Educated by Tara Westove

OFF THE SHELF


“EDUCATED ” by Tara Westove

Tara Westover tells the story of her family and upbringing in rural Idaho. It is fascinating and at times quite scary. Her father ruled the family, and they were all at the mercy of his extreme ideas. In retrospect, she is convinced that he had schizophrenia; it was hard to live and cope with his behaviour and restrictions. None of the children were allowed to go to school or consult doctors; they had to wear old-fashioned clothes and had no life of their own. Her mother was complicit with these rules. She did at times seem to encourage Tara, but ultimately always supported her Father. One of her brothers and her father were very cruel and vicious at times, with seemingly no care for Tara or anyone else.

Tara had great strength of character and an independent spirit; eventually, she managed to leave home, go to University and eventually to study in Cambridge, England. At the time of writing her family would still have nothing to do with her.

Most of us found this book to be a real page-turner but some did not enjoy it because of the cruelty and unpredictability of the family. As a group we scored it 7/10.

 

Tricia Coulthard