Chris’s Pick
May, 2019
Educated, A Memoir
Tara Westover
Random House Publishing, 2018
Tara Westover was born in the shadow of a remote mountain in Idaho, sometime in September of 1989 (no birth certificate issued), the youngest of seven children. Because her Mormon survivalist parents believed the government was coming to raid and kill them at any moment, and that the End of Days was upon them, much time was spent in preparation for these events. Her paranoid, most-likely bi-polar, father refused to allow the children any schooling beyond what they could glean themselves from the Bible or Mormon texts. Despite horrific accidents, medical attention was also disallowed. Herbs and tinctures and the will of God was all that was needed.
As a teenager, Tara discovers a love for music, which drives her determination to attend college. She self-teaches algebra and trigonometry in order to attain an ACT score that admits her into Brigham Young University. From there, she discovers literature, and then history, learning for the first time about such things as the Holocaust, and the civil rights movement.
That is the beginning of the story, and the simple end is that Westover’s fascination with history takes her to Cambridge and Harvard and finally a PhD. But as astonishing as that is, Westover’s journey in self-discovery was as internally harrowing as her childhood. There is justified anger and outrage at her upbringing, yet continued curiosity and love for her family –even for those who have terribly wronged her–plus an overwhelming guilt for abandoning ingrained beliefs. These conflicting emotions are so completely present it is a source of real anguish for Westover. Finally, cutting ties with her father is the only solution.
Everything I had worked for, all my years of study, had been to purchase for myself this one privilege: to see and experience more truths than those given to me by my father, and to use those truths to construct my own mind. I had come to believe that the ability to evaluate many ideas, many histories, many points of view, was at the heart of what it means to self-create.
And at the heart of what it means to be educated.
Beyond this fascinating story is how beautifully written this book is, and that is remarkable in and of itself. In an interview with Westover, she explains that in college she learned what a short story was; having never read one before. She was so enchanted by the structure of this art, she crafted each chapter of her book as if it were a short story in its own right. The technique works; she has created a very readable, highly recommended, memoir.