Sunday, January 6, 2019

Book Review: Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

,Dear Lit Loves,

Greetings!  Wow!  Somebody Ring The Liberty Bell and fellow readers if you were here we should all bust a move doing an imitation of dance to the song, "Thriller" because  I just read Educated:  A Memoir by Tara Westover and I am here to say this book is as good if not better than the much-acclaimed memoir titled The Glass Castle!  That's right.  You heard it here first.  Educated:  A Memoir by Tara Westover was published by Random House and the literary agents representing Tara Westover are Anna Stein and Karolina Sutton.  This is a MUST READ book and it also won Goodreads Memoir of the Year!

Tara Westover was raised on a mountain in Idaho by survivalist parents.   Her father owned a junkyard where he felt his children should work as opposed to attend school as he does not trust "book knowledge" or "any form of government".  Tara's mom at one point is a self-taught midwife, but eventually she becomes a medicinal zealot who does not trust doctors or the medical establishment; instead, she uses her herbs and oils to concoct tinctures to heal all sorts of ailments.  Tara and her siblings know there is something not quite right with their father, but do not know exactly what to label it.  He regularly holds home meetings where he preaches his interpretation of his bible.  He quite often places his own children in precarious and downright dangerous circumstances as they work for him either constructing barns or breaking down metal scraps from his large junkyard heap.  This leads to several of his children getting burned, scarred, and worse.  Tara's paternal grandparents live down the hill from the family home.  They have a second residence in Arizona where they relocate each winter.  When Tara's family goes to visit them in Arizona on one occasion, her father insists on driving home to Idaho in a severe winter storm.  Sometimes he forces his underage children to drive in precarious weather.  At one point, the family van is upside down in a ditch with power lines draped across the van.  Tara's mom was never quite the same after this accident as she did not receive proper medical help and suffered major injuries. 

Eventually, Tara begins to acquire money from not just her junkyard work, but bagging groceries at the grocery store as well as babysitting.  She buys textbooks like her brother to essentially teach herself enough in order to achieve a passing score on the ACT and then leaves for BYU.  While at BYU, she realizes how different she is from her fellow roommates and classmates.  She recognizes that some of what her father and mother told her about American history is not as they portrayed it.  And some movements in history such as the civil rights movement, women's suffrage, etc., she does not know anything about as she has never heard of them.  Eventually, a professor encourages her to visit Cambridge and she does.  She applies for admission upon her graduation from BYU and though she is initially not accepted; her professor pleads her case for her and she does get the opportunity to study at Cambridge.  She earns her Master's in Philosopy from Cambridge and spends a year writing the first chapter of her dissertation at Harvard.  In the midst of this, she returns home to a brother who threatens her, a mother who does not protect her, and a sister who was also abused by the same brother, but the father threatens to disown the sister if she keeps bringing up the violence enacted by the brother.  Eventually,Tara's sister agrees that her father is right.  She and Tara must have gotten mixed up about what happened.  Tara's sister does not want to be disowned by her family so she agrees with them that Tara is evil and just trying to stir up trouble for the family.    When Tara's parents come to Harvard to "save" her from the evil of socialist intellectualism, Tara must decide for herself if she wants to commit to her way of life and beliefs and renounce her parents' beliefs and values while subsequently facing the prospect of being disowned by her family.  It is enough to send her into a nervous breakdown which she must overcome if she is to finish her research and dissertation to obtain her Doctorate's degree from Cambridge. 

This book touched on so many themes for me such as parental abuse and neglect.  Obviously, the father was a control-freak and fanatic anti-government rebel who did not send his kids to school nor did he seek professional medical care for his own children when they suffered numerous serious injuries.  The mother believes the same as the father and will not stand up to him.  She believes she has the healing tinctures and salves and herbs to cure whatever ailment may befall the children.  As a reader, I kept thinking to myself, does anyone in the extended family or anyone in the community not realize that there is something inherently wrong within this family?  Why does no one report what is observed regarding this family?  Does anyone of the outside looking in not have an inkling that something is very wrong with this set of parents and the kind of life they are forcing upon their children?  Does anyone suspect one or both of the parents may have mental illness??

There is also the reality of sibling love and admiration, but also sibling volatility that the parents refuse to acknowledge.  One incident occurs in a grocery store parking lot and violence is quite evident, but no one calls the police or reports what they have witnessed.  No one bothers to help Tara as she is being hurt and tortured.  It is troubling to me to think of a scenario like the ones described in this book.  And eventually the siblings who did obtain a collegiate education keep in touch with Tara, but the ones that did stay loyal to the family regard Tara as evil and refuse to acknowledge or keep in touch with her.

Next, there is the question of a young girl and female adult having to choose between getting an education which her father and mother abhor or remaining loyal to the family by denying herself a broader view of the world via a higher level of education.  What kind of courage must it have taken for this young woman to stand up to a condescending, fanatical father and a mother who complies with the father's beliefs and actions? 

And what about the professors and educators at college who upon learning of Tara's history and background choose to extend a hand to help lift her above her circumstances to give her an opportunity for a better life than what she has experienced as a child?  I applaud them for the instinct and endeavors to assist her as opposed to just think of her as another student among many. 


 And I applaud Tara for her ultimate decision to transform herself and her life along with her beliefs and values knowing what it would ultimately cost her.  She chose to transform herself and her life even though it cost her connections with her father, mother, and four siblings who choose to adhere to the parents' way of life, customs, beliefs, and values.  It made me wonder how many of us could survive and do what Tara did?  How many of us have that kind of perseverance and tenacity?  And would it not be admirable if more people had the kind of courage Tara exhibits?  Would our world not be a better place??


Once again this book is a must-read.  I highly recommend it for book clubs and I know it would be required reading if I were still teaching today just because it takes a look at real life in all its rawness and ugliness but equally its possibilities and complexities. 

Till my next review or update,

Grace
(Amy)

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