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Review: ‘Educated,’ by Tara Westover

By Alec MacGillis

• March 1, 2018
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(This book was selected as one of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2018. For the rest of the list, click here .)

EDUCATED A Memoir By Tara Westover 335 pp. Random House. $28.

America has struggled with the urban-rural divide for centuries, stretching all the way back to when Manhattan’s own Alexander Hamilton fixed his sights on backwoods whiskey distilleries as a revenue source for the new Republic, prompting rebellion. But one could make the case that the divide has never consumed us as much as it does today. The political parties are aligned more than ever around blue metropolises and red spaces in between. Economic growth is now so glaringly concentrated in certain urban areas that it has reignited the age-old debate over staying vs. going. Should the young and ambitious from struggling small towns and cities be encouraged to seek their fortune in the hotbeds of dynamism and overpriced Sunday brunch, or does this only sunder family ties and hasten the collapse of the interior?

It was this dilemma that helped make J. D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” a runaway best seller in 2016 — the tale of a young man who’d overcome the dysfunctions of his transplanted Appalachian family to ascend to the Ivy League and Silicon Valley, with plenty of culture shocks along the way. Yet Tara Westover’s new tale of escape, “Educated,” makes Vance’s seem tame by comparison. Where Vance wrote affectingly of showing up at Ohio State and Yale Law with the limited preparation provided by his middling schools in Middletown, Ohio, Westover describes showing up in college with no schooling at all. Where Vance describes a family contending with the all-too-common burdens of substance abuse, Westover lays bare a family cursed by ideological mania and outlandish physical trauma. If Vance’s memoir offered street-heroin-grade drama, Westover’s is carfentanil, the stuff that tranquilizes elephants.

The extremity of Westover’s upbringing emerges gradually through her telling, which only makes the telling more alluring and harrowing. The basics are these: Now in her early 30s, she was the youngest of seven in a survivalist family in the shadow of a mountain in a Mormon pocket of southeastern Idaho. Her father, Gene (a pseudonym), grew up on a farm at the base of the mountain, the son of a hot-tempered father, and moved up the slope with his wife, the product of a more genteel upbringing in the nearby small town. Gene sustained his growing family by building barns and hay sheds and by scrapping metal in his junkyard; his wife, Faye (also a pseudonym), chipped in with her income from mixing up herbal remedies and from her reluctant work as an unlicensed midwife’s assistant and then midwife.

During his 20s, Gene’s edgy and not uncharismatic intensity morphed into politically charged paranoia, fueled by what the reader is led to presume is a severe case of bipolar disorder. Around the age of 30, he pulled his eldest children from school to protect them from the Illuminati, though they, at least, had the benefit of a birth certificate, an indulgence the youngest four would be denied. In theory, the children were being home-schooled; in reality, there was virtually no academic instruction to speak of. They learned to read from the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the speeches of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. The only science book in the house was for young children, full of glossy illustrations. The bulk of their time was spent helping their parents at work. Barely into her teens, Westover graduated from helping her mom mix remedies and birth babies to sorting scrap with her dad, who had the unnerving habit of inadvertently hitting her with pieces he’d tossed.

Getting hit with a steel cylinder square in the gut was the least of the risks in the Westover household. The book is, among other things, a catalog of job-site horrors: fingers lost, legs gashed, bodies horribly burned. No pointy-headed bureaucrat could make a stronger case for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration than do the unregulated Westovers with their many calamities. Making matters worse is Gene’s refusal to allow any of the injured and wounded (himself included) to seek medical attention beyond his wife’s tinctures — “God’s pharmacy” — a refusal that also greatly exacerbates the effects of two terrible car accidents. “God and his angels are here, working right alongside us,” he tells Westover. “They won’t let you get hurt.” When she gets tonsillitis, he tells her to stand outside with her mouth open so that the sun can work its magic. She does, for a month.

As time goes on, the conflict between father and daughter gathers as inevitably as the lengthening fall shadows from Buck’s Peak above. Gene’s fervor and paranoia are undiminished by the failure of the world to end at Y2K, despite his ample preparations. (Westover offers the pathos-filled image of her father sitting expressionless in front of “The Honeymooners” as the world ticks quietly onward.) Meanwhile, she is starting to test the boundaries of an upbringing more tightly constricted than she can even begin to imagine. Her venture into a local dance class ends with her father condemning the group’s painfully modest performance outfits as whorish. Encouraged by an older brother who started studying covertly and eventually left for college, Westover attempts to do likewise, reading deep into her father’s books on the 19th-century Mormon prophets. “The skill I was learning was a crucial one, the patience to read things I could not yet understand,” she writes with characteristic understatement. (Only very occasionally is Westover’s assured prose marred by unnecessary curlicues.) As if her father’s tyranny is not enough, she must contend also with sadistic physical attacks from a different brother, whose instability was worsened by a 12-foot headfirst plunge onto rebar in yet another Westover workplace accident.

Tara makes her first big step toward liberation by, remarkably, doing well enough on the ACT to gain admission to Brigham Young University. (“It proves one thing at least,” her father says grudgingly. “Our home school is as good as any public education.”) There, she is shocked by the profane habits of her classmates, like the roommate who wears pink plush pajamas with “Juicy” emblazoned on the rear, and in turn shocks her classmates with her ignorance, never more so than when she asks blithely in art history class what the Holocaust was. (Other new discoveries for her: Napoleon, Martin Luther King Jr., the fact that Europe is not a country.) Such excruciating moments do not keep professors from recognizing her talent and voracious hunger to learn; soon enough, she’s off to a fellowship at Cambridge University, where a renowned professor — a Holocaust expert, no less — can’t help exclaiming when he meets her: “How marvelous. It’s as if I’ve stepped into Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion.’”

Westover eventually makes it to Harvard for another fellowship and then back to Cambridge to pursue her Ph.D. in history. Even then, she’s not yet fully sprung, so deeply rooted are the tangled familial claims of loyalty, guilt, shame and, yes, love. It is only when the final, wrenching break from most of her family arrives that one realizes just how courageous this testimonial really is. These disclosures will take a toll. But one is also left convinced that the costs are worth it. By the end, Westover has somehow managed not only to capture her unsurpassably exceptional upbringing, but to make her current situation seem not so exceptional at all, and resonant for many others. She is but yet another young person who left home for an education, now views the family she left across an uncomprehending ideological canyon, and isn’t going back.

Alec MacGillis covers government and politics for ProPublica. He is the author of “The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell.”

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Educated by Tara Westover review – escape from a Mormon fundamentalist family

W e hear a lot about the edges of the US these days. Geographically, these places might be in the middle of the continent, but they are on the periphery of the country’s economic life, and often the social one too. The people who live there are desperate and pitiable, we are told, just as much as they are brutal and superstitious.

Tara Westover’s memoir is about being from just such a place and people. She was born to Mormon fundamentalist parents in Idaho, the youngest of seven. Her father Gene was the prophet of their small family, convinced the world was going to end at the stroke of the millennium. (When it did not, the author observes, the “disappointment in his features was so childlike, for a moment I wondered how God could deny him this”.) He does not believe in sending his children to school, but does believe that dairy products are sinful, owing to a message from God. “Isaiah doesn’t say which is evil, butter or honey,” is how he delivers the good news. “But if you ask, the Lord will tell you!”

Faye, Westover’s mother, largely defers to her husband, in spite of what evidently were some doubts about the divinity of his testimony. She finds some independence in her roles as a kind of faith healer and as an experienced but apparently unlicensed midwife. Eventually, she takes up essential oils, something called muscle testing, and “energy work”. That all these activities appear somewhat contrary to Mormon religious doctrine is something Westover never explicitly addresses. In the same manner that her child self once did, she seems to accept her mother’s explanations. Muscle testing, for example, is an “act of faith in which God spoke through her fingers”.

In this account – Westover’s family dispute her version of events – life is grim in all the ways one might expect. Money is a constant struggle; Gene works largely in scrap metal but it isn’t enough. Cars driven by exhausted family members crash during long drives, but hospitals and western medicine are forbidden so injuries persist and fester. An amazing number of freak accidents befall the male Westovers: leg shreddings, burnings. The author herself is repeatedly beaten and abused by an elder brother who charges into her room while she’s sleeping and fastens his hands around her throat, calling her a whore because of her friendship with a local boy.

And she gradually makes her way out of all of it. She has no formal education but manages to study her way to college. She struggles initially but gets good enough marks to do a PhD at Cambridge. And in the course of all that, Westover writes, she found herself – through what some might call a “transformation” and others a “betrayal”. As she puts it in the last line of the book: “I call it an education.”

If this were the 1990s, a snarky columnist might have already slapped a genre label on this book from the summary alone, deriding it as an example of “misery lit”. These chronicles of tough beginnings were enormously popular; Frank McCourt ’s Angela’s Ashes and Augusten Burroughs’s Running With Scissors topped bestseller charts. Critics are apt to castigate the sentimentalism that often thuds through these books – people in them are villains and heroes, the messiness of real life condensed into easier answers about who was right or wrong. And when James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces turned out to be largely bunk, critics everywhere secretly rejoiced. They knew it, they said. They knew these books were dishonest melodramas.

Westover’s narrative style – episodic, meditative and repetitive – doesn’t embrace melodrama to the extent that many of those books did. Her voice is slightly flimsy, scaffolding with sheets of plastic floating off, as if still in the process of building itself. Other than as a sort of articulate vortex of suffering, one hasn’t much of a sense of her. Educated relies on the conceit that Westover was saved by books, but at the end I had a sense of our narrator still hiding behind her degrees and certificates, not quite ready to step into the light. I kept thinking of Mary Karr ’s The Liars’ Club , a memoir of her hardscrabble Texas upbringing, and how Karr’s voice was one you couldn’t ignore.

Like Karr, Westover has a story to tell that shouldn’t be ignored. Her background says something important about the US: that even in a place of great opportunity, you can grow up without any idea of how to touch its white-hot centre. This memoir tracks all the ways that traditional American life puts up roadblocks and actively dissuades you from outgrowing your “roots”. There are insights here that could compete with JD Vance’s problematic and more ideological Hillbilly Elegy – if only they were more directly articulated.

Educated is published by Hutchinson. To order a copy for £12.74 (RRP £14.99) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.

Tara Westover gained a PhD from Cambridge University

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“Educated,” by Tara Westover

By Alexandra Schwartz

I am far from the first critic to recommend Tara Westover’s astounding memoir, “ Educated ,” but if its comet tail of glowing reviews has not yet convinced you, let me see what I can do. Westover was born sometime in September, 1986—no birth certificate was issued—on a remote mountain in Idaho, the seventh child of Mormon survivalist parents who subscribed to a paranoid patchwork of beliefs well outside the mandates of their religion. The government was always about to invade; the End of Days was always at hand. Westover’s mother worked as a midwife and an herbal healer. Her father, who claimed prophetic powers, owned a scrap yard, where his children labored without the benefit of protective equipment. (Westover recounts accidents so hideous, and so frequent, that it’s a wonder she lived to tell her tale at all.) Mainstream medicine was mistrusted, as were schools, which meant that Westover’s determination to leave home and get a formal education—the choice that drives her book, and changed her life—amounted to a rebellion against her parents’ world.

