Book Review: Educated by Tara Westover

I've just finished reading Educated by Tara Westover, and I'm relieved it's over. Relieved because Tara wrote her memoir with such skill that I felt the trauma through the page, and there was a lot of trauma-inducing violence.

This book review feels challenging to write. I've read many memoirs written by adult survivors of horrific child abuse, but this one has gotten under my skin in a big way.

As I write I'm thinking about the subjugation of women, the systematic suppression so effective that we forget we have voices, that we matter. I'm thinking about the wholesale suppression and abandonment of women by religious and political movements, established governments, medical systems and institutions. Horrific stories of domestic abuse, rape, child abuse, and patriarchal religious domination are becoming so run of the mill we're almost becoming immune to them. Still, the memories shared in this book have hurt me in a deep place. I'm having trouble pushing this simmering anger aside; I'm unsure why. Maybe it's the proverbial straw that broke the camel; maybe it's the degree of loss of self depicted in this memoir, I don't know.

After reading Tara's story, I stalked her family online, curious about their successful healing business. As an energy healer and a firm believer in the power of plant healing, I was incredulous that people who believed in many of the same things as I did could be so frighteningly disconnected from the principles of love and respect for all beings that are the foundations of a healing practice. I know I was being naive; people are capable of holding two realities in their hearts and minds, and in the case of Tara Westover's family, they are capable of enormous denial.

What surprised me the most as I searched the internet was how many people questioned Tara's account of her childhood. She had gone to great pains throughout her memoir to corroborate her story wherever possible; even her publisher had hired an independent fact checker, and still, people wondered openly if her story could be true. Was it because she rose above it triumphantly, earning a doctorate from Oxford despite never attending school? Would it have been easier to believe if she was a broken drug-addicted mess recounting her story to a ghostwriter? Who knows? But again, why am I surprised when we all know how notoriously difficult it is for victims of abuse to be heard and believed?

I'm afraid this book review has turned into a rant, so let me get back on track.

Tara Westover's memoir is a compelling but harrowing read. Be prepared for an excessive amount of suffering to fill the pages. Also, be ready for a sickening amount of violence, denial, suppression, and outright lunacy. At the same time, prepare for glimpses of love, acceptance, perseverance, loyalty and, in the end, a woman who prevails against all odds. It's a complex story of the consequences of undiagnosed mental illness, the systematic subjugation of women, unchallenged male authority, manipulative family dynamics, social isolation, and dysfunctional family loyalty. It also throws light on the issue of evil finding an easy place to flourish in uneducated and, as a consequence, financially oppressed communities.

Tara Westover's Educated is a memoir that will have me thinking for a long time. I highly recommend reading it, but this story comes with a hundred and one trigger warnings. Proceed with caution.