EDUCATED

5 stars out of 5

Did I love this book? Not even close; mesmerizing but horrified seems to be the best description as I try to compose my review. Generally speaking, it's a memoir written by a woman who grew up in remote Idaho with Mormon survivalist parents who kept their entire family isolated; she was 17 before she ever entered a formal classroom, and by the time she wrote the book, she'd been to such esteemed universities as Harvard and Cambridge and earned a Ph.D.

When I started the book - a recommendation from a journalist friend - I figured I'd be able to identify, at least somewhat. I've known a couple of folks who I'd call "survivalist" sympathizers; while they lived and worked in my real world, they espoused hatred of all things government, considered the Second Amendment a directive from God and spoke, mostly in hushed tones, of the many groups in remote parts of the country who are hunkering down, locked and loaded, waiting for the world to self-destruct.

Besides that, I can relate to not wanting to live the life of your parents; like the author, I was eager to "escape" a traditional future like that of my mother and father - okay for them, perhaps, but not what I envisioned for myself. And like her, no matter how far I've gone from home I've never escaped those down-home country roots (nor do I want to; rather, I'm quite proud of them). Like the author, I loved my parents dearly, and I always knew they loved me. But unlike her, never once did they try to dictate what I did, where my life took me or what I believed. And for the love of Heaven, never would they have harmed me mentally or physically (well, there was one time my Dad gave me a whopping knot on the head with his bat when he was the hitter and I the catcher in a farmyard baseball game, but there's no question that it was an accident even if my mother never quite forgave him for it).

So what the author lived through growing up - and I can think of no other way to describe it than as a living hell - is unimaginable to me, just as is her reluctance to leave once and for all. Or at least, it was until I read what she's written and came to at least some understanding of how she was - and to a certain extent still is - torn between loyalty and love for some pretty unlovable people and her need to reach her full potential, whatever that might be. Some parts of her story actually make sense given her parents' beliefs, such as making the kids learn Morse Code to ensure that they all could communicate "if the lines are cut." And having watched business owners bite their fingernails to the quick back in late December 1999, I understand her father's obsession with the Y2K thing (but perhaps not his despondence when nothing happened; after all, those business owners were pretty darned happy).

Other parts, though, remain almost unbelievable to me - in particular, some of the gruesome injuries that happened to her and other members of her family, none of which were treated by conventional medicine. But her remembrances were fact-checked by editors; and even if some aren't spot-on accurate, they're close enough to give me chills. All told, it's quite a story, and one that made a considerable impression on me. Highly  recommended.

Educated by Tara Westover (Random House, February 2018); 336 pp.