This story, remarkable as it is, might be merely another entry in the subgenre of extreme American life, were it not for the uncommon perceptiveness of the person telling it. Westover examines her childhood with unsparing clarity, and, more startlingly, with curiosity and love, even for those who have seriously failed or wronged her. In part, this is a book about being a stranger in a strange land; Westover, adrift at university, can’t help but miss her mountain home. But her deeper subject is memory. Westover is careful to note the discrepancies between her own recollections and those of her relatives. (The ones who still speak to her, anyway. Her parents cut her off long ago.) “Part of me will always believe that my father’s words ought to be my own,” she writes. If her book is an act of defiance, a way to set the record of her own life straight, it’s also an attempt to understand, even to respect, those whom she had to break away from in order to get free.

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by Tara Westover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 20, 2018

An astonishing account of deprivation, confusion, survival, and success.

A recent Cambridge University doctorate debuts with a wrenching account of her childhood and youth in a strict Mormon family in a remote region of Idaho.

It’s difficult to imagine a young woman who, in her teens, hadn’t heard of the World Trade Center, the Holocaust, and virtually everything having to do with arts and popular culture. But so it was, as Westover chronicles here in fairly chronological fashion. In some ways, the author’s father was a classic anti-government paranoiac—when Y2K failed to bring the end of the world, as he’d predicted, he was briefly humbled. Her mother, though supportive at times, remained true to her beliefs about the subordinate roles of women. One brother was horrendously abusive to the author and a sister, but the parents didn’t do much about it. Westover didn’t go to public school and never received professional medical care or vaccinations. She worked in a junkyard with her father, whose fortunes rose and fell and rose again when his wife struck it rich selling homeopathic remedies. She remained profoundly ignorant about most things, but she liked to read. A brother went to Brigham Young University, and the author eventually did, too. Then, with the encouragement of professors, she ended up at Cambridge and Harvard, where she excelled—though she includes a stark account of her near breakdown while working on her doctoral dissertation. We learn about a third of the way through the book that she kept journals, but she is a bit vague about a few things. How, for example, did her family pay for the professional medical treatment of severe injuries that several of them experienced? And—with some justification—she is quick to praise herself and to quote the praise of others.

Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-399-59050-4

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017

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The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children. 

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. 

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ISBN: 0374500010

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006

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Well-told and admonitory.

Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.

Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.

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In 'Educated,' the inspiring story of an isolated young woman determined to learn

Tara Westover is living proof that some people are flat-out, boots-always-laced-up indomitable. Her new book,  Educated (Random House, 334 pp., ★★★★ out of four), is a heartbreaking, heartwarming, best-in-years memoir about striding beyond the limitations of birth and environment into a better life.  

At age 16, Westover, who had never attended school, who could only watch longingly as the school bus passed by on the highway every day, made a decision: She studied to pass college admission tests and got herself into Brigham Young University. She didn’t have the sense or sophistication to know exactly what she was aiming for. She simply had the tiny nugget of an idea that other kids, normal kids, went to school and learned things, and that was probably a good thing.

Her childhood had been hard and odd. She and her six siblings grew up in rural Idaho in a filthy, ramshackle house nestled against a mountain she loved and a chaotic junkyard she didn’t. No television, radio or even telephone for many years. No doctor visits, no matter what.

Her father was a domineering man who responded to conflict or challenge with long lectures about God and obsessed about armed Feds showing up at the door. The kids had “head-for-the hills” bags they could grab if they had to abandon their home and survive in the woods. He insisted on home births, and though some of the children attended school for a time, he eventually ruled all public schooling off-limits. He ordered that guns, provisions and water be buried on the property so that when the apocalypse came — “when everyone (would be) drinking from puddles and living in darkness” — his family would survive.

The author’s mother, an herbalist and midwife, was worn out and worn down by marriage. She rarely challenged her husband, abiding by his decrees and tending to family injuries — including her own horrific brain injury from a car wreck (from which she never fully recovered) — at home, with needles, thread, herbs and bed rest.

Westover learned to drive a forklift when she was too young to drive a car, endured various kinds of physical and emotional abuse by a brother, and was instructed in the “art of shutting up,” as her mother called it. That required keeping utterly silent when possible and speaking little when it wasn’t to protect the family and the circumstances of their lives.

For all that she endured, hers did not approach the horrifically isolated and abusive lives of the 13 children in the Turpin family in California who made recent headlines. Westover is careful to present the good parts with the bad: She had loving relationships with her grandparents and a few friends outside the family; her father was at times tender; she was permitted to participate in local theater; and she worked in town sometimes.   

And even when presenting the rough parts, Westover, now 31, doesn’t wail. She writes about it as she processed it when she was growing up insulated: in a straightforward manner. It wasn’t until she reached her teen years that she began to realize not everyone lived this way.  

So she went off to BYU at 17 with 12 jars of home-canned peaches and a garbage bag full of clothes (all the wrong kinds). She made few friends, had to cover enormous ground to make up for her cultural and book-learning ignorance, and yet, eventually she received a doctoral degree from Cambridge.

It’s incredible, yes. But once you sift through her life, not so very surprising.

Book Review: Educated by Tara Westover

Author: Tara Westover

Publisher: Random House

Genre: Memoir, coming-of-age tale

First Publication:  2018

Language:  English

Major Characters: Tara Westover, Gene Westover (Her Dad), Faye Westover (Her Mother), Shawn Westover, Charles, Professor Steinberg

Theme: Memory, History, and Subjectivity; Learning and Education; Devoutness and Delusion; Family, Abuse, and Entrapment

Setting: Idaho, Utah, Cambridge

Narration:  First person

Book Summary: Educated by Tara Westover

Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her “head-for-the-hills bag”. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard.

Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention of Tara Westover. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes and the will to change it.

Educated is a memoir of the growing up of Tara Westover. The book is split into three parts: growing up and her childhood; College, predominantly at BYU; and, further education and the cracking of familial relationships. This book, I found, was largely an exploration of her familial relationships and the empowerment of education.

This memoir starts off in Bucks Peak, where Tara grows up on the mountain, which was presented as very picturesque in writing. Without seeing pictures of the place, you could imagine the junkyard Tara use to play and work in, the animals roaming the sides of the mountain, her numerous siblings all playing around and living under her father’s roof.

“It’s strange how you give the people you love so much power over you.”

Tara’s father is a prominent figure in this memoir; a fundamentalist Mormon, he teaches the Mormon book as gospel and is incredibly strict in his teachings. He also states how he receives messages from God and all events in the world are leading up to The End of Days, the end of the world and so he ruthlessly enlists the help of his children and wife to prepare for this impending doom (this includes storing food and trying to dig a waterline into the mountain). Besides these views of grandeur, her father is also manipulative and often deceitful to achieve what he wants. He also has a very misogynistic view of what women should and shouldn’t be, how they should dress, etc.

Throughout childhood you see Tara complying with these ideals (for example, judging women on the length of their skirts if they are above the ankle). She doesn’t know any other way of thinking or critical thought as this is the only way she has been taught to think. She never attends school and is taught to reject societal conventions and to judge others who are unlike her, to see them as wrong.

“We are all of us more complicated than the roles we are assigned in the stories other people tell”

Tara also has to deal with an abusive and dangerous family member, her brother. He is incredibly manipulative and deceptive and uses violence. You watch her journey through self doubt and self blame, and even when she does accept it,. her family members turn a blind eye. These parts of the book were uncomfortable to read.

Through attending BYU and onto Cambridge for her doctorate, you find Tara developing as a person, but also admitting the strain between her life on the junkyard and her life at prestigious institutions in education. The gap between family and education broadens and conflicts her mind. Through education, she was empowered and her transformation was courageous. She is absolutely remarkably smart despite the containment of her family values causing her severe mental health problems. She develops critical thinking and analysis of her own life, freeing herself from the confines of her father’s teaching. The great thing about Educated by Tara Westover is that, despite her conflicts with certain family members, she was able to develop and create new familial relationships with others, leading to loving and trusting relationships.

“I began to experience the most powerful advantage of money: the ability to think of things besides money.”

Educated by Tara Westover was lyrical in prose and read as incredibly smart. From the outset you can see how smart and curious Tara was and is as a person. This book held the qualities of being heart-breaking and uplifting, but mostly exceedingly frustrating. This frustration was not from the writing but from how people can react to someone admitting that they were/are a victim of abuse. This was a remarkable story to read and Tara is an incredibly courageous and resilient person.

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Although eating whole-grain bread might make me feel virtuous, in my experience it just never seems to taste as good as white bread.

Quest for knowledge

Educated  is even better than you’ve heard

Melinda and I loved Tara Westover’s journey from the mountains of Idaho to the halls of Cambridge.

I’ve always prided myself on my ability to teach myself things. Whenever I don’t know a lot about something, I’ll read a textbook or watch an online course until I do.

I thought I was pretty good at teaching myself—until I read Tara Westover’s memoir Educated . Her ability to learn on her own blows mine right out of the water. I was thrilled to sit down with her recently to talk about the book.

Tara was raised in a Mormon survivalist home in rural Idaho. Her dad had very non-mainstream views about the government. He believed doomsday was coming, and that the family should interact with the health and education systems as little as possible. As a result, she didn’t step foot in a classroom until she was 17, and major medical crises went untreated (her mother suffered a brain injury in a car accident and never fully recovered).

Because Tara and her six siblings worked at their father’s junkyard from a young age, none of them received any kind of proper homeschooling. She had to teach herself algebra and trigonometry and self-studied for the ACT , which she did well enough on to gain admission to Brigham Young University. Eventually, she earned her doctorate in intellectual history from Cambridge University. (Full disclosure: she was a Gates Scholar, which I didn’t even know until I reached that part of the book.)

Educated is an amazing story, and I get why it’s spent so much time on the top of the New York Times bestseller list. It reminded me in some ways of the Netflix documentary Wild, Wild Country , which I recently watched. Both explore people who remove themselves from society because they have these beliefs and knowledge that they think make them more enlightened. Their belief systems benefit from their separateness, and you’re forced to be either in or out.

But unlike Wild, Wild Country —which revels in the strangeness of its subjects— Educated doesn’t feel voyeuristic. Tara is never cruel, even when she’s writing about some of her father’s most fringe beliefs. It’s clear that her whole family, including her mom and dad, is energetic and talented. Whatever their ideas are, they pursue them.

Of the seven Westover siblings, three of them—including Tara—left home, and all three have earned Ph.D.s. Three doctorates in one family would be remarkable even for a more “conventional” household. I think there must’ve been something about their childhood that gave them a degree of toughness and helped them persevere. Her dad taught the kids that they could teach themselves anything, and Tara’s success is a testament to that.

I found it fascinating how it took studying philosophy and history in school for Tara to trust her own perception of the world. Because she never went to school, her worldview was entirely shaped by her dad. He believed in conspiracy theories, and so she did, too. It wasn’t until she went to BYU that she realized there were other perspectives on things her dad had presented as fact. For example, she had never heard of the Holocaust until her art history professor mentioned it. She had to research the subject to form her own opinion that was separate from her dad’s.

