Educated

Tara Westover

first published: 2018

★★★★★

Synopsis

Tara Westover and her family grew up preparing for the End of Days but, according to the government, she didn’t exist. She hadn’t been registered for a birth certificate. She had no school records because she’d never set foot in a classroom, and no medical records because her father didn’t believe in hospitals.

As she grew older, her father became more radical and her brother more violent. At sixteen, Tara knew she had to leave home. In doing so she discovered both the transformative power of education, and the price she had to pay for it.

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the choices people make, together and on their own, that combine to produce any single event. Grains of sand, incalculable, pressing into sediment, then rock.

p. 49

One of the most fantastic books I’ve ever read, Educated is an autobiographical memoir that could easily be read as fiction due to all unbelievable events narrated in it. Tara grew up in Idaho, in a house on the top of a mountain. Her family, fundamentalist Mormons who didn’t rely on the government, were outsiders and proud to be so. She was the youngest of seven siblings: Tony, Shawn, Tyler, Luke, Audrey, Richard and Tara, but no one in the family is certain of when she was born or how old she really is. After all, birth certificates were not issued for most of the siblings – this was a way for the government to control people’s lives! Her recollections start when she was about 7 years old, but differently from usual memoirs, the author doesn’t rely on her own account, so she got in touch with other family members to add their memories and even the divergences as notes at the end of the book.

The family owned a junkyard where basically all their children should work at, unless they had a job elsewhere. Many accidents (horrible accidents!) happened at that junkyard, but no one was ever taken to a hospital, which was another way for the government to control people, so every injury was treated home with homeopathic medicine. They were constantly afraid of police attacks and preparing for the End of Days, following a really strict religious path. This also included a poor attempt at homeschooling, in which text books were mainly religious texts believed to be the only truth. Thereafter the kids grew up without learning about Holocaust, Voting Rights and other historical facts.

Needless to say that they had no voice at home, no ambitions or dreams. Their father was a dominant man who dictated the rules and was extremely narrow minded, a person I couldn’t stand while reading the book, but I could somehow see that this was his way of caring for his family. My head was filled with thoughts about toxic relationships, which wasn’t a common topic before but awareness is being raised around it now. However, our society tends to focus on romantic relationships and friendships, but rarely on family. We are raised to believe our parents are always right and their beliefs and way of living become our own, and it’s incredible how a family environment will close down many paths. I truly believe our parents always try to act in our best interest, but some times we need to be lucky enough to free ourselves from that world and discover a full range of possibilities, of experiences, of destinies. Although Tara’s story is extreme, how many of us haven’t lived a life like hers, even if in a milder way?

In such a dogmatic family, it’s not a surprise to say that there were loads of violence. Her brother Shawn is such a disgusting person. Many times I hoped he died during the book – even knowing it’s a true story (or maybe especially knowing it’s a true story?!). Some passages were so hard to read that I had to put the book down. I doubt any reader would feel differently!

“The most powerful determinant of who you are is inside you,” he said.

p. 281

Although simple, Tara’s writing is engaging. It’s impossible not to connect to her story and be eager to know what’s going to happen, all the details of her journey. The last paragraphs got me in tears, not ashamed to admit. This book is one of those I wanted to read all day long, but at the same time it made me sad knowing it was going to end. It’s an inspirational story, filled with pain, struggles, hope and achievements. It reminds us to never stop chasing our dreams.