Kate’s 2¢: “Educated a memoir” by Tara Westover with Julia Whelan

“Educated a memoir” by  Tara Westover with Julia Whelan

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   As we learned from the Watergate perpetrators, dressed in preppy outfits and crew cuts to the homeless man in rags who could sing opera with the best of the professionals, you can not tell a person’s intellect by their clothing. Obviously, Westover was a gem in the rough until a Brigham Young University professor saw her potential and guided her in a way her bipolar father never could have.

   One of the many key memories as a very young child, was the Ruby Ridge Massacre, which her father took to mean just because the Weaver family was home-schooled, that the Feds would be coming to take over his family for that reason, too. The obsessive stock-piling of food, water, guns, and “go bags” was one of the numerous episodes that emotionally scarred Westover forever.

   I vaguely remembered the incident, so I looked it up: …https://www.britannica.com/event/Ruby-Ridge

Ruby Ridge was the site of an 11-day siege in 1992 in Boundary County, Idaho, near Naples. It began on August 21, when deputies of the United States Marshals Service (USMS) initiated action to apprehend and arrest Randy Weaver under a bench warrant after his failure to appear on firearms charges. Weaver said he would not surrender, and members of his immediate family, and family friend Kevin Harris, resisted as well. The Hostage Rescue Team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI HRT) became involved…”

   I wonder if writing this book was cathartic for Westover and if she can now move on with her life without the baggage of her childhood and one brother who appears to have the same psychotic issues of their father.  It is not uncommon for members of the Mormon faith to use shunning as a punishment, but, usually there will be one or two family members who will keep in touch with the “bad seed”. Perhaps, the siblings she consulted to clarify her memory and journal entrees  will continue, or not, to support her.

   I wonder if she has conveniently forgotten whether or not her brother sexually assaulted her  during any of his out-rages.

From: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35133922-educated

Book description:

“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. 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. 

From her website:

Below is a bio, awkwardly written in the third person. Because people keep asking me for it.

Tara Westover is an American author. 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. Educated is her first book.

Julia May Whelan (born May 8, 1984) is a screenwriter, life-long actor, and award-winning audiobook narrator. She graduated with a degree in English and Creative Writing from Middlebury College and Oxford University. While in England, her flirtation with tea blossomed into a full-blown love affair, culminating in her eventual certification as a tea master.

   A tea master is to tea what a sommelier is to wine: an expert who can identify the drink’s origin, aromas, mouthfeel, and much more.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Educated: a memoir DB90188

Westover, Tara; Whelan, Julia. Reading time: 12 hours, 12 minutes.

Read by Julia Whelan. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.

Religion

Biography

Memoir exploring the author’s path from being raised in a fundamentalist, paranoiac Mormon family where she was homeschooled to eventually working her way to graduate degrees at Cambridge and Harvard. Discusses hardships faced by the family, abuse at the hands of a sibling, and more. Some violence, strong language. Commercial audiobook. 2018.

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