Educated by Tara Westover has been on my to-read list for a very, very long time. I first heard about this book while listening to NPR. When I tried to borrow it from the library, it became obvious that lots and lots of other people had also heard about it and so I would have to wait a really long time to borrow the book from the library. As a second option, I put my name on the list for the audio version. It also had a long wait list, but it actually arrived pretty quickly. I proceeded to copy the CD onto my player and returned it to the library. Then something very strange happened- the book didn't make any sense. It jumped around, it cut out and eventually it just ended. Upon further research, I discovered that the audio didn't download completely and in fact I was listening to a random puzzle of a story. Irritated to have to wait even longer (longer than this story if you can believe that!) I put myself back on the list. Finally it arrived and I was ready to listen.
I cannot emphasize enough how worth the wait this was!
Tara Westover grew up on the side of a mountain peak in rural Idaho, the youngest in a large family and raised by a parents who didn't believe in the public education system. Or doctors. Or handwashing. Tara spent her days working in the family's scrap yard and helping her mother in the kitchen. She was taught to read and basic math, but beyond that there was no need for education; the public schools were just places of government indoctrination. They spent their time preparing for the End of Days, certain they would be the only survivors. At age seventeen, Tara yearned for more knowledge and a way out of the home where she was terrorized by an older brother. Never having been in an actual classroom, Tara began by studying for the ACT on her own. On her second attempt she earned a score high enough to secure a scholarship to BYU. After receiving her Bachelor's degree, she went on to earn a Master's and Doctorate from Cambridge and a fellowship from Harvard.
That alone is beyond impressive and inspirational, but it gets even more remarkable when we read about how trying her childhood and early young adult years were made by her family. Westover is clear that not all of her early life was bad and that she loves her family very much, but that there were obstacles she had to overcome. When talking about her father, Westover often uses these phrases:
He began a lecture...
He talked all the way home...
He yelled and screamed the entire car ride...
Westover's father ruled his family with an iron fist. There was only his way of seeing the world.
My father had taught me that there are not two reasonable opinions to be had on any subject.
There is truth and there are lies.
That alone is beyond impressive and inspirational, but it gets even more remarkable when we read about how trying her childhood and early young adult years were made by her family. Westover is clear that not all of her early life was bad and that she loves her family very much, but that there were obstacles she had to overcome. When talking about her father, Westover often uses these phrases:
He began a lecture...
He talked all the way home...
He yelled and screamed the entire car ride...
Westover's father ruled his family with an iron fist. There was only his way of seeing the world.
My father had taught me that there are not two reasonable opinions to be had on any subject.
There is truth and there are lies.
She also has a very abusive older brother and a mother who consistently looks the other way. It is a hard life and made harder by the people who are supposed to take care of her. One brother does offer her a way out:
"There is a whole world out there and it will look a lot different once Dad is no longer whispering his view of it into your ear."
This brother, Tyler, helps her find all the information she needs to save herself. This book is a memoir, but it reads like some of the most thrilling fiction I've read. Chapter after chapter I found myself on the edge of my seat; it is exciting, sad, and at the same time, inspirational. I hope you won't have to wait as long as I did to read or listen to this book, but if you do, know that it is worth the wait!
