Finished reading: Educated by Tara Westover 📚
Good book. It won’t make my favorites list, but I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading it. While Westover attempts to make education and the life of the mind the primary theme of the book, the neglect and abuse which she receives from her Mormon extremist family tends to steal the spotlight.
My own upbringing is not as dramatic as Westover’s, but there is no denying that my life has rhymed with hers on many, many levels. There were a handful of occasions where the dialogue could have been a verbatim copy-and-paste from conversations I have had in real time and her own commentary sometimes gave me language for feelings I know, but have never named.
Notably, Westover never attempts a takedown of religion or God, and instead deals delicately with the injuries that religion can cause in the hands of unstable or isolated people. While I understand the fierce debate about confessional memoirs and their ethics/veracity, I think that Westover is commendably gentle in the telling of her story. My heart breaks for her, and her family. I am grateful for the many people she has inspired and the encouragement they no doubt found in these pages.