‘Jonestown Survivor: An Insider’s Look’ peels back why people died in Jonestown

In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy of Jonestown on Nov. 18, 1978, the Peoples Temple movement was portrayed in an almost exclusively one-sided fashion.

However, thanks to a dedicated team of scholars, journalists and survivors, a more nuanced presentation of the People Temple community is emerging, including a memoir by Jonestown survivor Laura Johnston Kohl's, 'Jonestown Survivor: An Insider's Look,” which she will read from Oct. 11 at Barnes & Noble in Cedar Rapids.

Johnston Kohl helps to provide a more complete picture of Peoples Temple by sharing a complete picture of herself - warts and all.

The book begins with her 1950s childhood and the formative experience of being raised by an activist, single mother. Johnston Kohl was politically active from a young age with a heavy sense of idealism, but by 1970, Johnston Kohl was divorced, in California, and feeling unmoored in a rapidly-changing world. 'When I walked into the Peoples Temple Church in Redwood Valley for the first time, I had long hair, lots of makeup, and a very short skirt. I was sort of a cross between a hippie and a streetwalker.”

While written in a basic style with a number of jumps and digressions, Johnston Kohl's simple, chatty voice makes the tale of her incredible life story all the more engrossing - and realistic. While she does not explore the doctrine of the Peoples Temple, the reactions her family members had to her joining, or any negative depictions of her time at Peoples Temple, she does provide a detailed account of the many fulfilling day-to-day activities that consumed her every moment.

As a result, readers begin to see Johnston Kohl's experience with Peoples Temple through her same narrow, rose-colored glasses. When a tragedy like Jonestown occurs, it's all too easy for outsiders to say, 'I would never do that.” Johnston Kohl's memoir proves the importance of listening to a number of individual voices and stories to see an event - and a time - for what it really was.

Book reading and signing

' What: Laura Johnston Kohl reads from her memoir 'Jonestown Survivor: An Insider's Look”

' When: 3 p.m. Saturday

' Where: Barnes & Noble Bookseller, 333 Collins Rd. NE, Cedar Rapids

' Cost: Free