Her experience is an extreme version of something everyone goes through with their parents. At some point in your childhood, you go from thinking they know everything to seeing them as adults with limitations. I’m sad that Tara is estranged from a lot of her family because of this process, but the path she’s taken and the life she’s built for herself are truly inspiring.

When you meet her, you don’t have any impression of all the turmoil she’s gone through. She’s so articulate about the traumas of her childhood, including the physical abuse she suffered at the hands of one brother. I was impressed by how she talks so candidly about how naïve she once was—most of us find it difficult to talk about our own ignorance.

I was especially interested to hear her take on polarization in America. Although it’s not a political book, Educated touches on a number of the divides in our country: red states versus blue states, rural versus urban, college-educated versus not. Since she’s spent her whole life moving between these worlds, I asked Tara what she thought. She told me she was disappointed in what she called the “breaking of charity”—an idea that comes from the Salem witch trials and refers to the moment when two members of the same group break apart and become different tribes.

“I worry that education is becoming a stick that some people use to beat other people into submission or becoming something that people feel arrogant about,” she said. “I think education is really just a process of self-discovery—of developing a sense of self and what you think. I think of [it] as this great mechanism of connecting and equalizing.”

Tara’s process of self-discovery is beautifully captured in Educated . It’s the kind of book that I think everyone will enjoy, no matter what genre you usually pick up. She’s a talented writer, and I suspect this book isn’t the last we’ll hear from her. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Hannah Ritchie’s Not the End of the World is an essential antidote to environmental doomsday-ism.

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Educated by Tara Westover review: An extraordinary Mormon upbringing recounted with evocative lyricism

Tara westover hadn’t heard about the holocaust, wwii or martin luther king until university.

Westover’s story is so extraordinary that its bare bones would have been enough to make a fascinating book. Photograph: Kenny Crookston/BYU

During an art history lecture in her first term at Brigham Young University, Utah, Tara Westover came across a word she had never encountered before. Having seen other students ask questions, Westover raised her hand. “I don’t know this word,” she said. “What does it mean?”

What she describes as “an almost violent silence” followed. Then the professor snapped, “Thanks for that” and continued with the lecture. Afterwards a previously friendly classmate told her, “You shouldn’t make fun of that” and walked away. Confused, Westover went to the computer lab and looked up the word. Then she understood the reaction to her question. The word was “Holocaust”.

Westover was born in 1986, but until that day, she had never heard of the mass murder of Jews during the second World War. She had never heard of Napoleon, or Martin Luther King, and she thought Europe was a country. She had never set foot in a classroom or visited a doctor. She had grown up in rural Idaho in a family dominated by her father Gene, a radical Mormon survivalist who was determined to keep his seven children out of, as he saw it, the clutches of the government and the wider world.

Officially the children were being “home-schooled”, but by the time Tara was eight, all pretence at formal lessons had stopped, and she was soon working hard in the family junkyard. Schooling, according to the Westover parents, was “brainwashing”. The only other families with whom they socialised were, like them, preparing for societal breakdown or a raid by government forces. And yet today Tara, who had never been in a classroom until she went to Brigham Young University, has an M Phil and a PhD from Cambridge. How did that happen? And what else did she gain – and lose – along the way?

Westover’s story is so extraordinary that its bare bones would have been enough to make a fascinating book, so the fact that she tells it with such enormous skill and insight feels like a bonus. The narrative is perfectly paced, revealing more and more details as Westover gradually begins to see her family, whose beliefs and lifestyle she has always taken for granted, in relief for the first time.

Race, for example, isn’t mentioned at all in the book until Westover reaches college – beforehand, it simply hasn’t been something she’s thought about, growing up in an entirely white environment. But as she is hit by the reality of America’s brutal racial history, she realises that her family have wilfully or accidentally ignored and dismissed this history, “that we had lent our voices to a discourse whose sole purpose was to dehumanize and brutalise others.”

There is no doubt that Westover’s parents loved their children deeply. But Gene Westover’s wilful disregard for his family’s safety and wellbeing is so enraging that at times I had to put down the book and take a deep breath. The narrative is full of horrific accidents caused by his refusal to consider basic safety practices. And when these accidents take place, no doctor can be called, because doctors are tools of socialism.

But Westover never demonises him, or her mother, a midwife and herbalist who facilitated his delusions. She doesn’t even demonise her violent brother, whose behaviour provided a further impetus to get away from her stifling environment. She recounts her experiences with a matter-of-fact lyricism that is extraordinarily evocative, and which makes the emotional impact of the inevitable rift between herself and some members of her family even more powerful.

Educated reminds us that education doesn't just mean learning about history and science and art. It means learning how to think for oneself. But once a woman has learned "how to see and experience more truths than those given to me by my father, and to use those truths to create my own mind, is it possible to reconcile her old and new selves?". Westover knows there is no easy answer to this question. She knows that her education has brought pain as well as fulfilment. But that education has given her ability to define her life and tell her own unforgettable story, and for that readers everywhere should be grateful.

Anna Carey's sixth novel Mollie on the March will be published in March.

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Educated Is a Brutal, One-of-a-Kind Memoir

Tara Westover's coming-of-age story follows her upbringing in a survivalist family, and her decision to leave that life behind.

T ara Westover’s one-of-a-kind memoir is about the shaping of a mind, yet page after page describes the maiming of bodies—not just hers, but the heads, limbs, and torsos of her parents and six siblings, too. The youngest child in a fundamentalist Mormon family living in the foothills of Buck’s Peak, in Idaho, she grew up with a father fanatically determined to protect his family against the “brainwashing” world. Defending his isolated tribe against the physical dangers—literally brain-crushing in some cases—of the survivalist life he imposed was another matter.

Westover, who didn’t set foot in school until she left home in adolescence, toiled at salvaging scrap in his junkyard, awaiting the end days and/or the invading feds her father constantly warned of. Neither came. Nor, amazingly, did death or defeat, despite grisly accidents. Terrified, impaled, set on fire, smashed—the members of this clan learned that pain was the rule, not the exception. But succumbing was not an option, a lesson that ultimately proved liberating for Westover.

In briskly paced prose, she evokes a childhood that completely defined her. Yet it was also, she gradually sensed, deforming her. Baffled, inspired, tenaciously patient with her ignorance, she taught herself enough to take the ACT and enter Brigham Young University at 17. She went on to Cambridge University for a doctorate in history.

For Westover, now turning 32, the mind-opening odyssey is still fresh. So is the soul-wrenching ordeal—she hasn’t seen her parents in years—that isn’t over.

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By Tara Westover

Book review and synopsis for Educated by Tara Westover, a personal journey about a childhood in a survivalist home.

Educated is a memoir by Tara Westover, a woman who grows up as the youngest of seven in a rural Idaho Mormon community. She and her siblings were all born at home and are homeschooled, and her parents are deeply suspicious of the government. Her father fears the influence of the Illuminati, thought that Y2K would be the harbinger of the Second Coming, and believes public education standards are just brainwashing.

The story is told in three parts. Part One details her childhood. Westover describes her father's radicalization and the many serious (and often gruesome) injuries that her family members refuse to get medial treatment for.

In Part Two, Westover ventures to college at BYU. She describes the culture shock of being confused about what the Holocaust was or having to learn about slavery, and she struggles through her first romantic relationship. Finally in Part Three, Westover goes to Cambridge for her PhD, attempts to confront her family about their issues and brings us up to date with her life now.

(The Full Plot Summary is also available, below)

Full Plot Summary

Tara Westover grows up with in an unconventional way (no birth certificates, no medical records, etc.). She and her siblings have been raised on a mountaintop in Idaho.

Her family lives in a Mormon community, and her father, Gene , is a survivalist. He believes in self-sufficiency. His dogma becomes entrenched after an incident where the neighbors were attacked by the government. Her mother, Faye , is the town’s midwife, a practice that is illegal in Idaho. Faye had a very normal upbringing, and Tara believes Faye married Gene as rebellion against it.

Tara and her sibling don't have proper schooling, medical care and the like. When Faye is in a serious accident during the move to Idaho, she doesn't receive medical treatment, and she has chronic headaches after that. Gene is against schooling, but Tara’s oldest brother Tyler ends up going to college anyway. Tara decides she needs to go, too.

Tara also recalls an incident where her brother Luke gets burned, though he family’s recollection of what happened is all different. It's one of many incidences where there's discrepancies among her family about what happened growing up. When Y2K approaches, Gene starts getting preoccupied with preparing for Y2K and is depressed when nothing happens.

Tara has a caring relationship with her brother Shawn in some ways, but Shawn also has a dangerousness to him, and he can be mean, controlling, physically and emotionally abusive and violent. Meanwhile, Tyler encourages Tara to go to college. Young Tara wants to change her life. She takes the ACT and is accepted into BYU. Her father is firmly against it and continues to be volatile and dangerous. Her mother and other family members discreetly try to encourage her.

At BYU, Tara settles into her new, strange life. She experiences culture shock as well as difficulties in school since she is far behind the other students going in. When Tara returns home for the summer, she starts hanging out with a boy from town, Charles , and starts to see her previous life as being a little backwards. Gene and Shawn think she’s become "uppity" and call her names. Tara gets a headache, Charles gives her an ibuprofen, and Tara is shocked to experience medicine that actually works (as opposed to the home remedies she's accustomed to).

She's also stressed from financial and academic pressures, and her friends have to help her with her personal hygiene. When Charles visits her home sees the hostile, abusive environment, he feels in over his head and breaks things off with her. The church Bishop at school is supportive of Tara and tries to help her with her. He encourages her to apply for a grant, which later comes through.

During an introductory psychology course, Tara realizes that Gene likely has bipolar disorder. She starts learns the truth of the event (Ruby Ridge incident) from child. It was a drug raid, but Gene had believed the government attacked that family for their beliefs. Meanwhile, at home, Gene gets into a bad accident, and the family cares for him for weeks. When he finally heals, it strengthens Faye and Gene's beliefs that traditional medical treatment is unnecessary.

Tara decides to study abroad at Cambridge. Her professor takes an interest in her and encourages to believe in herself. When she graduates, she decides to pursue a Master’s Degree at Cambridge. As Tara begins her PhD program and after more culture shock, Tara finally starts feeling like she’s fitting in at Cambridge. On the home front, she also attempts to confront her family about Shawn's behavior. Audrey and Tara discuss Shawn's abusive behavior, but it results in more violent and angry outbursts from Shawn. When nothing changes, Tara talks to her father who refuses to believe her, and Faye tries to convince Tara her memories are wrong. Shawn says he's cutting Tara out of his life, and soon Audrey recants and cuts Tara out as well.

Tara finally tells them goodbye and walks out. Tara’s work on her PhD suffers, but she’s able to get back on track when Tyler surprisingly supports her. Tara gets her PhD. In the final chapters, Tara goes home after a long absence, but has not reconciled with her parents.

The book ends with Tara reflecting on her fractured family. When Faye's mother passes away, Tara goes to the funeral, but sits apart from them. Shawn does not look at Tara during the service. As of the publication of the book many years later, the funeral is the last time Tara has seen her parents.

For more detail, see the full Section-by-Section Summary .

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Book Review

Educated , by Tara Westover, was one of the bestselling books on 2018 and has continued to top the charts even now, despite being released over a year ago. I put it on my to-read list thanks to Bill Gate’s book blog , and Ellen Degeneres read it after Michelle Obama recommended it to her.

