soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2019-03-09 01:05 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2019-03-09 01:05 pm
Educated, by Tara Westover
Wow, this is a powerful book. It's a memoir by a woman only a few years older than myself, which is weird, that I'm approaching an age that's old enough that people can already be writing memoirs by this point.
But that's not what I really care about with this book.
The author grew up in rural seclusion, raised by parents who were the sort of radical separatists who thought the Feds are out to get everyone, and that doctors and hospitals are evil, and the end times are coming, and by no means is a child to set foot in an actual school. Her family was loving, but challenging, in some extremely real and awful ways.
Tara escapes her family by managing to get herself off to university, despite her "homeschooling" education being not much more than being taught to read. And slowly and painfully she begins the work of figuring out who she is and what her place is in the world, as she works her way through a successive series of more and more impressive academic accomplishments.
But the whole time she struggles with her relationship with her family, and whether there can be any possibility of a continuing relationship with her parents and various of her siblings, and whether what she's gained by leaving them is worth what what it feels like to be rejected by your family and to reject the world view you were raised to believe in.
She writes really thoughtfully and engagingly about all of this and it's great.
And then I was particularly struck by her last two pages, "A Note on the Text," which make explicit what's been clear all along, that she really understands the complexity of history, and of writing it down accurately, even when you were there for all of it - and what a difference some seemingly minor details make in the picture that's put together.
All in all: a very worthwhile read, which isn't something I often say about massively popular bestsellers getting recommended by famous people.
But that's not what I really care about with this book.
The author grew up in rural seclusion, raised by parents who were the sort of radical separatists who thought the Feds are out to get everyone, and that doctors and hospitals are evil, and the end times are coming, and by no means is a child to set foot in an actual school. Her family was loving, but challenging, in some extremely real and awful ways.
Tara escapes her family by managing to get herself off to university, despite her "homeschooling" education being not much more than being taught to read. And slowly and painfully she begins the work of figuring out who she is and what her place is in the world, as she works her way through a successive series of more and more impressive academic accomplishments.
But the whole time she struggles with her relationship with her family, and whether there can be any possibility of a continuing relationship with her parents and various of her siblings, and whether what she's gained by leaving them is worth what what it feels like to be rejected by your family and to reject the world view you were raised to believe in.
She writes really thoughtfully and engagingly about all of this and it's great.
And then I was particularly struck by her last two pages, "A Note on the Text," which make explicit what's been clear all along, that she really understands the complexity of history, and of writing it down accurately, even when you were there for all of it - and what a difference some seemingly minor details make in the picture that's put together.
All in all: a very worthwhile read, which isn't something I often say about massively popular bestsellers getting recommended by famous people.