Miss, Educated

'Educated' by Tara Westover (Penguin Random House, 2018)

With schools still closed or partially closed due to Covid-19, education is back in the headlines.  At first, it seemed like a dream scenario for many students, but the novelty soon wore off, and many are now realising the long term damage of a disrupted education.  Someone who knows more than most about the challenges of catching up on missed classroom time is Tara Westover, author of memoir 'Educated'.

Tara Westover grew up in rural Idaho, USA, the youngest of seven children in a family dominated by her father.  His twin obsessions were becoming as self-sufficient as possible in preparation for the end of the world, and avoiding contact with the authorities.  As such, while the children didn't go to school or see doctors, they learned to preserve food, use firearms and hide resources such as fuel around the family homestead.  They worked as his crew in their scrap yard, often risking life and limb in an environment where health and safety amounted to decaying steel toe-capped boots and not much else.  When accidents occur, the children are treated by their herbalist mother.  As she grows up, Tara's relationship with her siblings changes as they each begin living lives of their own.  While Tyler shows her there may be hope beyond the farmstead, the mercurial Shawn leaves her broken and doubting her own mind.  When Tara herself finally decides to pursue formal education, she manages to overcome her father's opposition, but, when challenged by life in an alien outside world, will she flee and return to the familiarity of home?

'Educated' is a brilliant audiobook.  The story is vivid and brutal, but also individual and intelligent.  I was concerned that it may devolve into a misery memoir, but there's more to this book than suffering and the cliches that you'd expect from that genre.  Although there is bone-crunching physical violence, at its core, this is a thought-provoking story of emotional abuse, familial loyalties and growing up.  Fortunately, for most of us, the wrench of becoming an adult is nothing like that depicted here, but learning to live beyond the safety of the family unit and to own your own destiny is a theme I'm sure many readers can relate to.  Ultimately, this is the story of how Westover learned to trust her own truth and not succumb to the rewritten version dictated by her father, regardless of the consequences.  She must be incredibly brave.

The audiobook is read by Julia Whelan and she does a brilliant job.  There are lots of 'characters', both male and female, and she manages to convey them so that they're easy to distinguish without sounding inadvertently comic - even with the English accents!  She also brings the wonderful descriptions of landscape and architecture to life.

Overall, while 'Educated' is at times a hard read because of the physical and mental anguish involved, it's a worthwhile one.  It is considered, intelligent and thoughtful, and I thoroughly recommend it.

Now, what next...?

This review is based on the audiobook version of 'Educated' by Tara Westover, read by Julia Whelan.  It was released by Penguin Random House in 2018.  Access was provided free of charge by the publisher.