Point is, if you’re reading this book, at least you know you’re in good company.

( Update 8/2020 : LaRee Westover — “Faye” in the book, the mother of Tara Westover, has written a book called “Educating” that’s partially a response to Educated. She’s crowdfunding it on Indiegogo . )

Educated opens with an episode from Westover’s childhood. She is six years old. As it was explained to her, a nearby family, the Weavers, has been under siege and shot at by the government for being “freedom fighters,” resulting in the deaths of the mom and a 14-year-old boy. (In reality, the Weavers were in a raid gone awry for possessing illegal weapons .) It’s a formative experience, marking the point where her father starts to transform into a radicalized survivalist, and Westover wonders in the book a few times what he would have been like if she’d known him before that.

Westover writes that “four of my parents’ seven children don’t have birth certificates. We have no medical records because we were born at home and have never seen a doctor or nurse. We have no school records because we’ve never set foot in a classroom.”

Author Tara Westover

The Good Stuff

Educated is a fascinating book on multiple levels. As a personal journey for Westover, it’s triumphant and hopeful. Westover goes from receiving very little education to eventually getting her PhD at Cambridge.

As a story, it’s unique. Westover’s experiences make for a distinctive perspective, accented with colorful anecdotes.

And as a reader, it’s interesting to consider how her perspective is shaped by the usual fallacies of memory and perspective.

For example, as I was reading, I wondered if the event she describes in the first chapter was as dramatic as she believes, or if the drama of it was heightened by being told about it at a young age and slowly building a mythos out of it. How would she have viewed her father if no one had ever later described the scene to her?

Some Criticisms and Caveats

To be honest, Educated is not the type of book I would’ve selected if it weren’t for its overwhelming popularity. It’s highly personal and not a topic I’m particularly interested in. But the story was compelling enough that I found myself invested in it, even if it did drag in a few parts.

I couldn’t help feeling, though, that perhaps Westover wrote this book too soon. It seems like the story we’re reading is the one she’s constructed to make sense of everything that happened to her, but I imagine she still has a longer journey to really process it all and what it means.

Some parts of the book, especially when it comes to her own behavior seem too neat and tidy to be the whole story. When her father offers her a blessing, she responds “I love you. But I can’t. I’m sorry, Dad” and he just walks out of the room. Scenes like that feel more like a made-for-TV movie than the truth.

When the book concludes, things are essentially unresolved with her family. I would be surprised if that’s where their story ends, even if they made some big mistakes.

Educated vs. Hillbilly Elegy

There have been a number of comparisons of Educated with J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy , but they’re fairly different books. Hillbilly Elegy is a much more political book that’s trying to explain the economic conditions impacting white working-class Appalachian communities. Meanwhile, though Westover’s memoir involves a family that is geographically rooted in Trumpland, her story isn’t meant to be representative of Trump voters or even of her Mormon community in Southern Idaho.

Westover’s father has more radical views than most in their religious community. He firmly believes women shouldn’t work, and he’s a survivalist, busy hoarding food and being paranoid about potential attacks from the government and whatnot. Westover discusses how he likely has an untreated personality disorder.

Read it or Skip It?

I enjoyed parts of Educated. It’s an inherently interesting story, and one that’s worth telling.

It’s not a book I would have normally chosen for myself if it weren’t for all the glowing endorsements, but I’m glad I gave it a shot. For me, it didn’t quite live up to the hype, but I do feel like I got something out of her story.

Have you read this book or would you consider reading it? See Educated on Amazon .

Tara Westover’s Family and Responses to Educated

I went through a lot of the comments that her family has made publicly (on Facebook, Amazon, and Goodreads, etc.) about the book, and it seems Westover’s family members have been vocal about their disagreement (“lies”, according to them) with some of the parts of the book. However, throughout Educated, Westover often acknowledges the question marks in her memories, and it seems like they mostly take issue with the overall portrayal as opposed to disputing specific facts.

To be fair, it does seem like her family members are not quite the bumpkins she makes them out to be. At one point in the book, her mom has to force her dad’s hand in getting a phone line installed, for example. However, in reality they don’t seem as backwards — they run a business and are pretty active on Facebook and whatnot. Her mom comments frequently on the book.

Tara gives many of her family monikers in the book, but in actuality her parents are Val (“ Gene “) and LaRee Westover (“ Faye “). “Shawn” is the nickname for Travis. (Tyle, Richard and Luke Westover are referred to by their actual names in the book.) Her older sister Valaree (“ Audrey “) and her mother run an essential oils business together. It has a Facebook , Instagram and even a YouTube channel. They even sell a book about essential oils . The family’s lawyer claims it has 30 employees, multiple facilities and relies on an automated assembly line ( PDF version in case that link goes down).

On the other hand, it’s worth mentioning that her brother — or at least someone claiming to be him — Tyler (real name) has come out with extensive comments that don’t seem to contradict the book. He noted some inaccuracies in her perceptions ( PDF version ), but seems to corroborate large parts of the story. Also, Richard (also his real name)’s profile on his university’s website ( PDF version ) corroborates the spotty education they received as kids: “Westover said he is probably the only ISU masters-level chemist who had to start with a beginning math course at ISU.”

In the comments of one of the articles linked above, Richard Westover has also responded to the book with the following:

“The relationship between my sister and my parents, like that of many poeple, is more complicated than either this article or the book can portray. Tara is doing the best she can with what she knows and I give her kudos as well for that. I think people reading either the book or the article should suspend judgement. Having read both, and lived through it as well, I would not consider myself in possesion of the facts tsufficient to pass judgement to the extent many of the commenters seem to be willing to do. To you it is a book and it is cheap to rant about it. To me, it is my life and I’m still living it. Tara comes to my house to visit occasionally and I still call my parents every week.”

Important Note : While they seem to want to share their side of the story, its seems sad that many people have taken that as an invitation to harass her family. As a reminder, they’re private citizens responding to a story about themselves. John Oliver did a fantastic piece on public shaming . He discusses how it’s often a useful tool, but also how it can be abused. I hope no one reads this book and thinks that the main takeaway should be “I need to go harass these private citizens / people I don’t know RIGHT NOW.”

Book Excerpt

Read the first pages of Educated

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Great review!!

thank you! and thanks for dropping by!

I really liked Educated but I see what you mean by saying there will probably be more to the story. Really thorough review!

I can see why people liked it so much for sure, I think I probably had unrealistic expectations reading it this late in the game — thanks for dropping by!

Great review of the book, both of its attributes and its faults. I think the book treads an often invisible line of reporting memories versus reporting facts, and I appreciated that Westover was open about the possibility that the two might not be the same for her. The book really spoke to me as an educator who possesses a fair amount of privilege, but I think we can all learn something about the importance of not writing people off as lost causes simply because they are ignorant. I’m glad you found some value in her story, even if you didn’t love it. (It’s so easy to be disappointed by such great hype!)

Thank you, Veronica! I agree, I liked that she is really open about admitting that she’s only recounting her memories of what happened. And yes! I think it’s so true that there’s a lot of valuable lessons to be learned from her story. I’m glad people are reading it. Honestly, I think it’s just in certain parts where I knew where the story was headed (I’d heard her talk about the book before reading it, etc.), I got a little bit bored once I sort of had the gist of what was going on (but I think that’s just my own impatience). Plus with all the hype, I had like CRAZY expectations, haha. Thank you for your insightful comments!

Loved the review!

Thank you! And thanks for reading!

Great review. You really dug into the background. You made some good points about how soon this was written after. I do usually think it takes some time to make sense of our past.

Thank you catherine!

Terrific review, thanks

thank you! :)

very nice review!!

thank you very much! :)

I heard about this book. I need to read it but I fear it might break my heart before I get to the end so I have to gear myself up for it. Really a well-written write/up. I hope the author sees your post.

Thank you so much and thanks for reading!

Very thoughtful review. Thanks!

Thank you, much appreciated!

Great review! I have been wanting to read this book for so long now, but just end up choosing something else always for some reason.

Thank you! Hope you enjoy it if you get a chance to read it!

The waitlist for this book is nuts. I feel like I’ve been waiting forever. I love stories about people who grow up in unusual situations, so I think I’ll like this one. Great review!

oh yes, if that’s what interests you, I definitely think you should read it! Thanks for dropping by! Hope you get off the waitlist soon! :)

Been thinking about reading this one for a while now, thank you for the great review!

thank you! hope you like it if you get a chance to read it!

Excellent review! Although it’s not a book I would usually be drawn to, your review made me curious enough to give it a try.

That’s great to hear, thank you!

Your review of Educated was the most honest of all the ones I’ve read. Thank you!

Are Educated and Hillbilly Elegy novels? I thought they were biographical memoirs and considered non fiction. maybe that’s where people get caught up in trying to find out if it’s true or not. If it’s a novel, then just take as a story, not the truth.

I can’t wait to read it.

Fantastic articulation of a story that has something for everyone. With or without the abusive factor, I felt she told her story in a way that would benefit anyone’s family situation. The abusive factors, the dangers inherent in the working situations she experienced as a child, only added to our insights into these relationships. So many episodes in the book gave me personal emotions, but one favorite scene is when Tara is on the rooftop in england with her professor and her classmates. The wind is fierce and would scare anyone. Tara walks up to edge of roof, standing as if there is no wind and has no fear. Her professor comes near her and observes how her classmates are huddled together in the middle of the roof, bent forward and facing sideways so the wind won’t sweep them away. Tara, for all her differences growing up, stands like a superman in front of the other girls.

Her stories, like the roof scene, weave together a larger story of a life filled with unique experiences that might bring anyone to their knees. She survives all this in such a way that she shows all of us that, if we stick to it and really try, we can be supermen, too. Thank you, Tara, for sharing your love and strength. Beautiful book.

I enjoyed your review until you commented that the crazy Westover’s radical beliefs were firmly in Trumpland. Really?? What on earth do their views have to do with the average Trump supporter? You, obviously have no idea.

Hi Karen, I write in the review that their family is located in Trumpland (as in, located in an area where people generally support Trump) but their beliefs are NOT representative and are actually considered extreme, even for their community.

Hope this clears things up. Best, Jenn

Loved the book but very upset with the people in Preston. Why didn’t they step in to help her and why didn’t someone do something about “Shawn”? Preston is a small town where everyone knows everyone’s business. I know as I grew up in several small towns in southern Idaho. I admire Tara with what she has down with her life.

I was impressed with the book because I personally relate to it. Like Tara, I lacked a high school education and BYU gave me a chance no one else would have. I am even more impressed when I have listened to her interviews. She is in the same position that I have been my entire life. I know good people on both sides of our divided country and we desperately need intelligent people like Tara to be able to discourse with both side and bring reason to our crumbling society.

I agree with Karen. Labeling an area of the country “Trumpland” reeks of a kind of racism. Albeit not the most common kind, but in my opinion still shows ignorance. Trump has actually gotten some pretty important things done in our country. Do your research.

