Sunday, February 03, 2019

My Bookish Thoughts: Educated by Tara Westover

I'm standing on the red railway car that sits abandoned next to the barn. ~ Opening of Educated 


Educated by Tara Westover
Random House, 2018
Nonfiction (Memoir); 334 pgs

I have such admiration for Tara Westover and all that she had to overcome—and likely still is dealing with. Raised by survivalist parents who feared the government and were preparing for the end of the world as we know it, Tara’s education came through limited homeschooling. Most of what she learned growing up was through helping her mother, a midwife and healer, or working with her father in the junkyard. The family did not believe in hospitals or modern medicine, and so even with major injuries caused by fire, car accidents, or what have you, the rule was the family had to be treated at home by Tara’s mother.

Despite her father’s disdain for the established education system, Tara set her mind on attending college at the urging of one of her older brothers. She taught herself math and grammar, and studied hard so she could pass the ACT test. At seventeen, she stepped onto the Brigham Young University campus for the first time. It was a culture shock, and Tara struggled to fit in. Her classmates thought she was mocking the Holocaust when she said she had never heard of it. The truth was, she hadn’t. She knew slavery had existed, but not the reality of it. She had not heard of the Civil Rights Movement. Her eyes were suddenly opened wide to just what she did not know.

Tara struggled with her identity as one can expect. She came to see the world she was raised in, including her parents, in a very different light. She loved them fiercely, but began to see cracks in their thinking and way of life that she once had accepted as normal and right before. I appreciated that Tara does not gloss over what she has been through, both the bad and good. I liked that she is honest in her divided feelings about her family and the world that has opened up for her. I cannot imagine it was easy for her any step of the way, even now.

I never doubted Tara’s parents’ love for her, even if I didn’t always agree with the choices they made. I enjoyed reading about Tara’s experiences on stage and can definitely see the allure of the mountains where she was raised. I felt for Tara as she grew apart from her family and her strong desire to have that familial connection when it seemed impossible it could still exist.

It was painful to read some parts of the book, particularly about her brother, who, although it is never said, I wondered if he too was mentally ill like her father. I was scared to death for Tara, and, honestly, I am scared to death still for her brother’s family. I really hope that someone has stepped in to intervene. Domestic violence and child abuse is no joke, and I worry someone will end up dead.

Kudos to the author for using footnotes to document discrepancies in the memories of certain events. It’s hard not to read memoirs with a grain of salt given the two or three people who have outright falsified their stories, and so Westover including those added notes only adds to the validity of her story—and her efforts to get it as right as she could.

Although our experiences are completely different, I found I could relate to some of Tara’s struggles. I think many of us can. Whether it be struggling to fit in, living with a parent with a mental illness, reconciling our past with our present, or learning to accept and trust in oneself.

From a poor girl with little to no education to earning a doctorate at Cambridge University, a lot can be said for the strength and perseverance of the author. She is both intelligent and extremely resourceful. Tara was also very lucky given her circumstances that she had the support and guidance she did along the way, sometimes from surprising sources. People believed in her even when she did not believe in herself, and that played a key role in the direction her life took. Educated is an inspiring book.


Tara Westover is an American author. Born in Idaho to a father opposed to public education, she never attended school. She spent her days working in her father's junkyard or stewing herbs for her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife. She was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. After that first encounter with education, she pursued learning for a decade, graduating magna cum laude from Brigham Young University in 2008 and subsequently winning a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She earned an MPhil from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2009, and in 2010 was a visiting fellow at Harvard University. She returned to Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD in history in 2014.

Educated is her first book.

For more information about the author and her books, visit her website. You can also find her on Twitter.

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34 comments:

  1. Her story amazed me. Just think of how smart she must be to rise above her childhood and achieve the education she did.

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    1. Kathy - Oh yes, she really is quite intelligent. I don't think she would have been able to do as much as she has though without the support of others to encourage and help her as well.

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  2. What a good review you shared here, Wendy! I've certainly heard a lot about this book. Quite a story indeed. Thanks for telling us what you thought about it!

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  3. This book sounds so good! I hope the waitlist hurries up so I can read it soon. Great review!

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  4. I have heard so much about this book from my book club members (our book club is special, we don't read all the same book, but each member shares about a book he/she has read during the previous month), that I feel like it's enough for me

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  5. Her descriptions of the accidents were enough to make me have to set the book down for a moment. Gruesome indeed, and her brother scared me as well. What she's overcome is nothing short of amazing.

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    1. Stephanie - Me too. They were so difficult to read. I'm surprised no one died, honestly.

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  6. Whilst we do hear of home schooling here in the UK I'm not aware of there being any survivalists (though I'm sure there must be some) and so this whole concept fascinates me. Definitely a book to be added to my wish list, thank you for sharing your thoughts on it and thus bringing it to my attention.

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    1. Tracy - Fortunately most home schooling doesn't mirror what was portrayed in this book. I would be interested to know what you think if you do read this.

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  7. I have the audio of this one on my TBR and am really curious. This sounds like a fascinating read and I'm intrigued by the mention of the correcting notes. You're right about taking memoirs with a grain of salt so I like how well thought out this sounds.

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    1. Katherine - I wonder how this one would be in the audio format. Probably just as good. I hope you like it when you get to it!

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  8. I recently read this too, and wow, what a story. She is an amazing woman.

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  9. Wendy, you (plus a number of others) have convinced me to buy this book. I don’t know when I will read it. But at least it will be in the TBR pile!

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  10. I've heard so many great things about this book, so I requested it from the library and then I couldn't get into it. Maybe I will try again.

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    1. Deb - I wasn't completely sold on it when I first started it either. Maybe another try might work--or it may just not be a book for you.

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  11. I read this last year, Wendy, and really liked it! I do like to read memoirs based on the "everyman" rather than celebrity.

    I did read a few reviews that questioned whether her memory served her right or did she embellish. Well, a memoir is different from an autobiography, and she should know better than anyone how things went. She isn't that old that this took place eons ago-- it didn't.

    I felt so badly for the kids because no one can choose their birth family and early homes. Not everyone is given a fair shake in life, so I respected her drive. I had what is considered a "normal" childhood by most U.S. standards, but even we had our struggles. But nothing like this poor woman went through.

    Great review! Thanks!

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    1. Rita - Same here. I tend to prefer memoirs based on the average person. I agree. A memoir isn't the same as an autobiography and it's important to keep in mind that it is a lot based on perception and memory. Memory is not infallible. I think if her accomplishments were under question, we would have heard about it by now.

      It's amazing what Tara was able to overcome. I really feel for her and all she went through. I can't even imagine.

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  12. This sounds like a very good read.

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  13. This book has been getting a lot of attention and sounds like it's well deserved! I don't read a lot of memoirs but would love to give this one a try.

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    1. Iliana - I don't think I would have read this one had my mom not loaned me her copy. Thank goodness she did. :-)

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  14. I loved this one! Broke my heart because of all she went through but it's also so heartening to see that she managed to get the support she needed to get out of that situation.

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    1. Eustacia - Yes! It was so heartbreaking and yet so so inspiring!

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  15. I loved this book. I watched a live stream of one of her Q&A book events on Facebook and I felt bad for her because her entire demeanor was like all of the happiness had been sucked from her never to return. It goes to show just how far down childhood trauma seeds itself. 😞

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    1. La La - I will have to look for the Q&A. I'd like to see that. I do worry about her, even after reading the book. Her story is far from over, and I imagine she still has a lot of healing to do.

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  16. I've read a lot of glowing reviews about this book so I'm definitely intrigued. Thanks for your lovely review, Wendy!

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