#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER • One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University “Extraordinary . . . an act of courage and self-invention.”—The New York Times NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW … Times
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • BILL GATES’S HOLIDAY READING LIST • FINALIST: National Book Critics Circle’s Award In Autobiography and John Leonard Prize For Best First Book • PEN/Jean Stein Book Award • Los Angeles Times Book Prize
Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
“Beautiful and propulsive . . . Despite the singularity of [Westover’s] childhood, the questions her book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?”—Vogue
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • O: The Oprah Magazine • Time • NPR • Good Morning America • San Francisco Chronicle • The Guardian • The Economist • Financial Times • Newsday • New York Post • theSkimm • Refinery29 • Bloomberg • Self • Real Simple • Town & Country • Bustle • Paste • Publishers Weekly • Library Journal • LibraryReads • Book Riot • Pamela Paul, KQED • New York Public Library
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Very interesting memoir about a girl growing up with a mentally ill father who shelters his kids from the world by keeping them away from society and school. But there’s a monster within the family that is the most threatening to Tara. The father’s twisted version of the Mormon faith creates an atmosphere of dysfunction and ignorance. Despite all of this, Tara manages to educate herself and climb the ladder of prestigious schooling. The more she learns about life and the world around her, the more she realizes how much she doesn’t know.
I felt a little robbed that Tara avoided all discussion of her sexual education, as that would have been primal to her identity, because of the “whore” label from her own father/brother. The fact that she never mentions this important life step seems to indicate that her abuse may have been more than physical/ emotional. It left me wondering if she just couldn’t bring herself to share that she might have also been sexually abused. Just conjecture of course, but it seems like an obvious and intentional omission.
My library book club’s August read was Tara Westover’s best-selling, critically acclaimed memoir Educated.
Westover’s life makes for page-turning reading, but the abuses she suffered in the hands of her family actually gave me nightmares. Her mentally ill father’s paranoid beliefs ruled the family. As Mormons, her mother submitted to her husband’s authority. The parents would not send their children to public school and were inept at homeschooling, so the kids educated themselves. It was lucky they even survived as the father also feared the medical establishment and even the most horrendous of accidents were self-treated.
Westover can write and she gave her life story a narrative arc, but I was not glad to have read this book. I was upset by what most of us would consider the mistreatment of the children. I wondered if Westover’s story would be held as an example of how anyone can pull themselves up from ignorance and poverty to become a best-selling novelist with a Ph.D., justifying blame on those who are mired in poverty and dead-end lives. As a mother who homeschooled our son from seventh grade through high school graduation, with a rigorous and thoughtful education plan, I didn’t care for the Westover’s dad using his daughter’s success as a vindication of his non-schooling homeschooling.
What I did admire was Westover’s honest portrayal of her struggle to grow and find her own life without losing her family and how the family dynamics kept her tethered to her past. It is hard enough to leave one’s faith community and family in our self-actualization journey. Westover’s constricted, narrow, world and her father’s radical Mormonism was all she knew and it was hard to assimilate into mainstream Mormonism. Friends, boyfriends, professors, and finally mental health counseling supported Westover on her journey. Her success was rooted in her native intelligence and desire to learn, but she was helped by many along the way.
Our book club had a terrific discussion that could have gone on past our designated hour. The book engaged us on an emotional level, some repulsed, some found it reflected experiences in their own lives, and some thought Westover’s story was one of hope and success.
This is a memoir, so we have to accept that events happened as told in the book. While the story is very well-written, I found some part really stretched the limits of believability. This is probably one of those sad but true stories.
Hard to believe it is true AND contemporary!
I don’t read many memoirs, but I certainly would recommend this one. A very interesting and inspiring story.
Insight into the dysfunctional family relates to all families to some degree or at least to people you may know and what they go through. Definitely empathy needed for them. Some make it and some don’t.
It was difficult to read at times but interesting almost unbelievable
This is a true story that’s more intriguing than fiction. I listened to it as an audiobook and the narrator was fantastic. This could be a study on so many things–brainwashing, being raised by a mentally ill parent, what happens when religion and mental illness collide, the power of knowledge, the unbelievable resilience of the author… But the bottom line is, you won’t want to stop reading or listening.
It is hard, but fascinating, to immerse yourself in Westover’s family life.
Amazing story of survival.
One of the very best books I have ever read! And a true, but scary, story.
Read this book. Amazing how a charismatic mentally unstable person can ruin their family,
Education shouldn’t be taken for granted. Being uneducated demonstrates how easily one can be kept in the dark about life, etc.
A powerful dysfunctional family memoir of a young woman who grew up in a mentally unstable violent family of grifters and self delusional con-artists, and how the power of self education and desire to learn dragged her out that family.
This book touches your heart. At times it is hard to read about the abuse and her struggle to become her own person. It raises questions about family relationships and care of self
Everyone who cannot “go home” for whatever reason, you should read this book and ask yourself what it would be like to go back to her home. First-generation students experience some of what this young woman must have experienced. Their parents most likely will not understand what they do. Visiting will be difficult. They can’t go home… Just turn up the usual experience to 10+ and that would be the author’s everyday life.
The thirst for knowledge is a two-sided sword for this admirable young lady.
I read this for my book club and we had a great discussion!
An amazing read. Tragic and inspirational at the same time.
Almost hard to imagine that these are real people. Many difficult situations all in the process of getting an education.