Book Review: Educated, by Tara Westover

Genre: Non-fiction memoir
Date Published: February 2018
Publisher: Random House
# Of Pages/Listening Time: 334 pgs/12 hours

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Synopsis: Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag". In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard.
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent.
Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change it.

My Rating:

 ★★★★ 1/2

.....For capturing my interest from the beginning

My Thoughts:

I'm not a huge fan of non-fiction. I tend to avoid it, and while I've enjoyed some non-fiction reads in the past, I rarely love these books.

This is one of those exceptional times where I find myself loving a non-fiction book.

This woman's life was incredible. Well, okay, it's not her life that was incredible; I think what is incredible is how different her childhood was compared to the life she chose for herself. I think that it's incredible how she was able to choose a path so different from her family's and be able to stick with it. Her struggles are just a huge reminder of how difficult it is for someone to escape an unhealthy and damaging situation when it's been a part of your life for so long.

It's hard to make another person understand why you make certain decisions instead of others, but I feel that Tara Westover did a great job describing her choices and what she was thinking at the time, in a way that allowed a reader, who's never had these experiences herself, to understand.

I found Tara's story to be an interesting look into a world that I've never encountered before, to see what it was like to be a part of a family where the father seems to have an undiagnosed mental disorder, where the family is almost completely off the grid, and where the children don't go to school and have to decide for themselves whether they want to continue their education, despite their father's wishes. I kept comparing Tara's childhood with my own; it was just so different in the extreme! The opinions and views between her parents and mine are polar opposites, along with their ways of raising their children and making money, to name a few things.

The trauma Tara suffered was also very thought-provoking. Even if only a portion of this story is true (and I think it's all true), it's still amazing that Tara was able to make the extremely difficult decision to leave a dangerous situation and live apart from those negative elements of her life. And I think I can understand how hard that must have been, because my social worker husband frequently encounters this problem in his work and tells me about it; it really isn't easy at all. I found it fascinating to read about this difficulty from the perspective of the victim rather than from the perspective of the social worker who's trying to help the person make the change. For me, it was extremely enlightening.

Overall, this was a very engaging story. The writing pulls you in, and keeps you captivated. I meant to take my time and finish this book on September 24. However, I got so enthralled by the story that I ended up finishing this book four days early. It's an impressive debut novel, and I definitely recommend this read.