Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing: Essays

"Containing the viral essay “Cable Guy” among others, Lauren Hough’s debut collection chronicles her time being raised in the Children of God cult – also known as The Family – and the years after she left. But this alternatively funny and painful book isn’t only a cult memoir. Slowly, essay after essay, Hough draws parallels between the cult she was raised in and good ol’ fashioned American Exceptionalism in all its various facets, from rah-rah-’Merica attitudes surrounding freedom to the worship of individualism to the demands of capitalism. A startling, vivid read."