Educated: A Memoir

“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where the madness lies?”

Tara Westover grew up the youngest of a devout Mormon family, home bound in the rural mountains of Idaho. She wasn’t allowed to go to school or to doctors, not only because her father believed that these things were unholy and corrupt, but because he believed they must spend their days preparing for the end times. Her mother, a midwife and herbalist, supported the family delivering babies and making tinctures, while her father salvaged scrap metal in a junkyard, often daily putting the children in extreme physical danger. The household was chaotic, as the patriarch was prone to paranoia, verbal tirades, mood swings, and dangerous behavior.

Tara is drawn to books and learning, but a secular education is not up for discussion for any of the children, especially the girls. Most of them don’t have birth certificates nor have they set foot in a classroom. The children are made to work in the junkyard and Tara also helps in “woman’s work,” assisting her mother in the kitchen instead of going to school. When her violent brother moves back home, she is forced to endure countless abuses as she tries her best to temper her need for education and identity outside of the home, with the desire to be a good daughter and support the family unit. She isn’t afforded physical safety or personal growth by her parents, as they put her life at risk to work, and she is forced to live a life separate from the larger world. She loves the mountain and her family, but she feels that something is wrong. Even as a little girl who just wants to take dance lessons, she is shamed by her father who thinks the outfits are too revealing, leaving Tara torn between her love for her family and her desire to have fun, learn, and be a kid.

With encouragement of a family member, Tara finally takes the ACT and applies for college. But even as she succeeds in her learning, she fails to make her family proud of her success. Westover shows us that when a young person is indoctrinated to believe the outside world is evil, they may be unwilling or fearful to leave the home. The raw honesty of the author’s voice makes this a compelling page-turner. Even getting as far as Cambridge and Harvard, Tara finds herself unable to navigate the world. We can’t help but root for her as she grows above and beyond her strict and abusive childhood home, trying to reconcile her love for her family, God, and for herself.

For fans of the The Glass Castle, Jon Krakauer, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, and memoirs about families.