memoir of a life filled with joy and tragedy, and readers will appreciate the author's candor. -- Booklist A significant behind-the-scenes look at this cultlike religion. Frank and edifying information on Scientology from a woman who experienced it firsthand. -- Kirkus Reviews A vivid portrait of how we find a place in our family and find a path through chaos...It is a triumph, a work of great honesty and insight. -- Karen E. Bender, author of Refund In this unflinching and nuanced self-portrait, Sands Hall examines a decade of entanglement with the cult of Scientology and her circuitous process of liberation. -- Elizabeth Rosner, author of Survivor Cafe

A beautiful memoir...What sets this account apart from so many recent 'leaving Scientology' narratives is that the author has no ax to grind...An early candidate for memoir of the year, this is a thrilling story of one woman's search for truth and her place in the world. -- Library Journal (starred review) [An] impassioned, wonderfully constructed memoir...Hall reflects with brutal honesty on her decisions throughout this meticulously crafted book, which explores her negative experiences with Scientology and how her desire to please led her to believe in the unbelievable. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) An intriguing, beautifully written memoir...She toggles between her family and the church, digging deeply into the dynamics of power and control, love and compassion, before coming to a surprising resolution. -- Literary Hub A memoir of a life filled with joy and tragedy, and readers will appreciate the author's candor. -- Booklist A significant behind-the-scenes look at this cultlike religion. Frank and edifying information on Scientology from a woman who experienced it firsthand. -- Kirkus Reviews In this unflinching and nuanced self-portrait, Sands Hall examines a decade of entanglement with the cult of Scientology and her circuitous process of liberation. -- Elizabeth Rosner, author of Survivor Cafe A vivid portrait of how we find a place in our family and find a path through chaos...It is a triumph, a work of great honesty and insight. -- Karen E. Bender, author of Refund

"An intriguing, beautifully written memoir...She toggles between her family and the church, digging deeply into the dynamics of power and control, love and compassion, before coming to a surprising resolution. -- ""Literary Hub"" [An] impassioned, wonderfully constructed memoir...Hall reflects with brutal honesty on her decisions throughout this meticulously crafted book, which explores her negative experiences with Scientology and how her desire to please led her to believe in the unbelievable. -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" A beautiful memoir...What sets this account apart from so many recent 'leaving Scientology' narratives is that the author has no ax to grind...An early candidate for memoir of the year, this is a thrilling story of one woman's search for truth and her place in the world. -- ""Library Journal (starred review)"" A memoir of a life filled with joy and tragedy, and readers will appreciate the author's candor. -- ""Booklist"" A significant behind-the-scenes look at this cultlike religion. Frank and edifying information on Scientology from a woman who experienced it firsthand. -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" A vivid portrait of how we find a place in our family and find a path through chaos...It is a triumph, a work of great honesty and insight. -- ""Karen E. Bender, author of Refund"" In this unflinching and nuanced self-portrait, Sands Hall examines a decade of entanglement with the cult of Scientology and her circuitous process of liberation. -- ""Elizabeth Rosner, author of Survivor Cafe"""

A vivid portrait of how we find a place in our family and find a path through chaos...It is a triumph, a work of great honesty and insight. -- Karen E. Bender, author of Refund In this unflinching and nuanced self-portrait, Sands Hall examines a decade of entanglement with the cult of Scientology and her circuitous process of liberation. -- Elizabeth Rosner, author of Survivor Cafe A significant behind-the-scenes look at this cultlike religion. Frank and edifying information on Scientology from a woman who experienced it firsthand. -- Kirkus Reviews A memoir of a life filled with joy and tragedy, and readers will appreciate the author's candor. -- Booklist An intriguing, beautifully written memoir...She toggles between her family and the church, digging deeply into the dynamics of power and control, love and compassion, before coming to a surprising resolution. -- Literary Hub [An] impassioned, wonderfully constructed memoir...Hall reflects with brutal honesty on her decisions throughout this meticulously crafted book, which explores her negative experiences with Scientology and how her desire to please led her to believe in the unbelievable. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) A beautiful memoir...What sets this account apart from so many recent 'leaving Scientology' narratives is that the author has no ax to grind...An early candidate for memoir of the year, this is a thrilling story of one woman's search for truth and her place in the world. -- Library Journal (starred review)

Author Information

Sands Hall is the author of the novel Catching Heaven, a WILLA Award Finalist for Best Contemporary Fiction, and a Random House Reader's Circle selection; and of a book of writing essays and exercises, Tools of the Writer's Craft. She teaches at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival and at the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, and is an associate teaching professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

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