I had picked a different book review to appear on the blog this week. The draft had been ready for months and all I had to do was hit the publish button. But having finished the highly-acclaimed memoir Educated by Tara Westover last night, my mind was swirling with so many impressions that I felt compelled to channel all my efforts into it. After an hour of trying to coherently piece together my collective thoughts and opinions from reading the book, I realised that with a few additions and adjustments, I had a complete book review. Not one who can rest easy knowing that something lies unfinished, I went ahead and did just that 😁
Educated by American author Tara Westover was one of the most talked about non-fiction books in 2018 even endorsed by former US President Barack Obama. I am four years late in joining the legion of bibliophiles raving about the novel but then again, better late than never.
As of the September 2020, the book has spent 132 consecutive weeks on the The New York Times Hardcover Non-Fiction Best Seller list. It won a 2019 Alex Award, the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Memoir & Autobiography and was a finalist for a number of national awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and two National Book Critics Circle awards.
Educated is a courageous, inspirational and extraordinary memoir about self-discovery.
***Synopsis***
Tara Westover grows up in a fundamentalist, survivalist Mormon family in the mountainous region of rural Idaho. The family lead an isolated and nonconformist lifestyle in a shabby house at the foothills of Buck's Peak. Tara's radical father distrusts the US government, despises the medical establishment, discourages his seven children from going to public school and makes them stockpile supplies for “doomsday” when he isn’t getting them to salvage scrap in his junkyard, often performing perilous tasks with flagrant disregard for safety. Tara’s mother puts her instincts to good use as a herbalist preparing natural healing remedies. She eventually starts working as a self-taught healer and unlicensed midwife, thus supporting the family.
As a child, Tara doesn’t meet other children her age. Helping her mother stewing herbs or preparing tinctures in the kitchen and toiling away with her father and brothers in the junkyard is how she spends her days. Her worldview is shaped by her father’s bizarre one-dimensional outlook. Weighed down by patriarchy, her future as a woman is confined to marriage, motherhood and a life of quiet subservience. But when two of her brothers step out into the outside world in pursuit of education, it ignites a tiny spark in Tara. An inherent aptitude for learning, a love of books and natural flair for music takes her out of her little bubble and opens her eyes to the possibility of a different life. But a fear of her parents disapproval, inadequate homeschooling and niggling self-doubt holds her back. After a spate of horrific injuries stemming from her father’s poor judgement that affect several members of the family and having to witness them painfully recover at home despite needing hospital care, Tara starts to seriously contemplate change. The last straw is having to endure multiple counts of emotional and physical abuse at the hands of a volatile brother which prompts her to extricate herself from the shadow of the mountain and live life on her own terms.
From there begins her incredible journey in self-invention from Brigham Young University to Cambridge and then Harvard, eventually culminating in a PhD. For someone who hadn’t heard of the World Trade Centre, Napoleon, the Holocaust or the Civil Rights movement until she entered University, Tara has to contend with a steep learning curve. Not to mention, learning about basic hygiene, choosing to dress like a normal young woman and overcoming the misconception that vaccinations and medicine are poison among many others. As she trudges forward, Tara makes new friends, travels to exciting destinations, amasses newfound knowledge and skills while unlearning many harmful ingrained beliefs.
Once she takes over the reins of her own life, Tara confronts her parents with the past abuse. But she is walking a tightrope between family love and betrayal. She comes to realise that standing her ground comes at a heavy price.
“Everything I had worked for, all my years of study, had been to purchase for myself this one privilege: to see and experience more truths than those given to me by my father, and to use those truths to construct my own mind. I had come to believe that the ability to evaluate many ideas, many histories, many points of view, was at the heart of what it means to self-create. If I yielded now, I would lose more than an argument. I would lose custody of my own mind. This was the price I was being asked to pay, I understood that now. What my father wanted to cast from me wasn’t a demon: it was me.”
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― Tara Westover, Educated