How would it be racism, also read the reviewers reply, it clears up what she meant

I read this a few years ago, right after it came out. Her mother is releasing her side of the story this coming year and I just pre-ordered it. I own one of LaRee’s books already, and buy her products on a regular basis. Her mother is nothing short of incredible, even if her father is possibly insane. Because of LaRee’s new book, I have revisited Tara’s book. This review is much better than most of the reviews I have read, and interviews I have watched. Thank you for that. I am very frustrated at most readers’ inability to see what this book is about. It is not about “Mormonism” or homeschooling or education or natural medicine at all. It is about mental illness and abuse. Her focus on being off the grid, Mormon, and homeschooled or unschooled takes away from the real story. I feel like all of the interviews I have watched have focused on the fact that she was born at home, unschooled (which is what she was, yet no one has done enough research before an interview to name it as such), and never went to the doctor. There are a great many families that practice natural medicine and unschool that don’t need her form of “education”. I unschool my children, practice natural medicine and am a Latter Day Saint. We also live in Idaho and are self employed. I have many friends who choose the same lifestyle. However, my children are very confident, know they are safe and loved, and have had very magical childhoods free from the pressures of school. So far we have one college graduate. We belong to several homeschool groups and have a rich life free from the restraint of the mainstream. She generalizes the the movements that she attacks. Her interviews make me sick. She ignores the horrible parts of her life in the book and focuses on the lack of “education”. Her unschooling and being un-vaxed had nothing to do with her trauma. Thank you for focusing on the trauma and seeing the book for what it truly is.

I just finished Educated and it was great. It is hard to believe what some children have to live through to become adults. It appears to me that Tara has done a great job of raising and educating herself. She reminds me of Jeanette Walls from the Glass Castle. Great informative review.

I just finished the book last night and your review was spot on. I didn’t think I would get into it the way I did but it definitely held my interest

An interesting review. As a child of an emotionally abusive parent (who now swears she doesn’t remember half of the things her kids recount to her) I can easily see where the disconnect between Tara and her parents’ narrative lies. As a child we miss intention behind parents’ action. As a parent we miss the impact. The truth likely lies somewhere in between. But – and this is obviously a bias of my own experience – I know I believe none of her story was concocted.

Hey, thanks for your thoughts. That’s definitely a useful perspective to consider as well. I appreciate you sharing your comment!

I just finished the book and so appreciate d Tara’s story. This is a personal account of one person’s struggle to understand, deal with and overcome abuse from within a family. Is is fair for any of us to judge her journey through this? Why does it matter? I commend this young woman for examining herself, her life and her worth in it. Her willingness to offer this story to anyone who may need to hear it is truly a gift. If it speaks to you in some way, drink it in. If not, let it pass over you. This is art.

thank you for this post! i love it

thanks umi!

Hi and thank you for inviting my thoughts here. Having a little extra time on my hands recently has allowed me to revisit some of the themes explored in Educated. It’s funny because I recently sought out some perspectives on the book from a few sites. Bill Gates’ perspective mostly focuses on Tara’s ability to be self taught. He emphasizes how impressive Tara is and rightly so. Having been brought up without access to any sort of education, her tenacity and intrinsic motivation to learn and become educated are truly mind-blowing. And as important as this particular theme is to both Tara personally, and the theme of education itself, it is not what made me consider Educated over and over for the past year.

The other theme, as many of you may know, is mental illness and how it can truly destroy family members, and eventually destroy not just the family dynamic, but the family as a permanent institution. Along with the mental illness and abuse, I found myself personally recognizing and feeling a very sad connection to the constant denial and enabling, as well as the crushing betrayal and eventual decision on Tara’s part to break ties with family members. This is where I really connected with Tara. If there were a support group for people who have either been abandoned by family members or who have been forced to end relationships with family members, I think maybe people like Tara and I would truly benefit. From my perspective, it’s your worst nightmare. You never really make a clean break from even the most mentally ill and/or abusive siblings. You think about them and worry about them, even though you know there’s nothing left that you can do. It is a pain that is truly debilitating. I sincerely thank Tara for the time and hard work that went into sharing her story. No one likes to feel that they are the only one who has ever experienced a particular kind of tragic loss. There are support groups for grieving, but not for this kind of grief. Alas, Educated helped me to see that I am not walking this path alone. For some of us, family is not forever.

Tara Westover’s story is extraordinary. It is remarkable that three of the off spring went on to receive PhDs.. It is sad and disturbing that “Shawn” never received the mental help he needed. There is a thread if mental illness that runs through the family.. Congrats to Tara for overcoming such difficulties. I think there may be more to come.

This was my first book of 2022. It was eye-opening for me to say the least. While I think it is told from Tara’s perspective, I wish to remind everyone that for a person to share the truth of their family life requires great courage and is often sugar coated. It is an extremely difficult thing to do. Thank you Tara for being so brave. Your courage has given me strength 🙏🏻

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EDUCATED BOOK REVIEW, A MEMOIR BY TARA WESTOVER

Educated by Tara Westover is a memoir that is both inspirational and shocking. An emotional rollercoaster, I felt like I was growing right alongside Tara as she discovered herself and came to terms with the current and past abuse from her family. An amazing retelling of her past and one of the top books published in 2018. Keep reading for my full Educated book review.

As part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days Challenge, I promised to review every book I read for the next two years. Educated marks the 9th book review of this year.

If you’re interested in more books I’m excited about, make sure to check out my list !

Educated by Tara Westover

Published by: Harper Collins Publication Date: February 20th, 2018 Genre: Autobiography, Memoir

MY REVIEW OF EDUCATED BY TARA WESTOVER

Educated by Tara Westover  is a memoir that describes a coming-of-age story of a young girl who grew up in a fundamentalist, Mormon, family. It’s a story of hardship, growth, and triumph. Tara experiences conflict, abuse, and finally discovers a world outside of it.

Wonderfully written, Tara Westover’s writing style is that of a narrative and story-teller. It is descriptive and captivating, which causes the reader to lose themselves in her unique life story.

There were moments I couldn’t relate to, however, there were plenty of instances that anybody could share in her shoes.

MORMONISM AND FUNDAMENTALISTS

Tara Westover was born to a Fundamentalist Mormon family in Idaho in 1986.

Fundamentalism is defined as:

“A religious movement characterized by a strict belief in the literal interpretation of religious texts, especially of American Protestantism and Islam.”

She was isolated from growing up the way most Mormon children did. Her father rejected any sort of government system – eg. registering her birth, public school system, and the medical establishment. So she grew up without an education and Western medicine.

As Fundamentalists, her family followed the writings in the Bible literally. They were survivalists preparing for the end of the world, stocking up on herbal remedies, canned peaches, gasoline, and ammunition.

This was the context in which our author grew up.

TARA WESTOVER AND FAMILY DYNAMICS

The family dynamics of the Westover family is that of a traditional hierarchical family model in which the father is the head of the household. He runs a junkyard where his 7 children help with the tasks. Tara’s mother prepares herbal medicines and works as a midwife. Life in the Westover family was managed by her father.

Acting as “God’s supervisor”, he ensured his family wasn’t straying from what he interpreted as right and wrong. His concern that each member of the family was doing God’s bidding. However, at times his determination to follow the Bible exactly edged on fanatical. We would later learn that he was probably bipolar or schizophrenic.

Tara’s mother submitted to her husband’s wishes and lived her life according to his wishes. At times we get a glimpse of her own opinions. However, usually, she sets them aside for the sake of her marriage.

Tara also introduces us to her 6 siblings. We interestingly learn that half of them followed the same path as Tara, and the other three continued to live like her father. It’s evident how strong family values are within their family dynamics.

DOMESTIC ABUSE

A recurring theme throughout the book is domestic abuse, and it was probably one of the hardest parts to read. Through her memoir, Tara recounts the abuse she endured from her parents and some of her siblings.

She is physically and mentally abused from her teenage years onward by her brother Shawn. Naturally giving into the criticism of the men in her life, Tara wasn’t aware that she was being abused until a bishop explained it to her. She had been led to believe she was dressing and acting like a “whore” when in actuality she had just hit puberty. He would physically abuse her if she retaliated against his lectures, apologize soon afterward and the cycle continued into her adult life.

Her father’s choices to isolate his children, his carelessness that resulted in multiple life-threatening injuries to himself and his family, and his strict moral standards could also be considered as abusive. Not to mention his mental state which would have exacerbated it.

Tara would eventually come to realize what actually happened when she was a child. This realization would have negative consequences for her relationship with her family as they eventually estranged her.

MENTAL ILLNESSES

Mental illness plays a huge roll in Educated. We learn and witness her father’s bipolar and schizophrenic outbursts, Tara’s mental breakdown likely caused by PTSD, and her battle with  imposter syndrome .

Tara’s father’s paranoia towards the government establishment, his careless behavior, and argumentative outbursts are evidence of a mood disorder. It’s unclear what he has because he’s never diagnosed but we can assume his actions and thinking are a result of it.

Through the telling of her memoir, we step into her shoes and experience this, which at times is disturbing. After leaving the family home to pursue an education, Tara feels out of place. She has a sense that she doesn’t belong and doesn’t deserve the opportunities that are presented to her. As an outsider, we root for her and are inspired by the success she has. However, dealing with imposter syndrome Tara Westover couldn’t see that.

One of the most difficult parts of the book is Tara’s mental breakdown while studying for her Ph.D. at Cambridge. The weight of her upbringing, trauma, abuse and the choices she had to make for herself became too much.

THE COST OF OUR CHOICES

If there’s one thing I took away from the entire narrative of her memoir it’s that  you can’t choose where you come from but you can choose what to do with it.

Tara left Idaho embarrassed about her origins and afraid to fit in with her new surroundings. She didn’t exactly belong anywhere for a while as she transitioned and adapted. Eventually, she completes her B.A., Masters and Ph.D., came to terms with her past and excited about her future. She took her experience growing up in a Fundamentalist Mormon family in Idaho and used it to fuel her research and growth as a person.

Tara chose her education (the discovery of her own person) over her family. At no fault to herself, her father would not accept the choices she made and chose to alienate his daughter.

EDUCATED BOOK REVIEW – RATING

As I was reading the memoir I thought I was going to rate it a 4. However, I became increasingly invested in Tara’s coming-of-age story, giving it a  5 out of 5 stars  on Goodreads.

If you enjoyed Wild or Angela’s Ashes, and enjoy narratives of misery and triumph, I recommend reading Educated by Tara Westover.

If you read the memoir I want to know your thoughts! Were you horrified by Shawn’s abusive behavior? Were you rooting for Tara as she came of her own? Share in the comments section below!

A full-time, multi-passionate, online entrepreneur and blogger. When I’m not managing the Pinterest accounts of my clients, I’m sipping a latte, escaping in a good book, and cuddling with my cats. Introverted and proud!

One Comment

I read it 2 yrs. ago. Absorbing but sometimes hard to take in terms of family violence re her brother, etc. It was given to me as 1 of my Christmas gifts.

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BookBrowse Reviews Educated by Tara Westover

Summary  |  Excerpt  |  Reading Guide  |  Reviews  |  Beyond the book  |  Read-Alikes  |  Genres & Themes  |  Author Bio

by Tara Westover

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• Biography & Memoir
• Wash. Ore. Idaho
• UK (Britain) & Ireland
• 20th Century (multiple decades)
• Contemporary
• Parenting & Families
• Coming of Age
• Adult-YA Crossover Nonfiction
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• Top 20 Best Books of 2018

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This unforgettable memoir tells of a young woman's off-grid upbringing in Idaho and the hard work that took her from almost complete ignorance to a Cambridge PhD.

