Educated by Tara Westover

I’m late to the party on this one. It seems everyone has read this gripping memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, escapes her survivalist family, goes on to college and eventually earns degrees from Harvard and Cambridge. Ms. Westover has been interviewed by all the major press and television outlets and Educated was on the bestseller list for many, many weeks.

Tara’s father, Gene Westover is a self-appointed prophet, with a psychotic nature, as well as revolutionary religious beliefs. He traumatizes his family both emotionally and physically. His children are indentured workers for his scrap metal business — and they suffer burns, head injuries, and deep wounds. No medical intervention was allowed, so these dreadful injuries are treated at home with the mother’s homemade collection of herbs, tinctures, and salves. The children and their mother are manipulated and controlled by Gene who demands loyalty at all costs.

On the highway below, the school bus rolls past without stopping. I am only 7, but I understand that it is this fact more than any other that makes my family different. We don’t go to school. Dad worries that the government will force us to go, but it can’t because it doesn’t know about us. Four of my parents’ seven children don’t have birth certificates. We have no medical records because we were born at home and have never seen a doctor or nurse. We have no school records because we’ve never set foot in a classroom.

I kept having to put Educated aside, not because of the writing — no, no — Ms. Westover writes beautifully — but because this book is so very hard. This is no sugar coated story – this is grim reality and I needed many breaks from this mesmerizing but cruel account.

I no longer needed breaks once Tara strikes out on her own and surmounts many, many hurdles — from passing the testing required to get into Brigham Young, to interacting with the outside world. She makes friends, gains mentors and discovers just how much she doesn’t know. This second half of the book tells of her struggle to be ‘educated’ and her pursuits to pass the next course, the next level, the next requirement which takes her eventually to earn a PhD from Cambridge University.

During this time Tara goes back home to try and help her sister in law (married to Tara’s abusive brother) and then again to nurse her father after a horrific burn accident. Each visit leaves her with a new perspective that even this craziest of upbringing was, in her child’s view — normal.

Not knowing for certain, but refusing to give way to those who claim certainty, was a privilege I had never allowed myself. My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.

Having grown up loving school and education, I found the notion of being deprived even the basic education just heartbreaking. I finished Educated feeling wrung out, yet I still must recommend this incredible memoir. Educated is beautifully written, heartrendingly insightful, and uplifting.

So if you think your New Year’s resolutions are insurmountable – read Educated – getting back to the gym will seem like a cake walk.

A digital review copy was kindly provided by Random House via Netgalley.