Via Amazon Uk
Westover’s memoir follows her own journey as she grows up in a fundamentalist, survivalist and Mormon family in Idaho. Her father constituted the patriarchal lead of the house over her six siblings, her mother and herself and his rules was stringent. ‘Gene’ (not his real name) believed in an incoming doomsday and as such avoided all major education and healthcare systems in favour of the home. Because of this mistreatment, Tara did not step foot inside a school until she was seventeen years old and entered with extremely limited knowledge about the world. Tara and her siblings spent their formative years working in their father’s scrapyard, gaining many injuries and having no time for any sort of learning. Whilst many have debated the true severity of her upbringing, no one can debate the presence of emotional and physical abuse within her home.
The memoir tracks Tara’s journey to get into college and eventually obtaining her PhD from Cambridge and the most fascinating aspect of this book is her ability to overcome all of her shortcomings in order to wrangle herself an education despite her past.
Via Mr B’s Emporium
A few of Tara’s siblings have also graduated with PHD’s after leaving their father’s control, a feat for any family let alone theirs, and their accounts all slightly differ from one another’s which has been critiqued by a few. However, I would argue that since all viewpoints and emotions are subjective it is highly plausible that events and memories have got twisted and mixed and muddled leading to these differing end results. I simply don’t believe this should be a critique of this memoir as it is undeniable that any form of abuse alters the brain and its memories so a childhood of this magnitude will have had a great effect on the family as a whole.
Educated is a poignant recollection of a tragic upbringing turned bright and inspiring future which is sure to strike a chord with many. Whilst many don’t agree or understand Tara’s own journey through her education, it is important to remember that it is a memoir! She is relaying her own story and to change any bad choices would be a misrepresentation of her struggle. I doubt many of us can say we’ve never made a bad decision so why people expect this of Westover I simply do not know.
Watch an Interview with Tara Westover on her experiences below, via TODAY with Hoda and Jenna:
