Educated

I’m always astonished and grateful when someone who has lived through extraordinary events also has the skill to describe them brilliantly.

Tara Westover’s gorgeous writing won me over before I could even begin to appreciate the strange, dangerous, and ever-shifting terrain of her childhood. Her descriptions of growing up in a fundamentalist, survivalist home with no formal education, and no official record of her existence, never stopped surprising me as I gobbled up the pages.

I was amazed and inspired by her determination to forge her own path as an adult and to see the world for herself rather than… show more.

I was deeply moved by Tara’s experience of emerging from the oppressive environment of being raised in a fundamentalist, anti-government, anti-education compound in the mountains of Idaho. Against all odds, Tara overcomes countless obstacles, ultimately achieving her PhD from Cambridge University.

Her indomitable spirit inspired me, but it was her writing style that had the biggest impact on me. I saw how much more powerful storytelling can be when it’s understated, allowing the reader to arrive at their own conclusion. I can’t recommend this book highly enough!   

I identified with Tara Westover while reading her memoir because of her secluded and restrictive upbringing. Like her, my upbringing made me feel left out, “other,” different from normal kids, not allowed the usual activities that other kids could do and kept from learning and growing in my own way.

I didn’t understand how these rules affected me until I saw my angst in her own words of isolation, yearning, and rebellion. It gave me hope that our desire for self-fulfillment and actualization is universal and stronger than the people who try, for good reasons or bad, to keep us… show more.

Growing up in a religious household and then coming out as a gay man, it took me several years to extricate myself from those threads of guilt that inhibited my full-blown happiness with my new identity.

Tara not only had to extricate herself from her family’s religious fervour but also from her brother’s violence, her father’s radicalism, her community’s denial. Brought up in a strict Mormon household in the mountains of Idaho, Tara didn’t have a birth certificate until she was 9. She didn’t begin her education until she was 17. She broke the chains of her family’s mindset and… show more.

When I read it, the sense I got of the author’s feelings of being a misfit, an outcast, were palpable, and I could identify with her, regardless of the different circumstances in which we were raised. Her book is about not feeling like you fit, about feeling like you were born into the wrong family.

I was amazed when I read Westover’s book, Educated; amazed that someone could go through such a deprived and abusive childhood and, not only survive but rise above and discover herself.

I was in awe over her self-determination. Though my childhood did not, in any way, resemble hers, reading her story gave me the courage to stand up to my own fears and feel confident in who I am. She reminded me that it is possible to overcome challenging obstacles and get through the seemingly impossible.

What is the importance of an education in freeing your mind from the shackles of oppression? In this poignant memoir, the author describes her close ties to family and how those ties repressed her freedom to observe and interpret the world around her.

Born in a male-dominated hierarchy and controlled by strong religious beliefs, it was dictated to her what to do and believe. When she tried to think for herself, her relationships with family members became toxic. A weaker mind would have succumbed to the pressure and accepted the situation. However, an incredible urge to learn and grow moved… show more.

When I read Tara’s story of growing up isolated in Idaho, USA, I couldn’t believe how similar her childhood was to mine, though she experienced it on land, and I was at sea.

Like me, Tara was unable to go to school. In her case she was trapped at home with a father who was convinced that the world was about to end. She accepted this world when she was young but, as she became older, she repeatedly tried to make her life more normal and became convinced that education was the way in which she could escape.

The book… show more.

I read this book during a time of my life when I needed a page-turner to distract me, and it was a remarkable companion during those days; I read it in bed well into the night and was grateful to have it again in the morning.

This book tells the story of the author’s coming of age in Idaho with survivalist parents and her encounter with mind-expanding education on a journey that ultimately takes her to Oxford.

Westover is a truly masterful writer who paints vivid images through storytelling. I think I could recount almost every chapter in detail many… show more.

Often people are born into cults or find that their family and those inherited beliefs hold a cult-like sway over their childhood and coming of age.

Tara Westover’s account of growing up in a family prepping for the End of Days is wonderfully clear-sighted and unflinching. Not only that but, despite the violence and sense of betrayal, it also manages to hold the kind of redemptive arc that has you cheering the writer through the last few chapters.