Voted 2018 Best Nonfiction Award Winner by BookBrowse Subscribers Tara Westover had the kind of upbringing most of us can only imagine. She was the youngest of seven children raised in Buck Peak, Idaho by Mormon parents who distrusted the federal government and anticipated the end of days. Her father refused to register his children's births, so Westover had no birth certificate or knowledge of her exact birthday. Westover's dad also rejected formal education, so none of his children attended school. They could study at home from a meager selection of textbooks if they chose, but their father valued practical skills more. He put Westover to work in his junkyard, sorting scrap metal when she was merely 10. She also babysat, packed nuts, and worked in a grocery store. But she never went to school. Few of the simple pleasures of childhood were available. Musical theater provided rare moments of joy in a life of hard labor that included assisting her mother, who was an unofficial midwife and herbalist (see ' Beyond the Book '). The family went through two serious car accidents and her brother Shawn suffered multiple head injuries at his father's construction site. Shawn's behavior grew cruel, especially after his brain damage. He would put Westover's head down the toilet, bend her wrist back until it nearly snapped, and call her a "whore" for wearing lip gloss. This sadistic pattern was repeated with another sister and later, with his wife, yet Westover struggled to convince her parents to believe her and do something, anything , about Shawn's manipulative violence. Education was Westover's means of escape. Like her brother Tyler before her, she studied independently until she passed the ACT and earned acceptance to Brigham Young University. Here she was forced to wake up to her extreme ignorance. She raised a hand in history class to ask what "the Holocaust" meant, and learned who Martin Luther King, Jr. was. A study abroad year at King's College, Cambridge, opened her mind even more and paved the way for her return to England for Master's and PhD degrees in history. One professor told her she'd written one of the best essays he'd read in 30 years, and referred to her as his "Pygmalion" – a fresh mind that he could mold for success. From an Idaho junkyard to the venerable halls of Cambridge—it was disorienting for Westover to think of how far she had come and truly believe she deserved to be there. Trips home plunged her back into family turmoil. Her parents disapproved of her pursuing education instead of marriage and motherhood, and her father was severely burned in a fuel tank explosion. He didn't believe in modern medicine, so never went to a hospital; his wife treated him at home with her herbal salves, a booming business that made them wealthy. Westover's incredible story is about testing the limits of perseverance and sanity. Her father may have been a survivalist, but her psychic survival is the most impressive outcome here. Although this memoir represents Westover's own perspective, she strives to be rational and charitable by questioning her own memory and interpretation of events, often looking for outside confirmation from other family members who witnessed the same events. And though the temptation must have been strong, she doesn't portray her father as a villain; he's more like an Old Testament patriarch, fierce and unmovable. She is careful not to make hers a simple narrative about rejecting Mormonism – in fact, she opens with a disclaimer to that effect – because her parents' extremism was far beyond what is the norm for Mormons. The writing takes this astonishing life story to the next level, making it a classic to sit alongside memoirs by Alexandra Fuller , Mary Karr and Jeannette Walls . Westover narrates with calm authority, channeling the style of the scriptures and history books that were formative in her upbringing and education. One of my favorite passages reflects on the fundamental differences between her father's viewpoint and her own: "My father and I looked at the temple. He saw God; I saw granite. We looked at each other. He saw a woman damned; I saw an unhinged old man, literally disfigured by his beliefs." This is one of the most powerful and well-written memoirs I've ever read. In its first half a young girl spends lonely years in the wide-open sanctuary of the American West: "Her classroom was a heap of junk. Her textbooks, slates of scrap," Westover writes. In the second half the whole world and its history open up to her, but at a high price: "having sacrificed my family to my education." The author remains estranged from her parents, and the siblings have formed two factions: four work for her parents' herbal empire in Idaho; three left to pursue education, all obtaining doctoral degrees. Which route would you choose?

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A Psychologist's Take on Tara Westover's Memoir, Educated

A memoir that asks us to deeply reflect on identity and family..

Posted April 2, 2018 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma

• In "Educated," Tara Westover describes a deeply troubling childhood whose lasting impact cannot be denied. 
• Both environmental stressors and genetics can contribute to the development of mental illness.
• "Educated" encourages profound reflection on who one becomes after stepping outside the shadows of family.

I finished the book late a few nights ago, having not heard of the book at all only a week prior. Blame my discounted Oprah magazine subscription with its list of top books to read. Beneath a bright image of the book was a small but impactful endorsement of the tale. In fact, I have never picked up any of the books on her list because as a clinical psychologist I get enough secondary trauma in my day job that makes me vigilant about protecting myself during off hours. I also typically am not drawn toward memoirs as a genre. But the notion of a survivalist family was intriguing to me as an Oregonian who is used to hearing terms such as “off the grid” and “anti-establishment” on the regular.

As I combed through Amazon reviews of Educated , I was struck by the controversy as well. Although there has been overwhelming support for the book, there have also been accusations of more fiction than fact. Individuals from all walks of life, both those known to the Westover family and outside of their world completely have weighed in. What has been missed perhaps throughout the dialogue is not just the story of a bright and deeply courageous young woman escaping a lifetime of abuse, but rather a story of identity formation in the face of severe parental mental illness.

A deeply troubling childhood

In Educated , Westover describes a deeply troubling childhood whose lasting impact simply cannot be denied. Whether the story is exaggerated or not, if even a quarter of what happened to her were true, it would still be deemed highly traumatic , to say the least. The sheer number of times witnessing burns, bloodied family members, and car crashes is enough to give any individual PTSD .

Add to that a brother who by the account provided in the memoir should in actuality be contacted by Child and Protective Services (CPS). As therapists, we begin each and every intake session with limits to confidentiality, one of which is the knowledge of abuse or neglect of a minor or impaired adult. This meant that when I was an intern at UC Berkeley’s student counseling center, the mere mention of a father who was previously abusive having current exposure or access to any minors would warrant a phone call to CPS. Furthermore, the threats and violence implied by Westover’s brother Shawn would deem necessary a call to police via California’s famous Tarasoff law, otherwise known as “Duty to Warn.”

Disturbing throughout the book was, of course, Westover’s propensity toward continually revisiting the scene of the crime . The only assurance I had that she was still alive was the fact that the book had been published post hoc. As I retold and read aloud passages of the book to my husband, even he was shocked that Westover allowed herself to be alone with Shawn again and again. He astutely asked me, “Does she have Stockholm Syndrome?” Although I had never considered it, being so absorbed by the memoir, there is a good chance he was absolutely right. There is a bonding that happens between victim and captor and there is no doubt that Tara was the victim to Shawn’s twisted violent and abusive antics.

The possibility of Tara's own "madness"

Appreciated throughout the memoir was Westover’s own inquiry into the possibility of her own “madness” so to speak. Was she imagining things? Was her memory to be trusted? Could she find evidence? These are the challenging aspects of her story.

While proof is sought out in first-person accounts and inquisition, little proof is needed when examining the psychological ramifications of these events. We need not look further than Westover’s loss of her first love and second significant relationship to see how deeply family issues can invade and destroy future lasting unions. Westover’s own mental breakdowns, accounts of waking up screaming in the streets, of staying in bed all day is not unlike an offshoot of her father’s mental illness sprouting a small seed within her. After all, it is not just genetic predisposition, but also environmental stressors under which severe mental illness develops.

It was disheartening reading about Westover’s first brushes with the pulchritude of Italy juxtaposed with desperate emails and calls from family a world away. The conflict is very real and one that many of us have dealt with—how do we honor our families especially when mental illness causes such deep disruption in our own equanimity? The self-care and boundaries that therapists so frequently tout pertain to the reality that without a full cup of our own, we are only draining away our own vital energies when tending to the needs of others. It is that ubiquitous airplane video of securing our own mask before those of others near us.

The privilege of education

Whether fully accurate or only partially so, Educated is a deeply inspiring and thought-provoking read on the fire within each and every one of us to overcome adversity should we fight hard enough for it. As a contemporary of Westover’s (we were born one year apart), I recall a life dotted with far fewer screens and media that encouraged the perusal of texts with pages you could hold in your two hands. As a therapist to young adults, many of whom come from ample privilege, I am struck by how hard some have fought for their education such as Westover, while others waste it away, calling all of life beyond their screens a bore.

Stories such as Westover’s remind us of the privilege of education, and opportunities, and the real meaning of diversity. It is not just about gender politics , racial wars, or gun control. It is also ironically about understanding how a small subset of those controlling media outlets hardly shows the full picture of what it means to be an American. The story of the Westovers is just one of many who lived through a recession, in economic hardship, with limited education, and mental illness. In fact, I hardly see it as a story of Mormonism at all, only a subtext that lingers in the background. Fundamentalism occurs throughout many major religions. I am grateful that such stories are being published as they are the stories that need to be heard. While Educated is heart-wrenching at times, there are also incredibly tender moments of a brother leaving behind a beloved choir music CD for a sister, and her studying at a borrowed desk working toward her education. It is a story that encourages profound reflection in each of us as to how we become who we are once we step outside the shadows of family.

Goal Auzeen Saedi, Ph.D., received her doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Notre Dame.

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Word of Mouth

Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, educated: a memoir.

Tara Westover was born and raised beneath a majestic mountain affectionately called the Princess. The youngest of seven children in rural Idaho, she spent most of her time outside or helping her mother create the herbal tinctures that supplemented the family’s income.

The short prologue to Westover’s memoir, EDUCATED, begins with a lovely description of the family farm, the swaths of sagebrush and thistle coming down the hills toward the house. But this idyll of family and the tranquility of nature are soon shattered. The Westover family are fundamentalist Mormons but are outliers even in their community. Only the oldest three children had ever been to school, and they never had any medical care or treatment. Westover’s father, who she speculates has an undiagnosed mental illness, was a paranoid bully who was constantly preparing for the end of the world.

"Westover’s writing style is straightforward, even as she recounts heart-wrenching details and abusive events.... EDUCATED is a terrific, if harrowing, read."

When she turned 16, inspired by her older brother, Westover began to think about college as a way to escape her dangerous and suffocating home environment. Her journey from the chaos of her home amid her father’s junkyard to the ivy-covered walls and libraries of Cambridge will enthrall readers.

There are many fascinating threads to the story Westover weaves in EDUCATED. The context here is important but also complicated. The Westovers were on the fringes of traditional Mormonism. While most of their neighbors sent their children to public school, to the doctor for check-ups and injuries, and let them participate in various activities, Westover’s father distrusted the schools and the medical profession, not to mention the government and other Mormons. Physical ailments, including some astonishingly serious ones, were treated with homemade herbal remedies and salves, and later by “energy healing.” Apart from a short-lived period of community theater and an even shorter-lived period of dance lessons, Westover was isolated from other children. She was taught to read but had no formal education in math, history or science until she left home for BYU after teaching herself trigonometry and more to prepare for the ACT.

