Imagine never stepping into a classroom until the age of seventeen. Imagine living off the grid on a mountainside in rural Idaho, while your fundamentalist father preaches that you are going to hell if you are not meek and obedient. Imagine then that you claw your way out through sheer hard work and determination, going on to graduate college and complete your PHD. In Tara Westover’s bestselling memoir Educated, she chronicles her wholly unique upbringing and tremendous accomplishments in the most trying of circumstances.
Westover exposes a life that most people can barely imagine, but it is one that is shared by many leading hidden lives around us. Many people grow up in a cult, impoverished, and uneducated, and it is important to raise awareness about these issues. Her story is an incredible tale of hard work, grit, and suffering. However, there is very little self-reflection, no real examination of the abuse, her place in it as a victim, or what she thinks about her past actions. It is more a recitation of events: a cycle of abuse that goes on too long without being broken. Westover’s education lifts her up eventually, but it is repetitive and frustrating that she keeps returning to her abusive family. As maddening as it is, the book is a meditation on family and the ties that bind. For a glimpse into a hidden life that most of us will never see, check out Tara Westover’s Educated.
Review by Shannon Wood
Adult Services Librarian
Nordonia Hills Branch Library
