Book Review: Educated by Tara Westover

Educated by Tara Westover was recommended by Pandora Sykes on The High Low, one of my favourite podcasts. I've been wanting to get into reading more non-fiction for a while, and Pandora's review of Tara Westover's memoir completely won me over and I just had to buy a copy.

A brief summary: Tara was born in rural Idaho in 1986 to fundamentalist Mormon parents living a survivalist lifestyle, meaning they were in constant preparation for the End of Days. Tara's father is convinced that the world will come to an end at the turn of the millennium, and much of Tara and her six siblings' childhoods are spent in a constant state of panic as they hoard food and supplies in preparation for the inevitable that will ensue on 1st January 2000. Tara is aware from a young age that she and her family are different from those around them, even fellow Mormons. Tara has no birth certificate, no medical records, and doesn't go to school; her father does not believe in hospitals or public education, believing instead that anyone who works for or associates themselves with the government is a member of the Illuminati and is going to hell. Serious injuries are treated at home with oils and herbal mixtures concocted by Tara's mother, and injuries are common since all seven children work alongside their father on the family scrapyard instead of attending school.

The main themes that run throughout Tara's memoir are that of torn loyalties, education as power, and the trivialisation and distortion of female narrative and memory. I think forging your own identity as separate from your family is difficult, and especially so for Tara because her entire upbringing has been experienced through her Father's lens; he has no tolerance for differing opinions or anyone challenging his authority, and so Tara's view of the world is an exact mould of her Father's. Against the dramatic backdrop of Bucks Peak her world makes sense, but not even her Father's radical beliefs and strict regime could prevent Tara's curiosity from growing. Why does her Father push her and her siblings into life threatening situations on the scrapyard saying that their serious injuries are God's will? Why is it indecent for her to show any skin on her arms above her elbows? Why is her desire for an education 'unwomanly'?

I absolutely devoured this book and haven't enjoyed a memoir as much...ever. 'Enjoyed' may be the wrong word as it's not always a particularly happy tale, but Tara's way of documenting her memories is beautiful in its haphazardness and uncertainty. Throughout her life, her memories have been constantly challenged, altered, and trivialised to the point that she doesn't know whether what she remembers is even wholly true. Raised by a mother who is a shadow, an echo of her father, she is conditioned to emulate this behaviour have no opinion of her own. It raised some really interesting thought points for me about the dismissing of female narrative and experience in favour of an overarching male narrative; Tara's memories are dismissed as nonsense and her opinions brushed aside any time they are expressed, meaning her older brother gets away with years of abuse because her parents choose to turn a blind eye.

After teaching herself at home and enrolling in a local Mormon university, Tara struggles to fit in in the normal world. Her attitude is judgemental, scathing and discriminatory, and in anyone else would be condemned, but she knows no different. For years her brother called her a whore after catching her wearing lipgloss, and after she falls into a pile of soot he repeatedly calls her the N word. She knows those terms have been said to her in a derogatory way, but that's it. As she writes "I couldn't retaliate against the accusation because I didn't understand it" and this to me is the biggest example in the book of education as a means of power and emancipation. It is only through education that she is able to form her own mind and forge her own life, and it's the ultimatum she faces at the end of the book - whether to allow herself to be cleansed by the Lord or continue with the life her parents so disapprove of, that causes her so much pain and mental anguish. Tara writes that to have the love of her parents would mean surrendering custody of her own mind, and I cannot imagine a tougher decision to have to make. To leave behind everyone and everything you have ever known for the sake of your own sanity and what you know is right.

This is such an unbelievably powerful memoir and one I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.