The adjustments she had to make in order to attend college cannot be understated. From hygiene to social skills to study habits, Westover was vastly unprepared for her new life. Brilliant and committed, she worked hard, driven by both a desire to learn and a sense of self-preservation that meant breaking free of her family. Her successes are just as uplifting to read about as her familial life is frankly terrifying. Westover is careful not to indict religion in general or Mormonism in particular, and presents the story of her upbringing as specifically her own; of course, though, it is the lens through which her parents see the world.

Westover’s writing style is straightforward, even as she recounts heart-wrenching details and abusive events. Her quest for autonomy, learning, understanding and acceptance can break your heart, even as it has you cheering for her empowerment. EDUCATED is a terrific, if harrowing, read.

Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman on February 22, 2018

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

• Publication Date: February 8, 2022
• Genres: Memoir , Nonfiction
• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
• ISBN-10: 0399590528
• ISBN-13: 9780399590528

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By Tara Westover

By tara westover read by julia whelan, category: biography & memoir, category: biography & memoir | audiobooks.

Feb 08, 2022 | ISBN 9780399590528 | 5-3/16 x 8 --> | ISBN 9780399590528 --> Buy

Feb 20, 2018 | ISBN 9780525589983 | 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 --> | ISBN 9780525589983 --> Buy

Feb 20, 2018 | ISBN 9780399590504 | 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 --> | ISBN 9780399590504 --> Buy

Feb 20, 2018 | ISBN 9780399590511 | ISBN 9780399590511 --> Buy

Feb 20, 2018 | 730 Minutes | ISBN 9780525528067 --> Buy

Mar 02, 2021 | 720 Minutes | ISBN 9780593105320 --> Buy

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Feb 08, 2022 | ISBN 9780399590528

Feb 20, 2018 | ISBN 9780525589983

Feb 20, 2018 | ISBN 9780399590504

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Feb 20, 2018 | ISBN 9780525528067

730 Minutes

Mar 02, 2021 | ISBN 9780593105320

720 Minutes

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About Educated

#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER • One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University   “Extraordinary . . . an act of courage and self-invention.”— The New York Times   NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • BILL GATES’S HOLIDAY READING LIST • FINALIST: National Book Critics Circle’s Award In Autobiography and John Leonard Prize For Best First Book • PEN/Jean Stein Book Award • Los Angeles Times Book Prize   Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.   “Beautiful and propulsive . . . Despite the singularity of [Westover’s] childhood, the questions her book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?”— Vogue ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, O: The Oprah Magazine, Time, NPR, Good Morning America, San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, The Economist, Financial Times , Newsday, New York Post, theSkimm, Refinery29, Bloomberg, Self, Real Simple, Town & Country, Bustle, Paste, Publishers Weekly , Library Journal, LibraryReads, Book Riot, Pamela Paul, KQED, New York Public Library

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About tara westover.

Tara Westover is an American historian and memoirist. Her first book, Educated, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and remained on the list, in hardcover, for more than two years. The book, a memoir of her upbringing… More about Tara Westover

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“Westover has somehow managed not only to capture her unsurpassably exceptional upbringing, but to make her current situation seem not so exceptional at all, and resonant for many others.” — The New York Times Book Review “Westover is a keen and honest guide to the difficulties of filial love, and to the enchantment of embracing a life of the mind.” — The New Yorker “An amazing story, and truly inspiring. It’s even better than you’ve heard.” —Bill Gates “Heart-wrenching . . . a beautiful testament to the power of education to open eyes and change lives.” —Amy Chua,  The   New York Times Book Review “A coming-of-age memoir reminiscent of  The Glass Castle.” — O: The Oprah Magazine “Westover’s one-of-a-kind memoir is about the shaping of a mind. . . . In briskly paced prose, she evokes a childhood that completely defined her. Yet it was also, she gradually sensed, deforming her.” — The Atlantic “Tara Westover is living proof that some people are flat-out, boots-always-laced-up indomitable. Her new book, Educated, is a heartbreaking, heartwarming, best-in-years memoir about striding beyond the limitations of birth and environment into a better life. . . . ★★★★ out of four.” — USA Today “[ Educated ] left me speechless with wonder. [Westover’s] lyrical prose is mesmerizing, as is her personal story, growing up in a family in which girls were supposed to aspire only to become wives—and in which coveting an education was considered sinful. Her journey will surprise and inspire men and women alike.” — Refinery29 “Riveting . . . Westover brings readers deep into this world, a milieu usually hidden from outsiders. . . . Her story is remarkable, as each extreme anecdote described in tidy prose attests.” —The Economist “A subtle, nuanced study of how dysfunction of any kind can be normalized even within the most conventional family structure, and of the damage such containment can do.” — Financial Times “Whether narrating scenes of fury and violence or evoking rural landscapes or tortured self-analysis, Westover writes with uncommon intelligence and grace. . . . One of the most improbable and fascinating journeys I’ve read in recent years.” —Newsday

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Educated: A Memoir Hardcover – February 20, 2018

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• Print length 352 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Random House
• Publication date February 20, 2018
• Dimensions 6.47 x 1.14 x 9.52 inches
• ISBN-10 0099511029
• ISBN-13 978-0399590504
• Lexile measure 870L
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• ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0399590501
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House; First Edition (February 20, 2018)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0099511029
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0399590504
• Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 870L
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.47 x 1.14 x 9.52 inches
• #29 in Religious Leader Biographies
• #117 in Women's Biographies
• #381 in Memoirs (Books)

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About the author

Tara westover.

Tara Westover is an American author living in the UK. Born in Idaho to a father opposed to public education, she never attended school. She spent her days working in her father's junkyard or stewing herbs for her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife. She was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom, and after that first taste, she pursued learning for a decade. She graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University in 2008 and was subsequently awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She earned an MPhil from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2009, and in 2010 was a visiting fellow at Harvard University. She returned to Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD in history in 2014.

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Book Reviews

'there's always this year' reflects on how we consider others — and ourselves.

Michael Schaub

It's a familiar phrase to any sports fan who realizes that a championship isn't in the cards this season: There's always next year . The statement, combining resignation with optimism, is sometimes said sincerely and sometimes ironically: Hope springs eternal, unless, of course, it doesn't.

Hanif Abdurraqib, who earned raves for his books Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest and A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance , puts a new spin on the saying in his latest, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension . As in his previous books, Abdurraqib uses one subject as a lens through which he views the culture at large — it's about hoops, sure, but it's also about so much more. It's another remarkable book from one of the country's smartest cultural critics.

There's Always This Year is structured like a basketball game, with four sections each time-stamped to mimic the elapsing 12 minutes of a quarter. In the first quarter, Abdurraqib explores the sense of place, writing about his childhood in Columbus, Ohio, and a 2002 game between the city's Brookhaven Wildcats and Akron's St. Vincent–St. Mary Leprechauns. The Wildcats were state champions the previous season, but the Leprechauns had a star player up their sleeve: a towering forward named LeBron James. Brookhaven couldn't pull out the victory.

Abdurraqib's chronicle of the game is fascinating, but it's his analysis of James — as a person, a baller, a phenomenon — that shines: "I have sat at the feet of poets who told me that there is power in withholding. In not offering the parts of yourself that people are most eager to see. In the high school career of LeBron James, there was access to his dominance, but not always access to whatever struggles he might have been pushing through. And it proved hard for people to stay fascinated with dominance, especially if they were on the losing side of it, especially in consideration of who was doing the dominating."

Abdurraqib returns to James later in the book, writing about the star's decision to leave his near-hometown Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat, a move that devastated Cavs fans who loved having their local legend wearing the wine and gold. "And sometimes people leave because they have to survive," he writes. "Sometimes people leave because staying has run its course, a course littered with failures. I know what it is to leave in hopes that whatever has failed me isn't a part of my own internal makeup, that it is a place dragging me down, beckoning me toward all my worst impulses."

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But Abdurraqib isn't only interested in champions. He writes about the newly LeBron-less Cavaliers with sharp insight and an amused affection: "There was pleasure in watching this aimless disaster of a team. Veteran castoffs who had been given up on, young players who seemed, mostly, bewildered by the pace and intensity of the games, forced to play minutes because someone had to, after all. At a certain point, it seemed anyone who could run up and down the court would do." Abdurraqib knows well what Jim McKay memorably called "the agony of defeat," but he knows that the losses — and the Cavs had 63 that season — can tell us more about ourselves, and one another, than the wins.

There's no doubt that basketball fans will find much to love in There's Always This Year , but as great as Abdurraqib is at examining the sport, he's even better when he explores tangents. He writes, astutely, about the films He Got Game, Above the Rim , and White Men Can't Jump , blending analysis with memoir, and the result is vulnerable and genuinely moving.

In one remarkable section, inspired by James' departure from Cleveland, Abdurraqib — a lover of music — is moved to reflect on songs about people leaving, whether via car, train, or airplanes, touching on Gladys Knight's "Midnight Train to Georgia" and Jo Dee Messina's "Heads Carolina, Tails California." "But it's the planes you've got to worry about," Abdurraqib writes. "If someone in a song is leaving on a plane, they aren't coming back. You will ache until the ache becomes so familiar, you forget to feel it at all." He segues into another genre — what he calls "the Begging Song," citing Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, and James Brown as expert practitioners. It's a perfect example of what Abudrraqib can do so well: carom from subject to subject while never losing sight of what unites them.

There's Always This Year is another brilliant book from Abdurraqib, who has firmly established himself as one of the country's most original and talented authors. It's also a piercing look at how we consider others, as well as ourselves: "We will leave our enemies behind here and never turn to face them again. But this is not a story about heroes, either. Not everyone will die. No one will live forever."

How many husbands does one woman need? Even she doesn’t know.

Holly gramazio’s playful debut novel finds multitudes in matrimony.

There’s something delightfully addictive about Holly Gramazio’s fiction debut, “ The Husbands ,” a bottomless champagne flute of a novel (with no hangover). In her longtime work as a successful game designer , Gramazio says she creates “art that gets people interacting with their surroundings in new ways.” “The Husbands” winks at a world of endless choices — dating apps, food deliveries, streaming, shopping, games — and wonders, why not romantic partners? (The AI Department is certainly at work on this.)

The 31-year-old protagonist, Lauren, is single when she returns home to her empty South London flat after a bachelorette party for her best friend. Only Lauren’s flat isn’t empty. A strange man greets her by name, sighs “Fun night?” and offers to make her a cup of tea. Lauren frantically opens her phone to call the police and is stunned to see that the lock screen is “a picture of herself, standing on a beach with her arm around the man in the doorway.”

When she examines the apartment moments later, it’s recognizably hers. Same layout, same toaster, same view. But other things are definitely not the same — the sofa color, the wall clock, the coffee maker and especially the pictures, one of which is a wedding photo of Lauren and an unfamiliar man. This one.

Who seems very nice, she decides the next morning, after she recovers from her hangover and he makes her breakfast and details what he’s been up to: a swim, tidying the flat, helping a neighbor. Later he might work in the garden. “He sounds very industrious,” Lauren thinks. “She doesn’t have a vegetable patch, but perhaps he’s brought it with him.” She checks her phone and finds myriad messages to and from the husband, whose name is Michael and who, like her, wears a wedding ring. Lauren texts the neighbor, and her sister, Nat, and determines that they, too, know Michael, who is in this universe Lauren’s husband.

