Educated: Book Review

I finished reading the powerful memoir "Educated" by Tara Westover, a gifted young person (someone in their late 20s is young to me) and her life, the major parts and intuition of it, covering her younger years until she achieved a doctorate in history, perhaps at age 27. Or twenty five? Early for a memoir, yes, but very enthralling and telling of a compelling tale to tell.

Full disclosure: I am jealous in a few ways. Jealous, but also happy or proud for her, in that she published a very insightful and interesting book despite rough circumstances of growing up. One thing that I would like to do but I have not done is write a powerful book. I am also jealous that she now has a doctorate, something I considered in my late twenties, and on into my thirties and forties, and now at the cusp of my fifties I seriously question if that type of accomplishment is in the cards for me. Maybe, maybe not. With more leanings to the "not". Maybe stories like hers will inspire me further to do so? It does not hurt to read this for motivation, that is certain.

Perhaps more importantly than anything else related to me or any of my impressions of the author and her life so far, of which I wish to share, as portrayed in the memoir, is the incredibly impressive way that Tara arrived at her status of historian, doctoral student, and successful human being.

Her stories definitely inspire me. However, there are obvious caveats to be considered in her narrative, which is no slight against her, but rather a statement for context which I wish to make. If one is unfamiliar with people who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, in the Mountain West or otherwise, then the case of her family is very extreme as a sample of the population of these people. Again, nothing against Ms. Westover, or rather more power to her from arising from such a background, but the story to me is more about the power of her individual will, the goodness of her family members despite their blatant faults, and her greater faith and academic community in support of her rather than a story of a regular Mormon. 

Because of her father and his irrational extremes in belief and practice, and then related cruel or violent family like her brother, who takes on unhealthy attributes in his own sphere, Tara is an extreme example of what happens in an extreme environment of paranoia and bi-polarity, not necessarily a by-product of the religion of which they, the Westover family of Buck's Peak, Idaho, emanate. However, there is a lot to learn about the Latter-day Saint people in her narrative. 

And again, it is not a normal upbringing or family in any context; I believe such examples of mental duress and experience could be found in any religious or non-religious environment, and for this reason the book is so amazingly powerful and resonates with those who read it on any level. But, I warn that those who are not familiar with LDS/Mormons should not to use it as a rubric for the norm.

Then again, across the width and breadth of the world, people who are very devout to their respective beliefs and faiths are considered extreme, which can be applied to the Latter-day Saints within the United States and abroad. I feel that this is unfair and largely inaccurate, but I know my share of people who think of Mormons as extreme or odd. And, the very faith itself, those within our Church, can paint ourselves and its faith as such from the scriptures of Isaiah when it prophesies of God's "peculiar people". Us LDS can own these types of identities and descriptions as much as anyone without the membership.

And my truth be told, in contrast to the sometimes brutal, somewhat harsh, and almost always austere upbringing of Tara Westover, my family experience and my personal experience with interpersonal and active fellowships within my family and other members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were by and large positive and reassuring. And, the doctrine and practices of the faith made sense to me. I am a guy, and the thought or principle of polygamy never scared me the way that it apparently gave her dread and pause.

Overcoming and Learning, Becoming Educated

All along in her story, or at least by the end, Tara chooses not to be a Horatio Alger, a cause celebre of the ignorant cum academic, or the cliched "rags to riches" tale of transformation. However, we cannot help but compare the extreme nature of her education (or lack thereof) as a child to her development as an adult. The fact that she transforms from member of the Church to implied less active or non-member is not surprising either, as many other gifted and academically minded and artistic people have done in the 200 year history of the faith. 

Tara is inspirational in so many aspects of her life. She is strong, and naturally becomes confused when she tries to be loyal and true to her father and family when she constantly becomes aware of the greater incongruous world around her. By the end she liberates herself from his world, the overbearing father, and perhaps (as insinuated) the strictures and paradigms of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is possible that she maintains her faith and membership in the faith, I do not know, and do not wish to presume. There is ample evidence that she doubts the origins and claims of it, along with certain doctrines and practices of the religion.

I should read her dissertation to get a better picture of her stances and views, or rational conclusions and findings about the faith of which we both share an upbringing. Notably, her parents are multi-generational Saints, while my parents joined as grown adults. We were raised in different generations and different regions of the country, which also affect our outlooks and worldviews.

And also unlike Tara, with fewer siblings and many more connections to the outer world, I felt like I was exposed to much information and introduced to so much of it early and often.

She raced to an education in world history and the greater world closer to her adult life, and now it is her world. I knew about many world events and traumatic happenings long before age 17, when she first alighted on the university campus, the same religious one, where I would attend from ages 22 to 24.

I suppose in some ways her memoir compels me to compare and contrast my own personal story, and upbringing, which is part of the powerfully good effect and sympathy-drawing nature of her work. It is an incredibly well told and analytical piece, for which I am grateful and moved.

But again with the caveats as explained above.

Mental Illness; Survival

Part of the bigger story or theme within Tara's life and memoir is the dealings and realizations of who her father is (a bipolar father, apparently, who is volatile and mentally unhinged), and that some of the violence or malice of his mind has passed on to her brother, Sean, one of four that she feels close to, and that she must battle to become separate from the mania and chaos that they bring to bear in her life.  She follows them and loves them a lot, but must come to the severe truth that she must physically and emotionally get distanced from them. Her mother, and possibly her sister Audrey are like the classic co-enablers, who fall sway to the domineering men and this is its own type of mental illness.

Tara, I believe, in writing this book and even her doctoral dissertation, which appears to be a sociologically framed feminist historical take on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 19th century, the the resultant culture in its wake, is dealing with her identity and that of her family, and greater church and human family.

Us. All of us.

Thanks, Tara.

You have been bold, brave, honest, clear, descriptive, elucidating, and showing that all of us have strengths and talents that we must at times fight our utmost to discover, uncover, and develop. Many of the  attributes or characteristics that you and many or most of the people in your book have described you as, which for me is a person with a persona like many of my heroes in my life and those that I have studied and try to emulate: Jesus Christ, His mother Mary, Peter, the Apostles, ancient prophets, modern prophets, local leaders of my and other faiths, rabbis, clerics, priests, pastors, chaplains, reverends, politicians, professors, teachers, parents, friends, colleagues, soldiers, Marines, sailors, airmen, children, peacemakers, homemakers, servants and laborers, my own mother and father, authors and artists, and many others who toil at humility and power through justice and faith.

I expect to see and hear more of you; we know that your life and memoir are not done. You have re-began, and are being re-born, as you have eloquently put it. 

You in your words and deeds have given all of us better and keener eyes as to how the world works, how we work, how life can and should function. We all enjoy the freedom that you have found to discover it.