Until whoops, he climbs the ladder into the attic to change a lightbulb, and a different, “gratuitously handsome” man climbs down. He, too, is wearing a wedding ring, and the walls are now a different color. She immediately sends Husband No. 2 back into the attic to check if someone else is there, and before you can say Wait, that one was pretty hot, he’s gone for good. Husband No. 3 briefly emerges (less good-looking, “Monsters, Inc.” slippers), goes back up to check on something, and bing! Here’s Husband No. 4.

This is the simple, dizzying premise of “The Husbands”: life (married life, anyway) as an endless Choose Your Own Adventure game, only with ordinary men instead of ant people and vampires. Gramazio’s experience as an art curator/collaborator as well as a game designer gives “The Husbands” more depth and nuance than one might expect from its whimsical log line. She’s worked with artists on installations that incorporate interactive games (including one set in a dystopian future that features “a human employee working to heal damaged self-driving cars, both emotionally and physically”).

Lauren’s world is undeniably ours. She can move about in it, on her own, with friends or her husband of the moment, though she tends to stay put in London. Her friends and family members are (mostly) the same. Her flat remains the same, though the decor changes, along with the fridge contents and the garden.

And, of course, the husbands. Some have names, others last barely long enough to be identified by a single trait. I started by keeping a list, as does Lauren.

“Michael. Nude guy. Feminist cook. Monsters, Inc. Kieran. Jason. Tall guy. Another half-dozen and she can’t even remember why she dismissed them.”

Like Lauren, I soon lost track. Was feminist cook before or after nude guy? If you have only one husband or partner, you can compile a seemingly endless list of what makes them endearing or annoying. If you cycle through hundreds, as Lauren does in what she terms parallel monogamy, you learn to be concise.

“205 doesn’t trim his nostril hair. No. 206 is wearing a hat with a little brim even though he is sitting and watching television on his own sofa. No. … She sends back grumpy husbands, husbands she doesn’t like the look of, husbands who are not hot enough, a husband who is too hot (there must, she thinks, be a catch). The process is, compared to the apps, an absolute joy.”

Gramazio sidesteps many arguments that “The Husbands” might be construed as an outdated fantasy of What Women Want. Lauren has a job she’s good at, and, in one life, she finally gets the promotion she’s been chasing. She’s close to her sister, Nat, and Nat’s wife, Adele, and their kids but has no desire for children herself. The husbands, while cisgender like Lauren, are racially and ethnically diverse. There are a few slippery rungs — guys who have issues with debt, gambling, infidelity. But for the most part, the husband ladder remains firmly stuck at middle class (though there’s a diverting episode with a pleasant if shady multimillionaire with a country house that Lauren treats like a luxury hotel for a week). There’s surprisingly little real passion or sex in Lauren’s adventures — hey, she’s married.

Still, one genuine heartbreak haunts Lauren. And halfway through the novel, a husband appears who, like Lauren, is a frequent flier between romantic partners. Bohai has magical husbands and wives; he’s also, enviably, able to travel between continents with each romantic shift. His friendship with Lauren continues even after he climbs back into the attic (he drops by whenever he lands in London) and provides some needed ballast just when Lauren, and the reader, begins to feel that this nonstop carousel of husbands could become wearisome and even depressing. (For those who can’t get enough, Gramazio has created a handy Husband Generator on her website.)

Gramazio wisely provides no explanation for what’s happened. Yet this isn’t “Groundhog Day” or a time loop. Weeks pass, then months, as Lauren ponders her future, romantic and otherwise. As the anniversary of the magic attic approaches, the novel’s tone darkens. The revolving door of possible husbands opens onto an equal number of possible lives, possible Laurens. A few of them do things that the original Lauren probably couldn’t imagine doing. She’s increasingly aware of loneliness — “you can’t be friends with someone by … explaining that in a parallel world you got on really well” — especially as Bohai wonders if there’s a way to break the cycle and commit to one person. Will Lauren consider the same?

Your response to the ending of this exceptional novel may depend on your experience of partnered life. Or just life, full stop. Because in this world, one life is all we get. You have to stop, and start, somewhere.

Elizabeth Hand’s most recent novel is “A Haunting on the Hill.”

The Husbands

By Holly Gramazio

Doubleday. 352 pp. $29

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Teaching Guide: Young Adult Literature Authors & Climate Justice

• Book Review Writing
• About this Series
• Subject to Climate Guides & Plans
• Teaching: Parable of the Sower
• Discussion Questions
• Reviews: The Desert Magician's Duology (Two-Book Series)

Writing Reviews of Fiction

Book Reviewing 101: A Guide to Thoughtful Analysis

Objective: The objective of this teaching prompt is to guide students through the process of reviewing fiction critically and thoughtfully. By the end of this lesson, students should be able to analyze and evaluate a work of fiction's content, structure, style, and overall effectiveness in conveying its message or story. Ideally, this guide could be applied to teaching and guiding students through how to review the two books from Dr. Okorafor's Desert Magician's Duology. 

Lesson Plan Introduction to Writing Book Reviews:

• Define what a book review is: a critical evaluation of a book's content, style, and merit.
• Discuss the purpose of book reviews: to inform potential readers about the book's strengths and weaknesses, and to offer insights for critical engagement.

Elements of a Book Review:

• Introduction:  Explain the importance of an engaging introduction that provides basic information about the book (title, author, genre) and captures the reader's interest.
• Summary: Emphasize the need for a concise summary of the book's plot, main characters, and central themes without giving away spoilers.
• Character development: Are the characters well-developed and believable?
• Plot structure: Is the plot engaging and well-paced?
• Writing style: Evaluate the author's writing style, language use, and narrative voice.
• Themes and messages: Discuss the book's underlying themes and messages and how effectively they are conveyed.
• Guide students to provide their overall assessment of the book, including its strengths and weaknesses.
• Encourage students to support their evaluations with evidence from the text.

Writing the Review:

• Introduction: Introduce the book and its author, and briefly outline the main points of the review.
• Summary: Provide a summary of the book without revealing major plot twists or spoilers.
• Analysis: Analyze various aspects of the book, such as character development, plot structure, writing style, and themes.
• Evaluation: Offer a balanced evaluation of the book, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses.
• Comparison/Contrast: Make comparative connections to other books or multimedia that address similar themes or may be of the same genre.
• Conclusion: Summarize the key points of the review and offer a final recommendation to potential readers.

Practice and Feedback:

• Assign students to write their own book reviews, either on a book of their choice or a provided text.
• Provide feedback on their reviews, focusing on clarity, depth of analysis, and critical thinking.

Discussion:

• Facilitate a class discussion on the different reviews written by students.
• Encourage students to compare their reviews, discussing differing perspectives and insights.

Conclusion:

• Summarize the key points covered in the lesson.
• Reinforce the importance of critical thinking and thoughtful analysis in writing book reviews.

Optional Extension Activity:

• Invite students to publish their book reviews on a class blog or in a school newsletter, allowing them to share their insights with a wider audience.

By following this teaching prompt, students will develop the skills necessary to write insightful and engaging book reviews, fostering a deeper appreciation for literature and critical thinking.

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• Biotech, Food, Drug
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The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has filed an amicus brief in  Teva Branded Pharmaceuticals Products R&D, Inc. v. Amneal Pharmaceuticals of New York, LLC  to further the agency’s efforts to promote and protect generic drug and biosimilar competition. In the case, Teva asserts that Amneal’s Abbreviated New Drug Application (“ANDA”) for an asthma inhaler infringes upon five patents it has listed in the FDA’s Orange Book–a challenge that under FDA regulations triggers a 30-month stay of FDA’s approval of the generic inhaler. Amneal’s counterclaims assert that the Teva patents, which relate to the inhaler device and dose counter, rather than the drug itself, were improperly listed and has asked the court for judgment on the pleadings and an order to delist the patents at issue.

The FTC has long expressed concerns about the impact of the Orange Book patent listing process on generic competition. The FTC has characterized improperly listed patents as an abuse of the regulatory system that creates an artificial barrier to entry and prevents lower cost drug alternatives from entering the market, hindering competitive drug pricing and harming the consumer and healthcare system as a whole. The FTC has cited such improper Orange Book listings as actionable conduct in challenging monopolization under Section 2 of the Sherman Act, asserting that the specter of infringement suits by brand drug manufacturers may chill investment in particular therapies.

The FDA’s Orange Book lists all approved drug products, and includes, among other things, information relating to a product’s patent and exclusivity protections. Under the Hatch-Waxman Amendments to the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), all New Drug Application (NDA) applicants must submit certain information concerning patents that claim either the drug itself— i.e. , a drug substance (active ingredient) patent or drug product (formulation or composition) patent— or a method of using the drug. Upon approval, FDA includes such patent information in the Orange Book listing for the drug. The Orange Book puts generic companies on notice of patent protections for brand drugs. Generic companies seeking to file an ANDA must include within their application certifications relating to the patent protections of the brand drug. If a brand company timely sues a generic competitor for infringement of an Orange Book listed patent, this triggers an automatic statutory bar on the FDA’s approval the generic drug for up to 30 months.

In September 2023, the FTC issued a Policy Statement (supported and endorsed by the FDA) on  Brand Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Improper Listing of Patents in Orange Book [1] warning pharmaceutical companies that they could face legal action if they improperly list patents in the Orange Book and outlined a number of potential enforcement methods for combatting these perceived harms. In November 2023, the FTC issued notice letters to a number of brand drug manufacturers challenging more than 100 patents held by manufacturers of brand-name drugs and drug products as improperly or inaccurately listed in the Orange Book.[2] Among these warning letters were notices to Teva covering, among others, the inhaler device-related patents at issue in the case against Amneal.

The FTC’s amicus brief argues for a narrow interpretation of the types of patents that may be listed in the Orange Book—excluding any patent that is not on its face specific to any FDA-approved drug. The FTC argues that device patents, such as the Teva patents at issue, that do not mention any drug in their claims do not meet the statutory criteria for Orange Book listing. In this case, the FTC notes that the same patents at issue are also listed in the Orange Book entries for 21 other drugs, only some of which contain the same active ingredient as the asthma inhaler that is the subject of Amneal’s ANDA. The FTC cites favorably the First and Second Circuit opinions in  In re Lantus Direct Purchaser Litigation , 950 F.3d 1 (2020) and  United Food & Com. Workers Loc. 1776 & Participating Emps. Health & Welfare Fund v. Takeda Pharm. Co ., 11 F.4 th  118 (2021), in support of its position.

Both brand name and generic pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers should be aware of these developments. We will continue to monitor the FTC’s high-priority campaign to utilize the FDA’s public comment processes, as well as its authority to enforce the federal antitrust laws to impact competition by generic drug development.

[1] Fed. Trade Comm’n, Policy Statement, “Federal Trade Commission Statement Concerning Brand Drug Manufacturers’ Improper Listing of Patents in the Orange Book” (Sept. 14, 2023),  available  here .

[2] See Fed. Trade Comm’n, Press Release, “FTC Challenges More Than 100 Patents as Improperly Listed in the FDA’s Orange Book” (Nov. 7, 2023),  available  here .

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