I felt the helplessness and the pain in my body when her brother Shawn violently abused her. I winced and my eyes filled with tears of rage when Tara and her siblings suffered serious falls and burns because of their father’s negligence and lack of safety measures in operating construction equipment. Though I had grown up in an urban world, I felt myself wholly transported to Buck’s Peak and the fields of Idaho my immediate surroundings faded away and I was sucked in, entranced. I become consumed by her voice, which reach out to me from every page. Her words are bold, her reflections moving, and her honesty searing. The descriptions are vivid and strangely beautiful I could feel the blood surging through my veins and pounding in my ears as if I was the one living through the fear, horror and hope that Tara experienced. ReflectionsĮducated is a book I could not put down I was enraptured from the very first page. This book is a rich and moving account of her journey from ignorance and submission to knowledge and independence.
#Educated tara westover free#
Unfortunately, the relics of her past continued to haunt her-she was never free from the emotional burden of feeling unworthy and betraying her family. Over time, as new ideas and habits took hold, As her intelligence and willingness to learn shone through, she was offered an opportunity to study at Cambridge and eventually at Harvard. Initially, she struggled to fit in she felt like an outsider, unable to reconcile her past with her new life.
Her curiosity awakened, Tara began to study on her own, saving money to take the ACT and enrolling in Brigham Young University. One day, her brother Tyler left for college, in defiance of their father’s wishes. In a family of seven children, Tara grew up in the midst of scuffles and fights.
Her life was filled with danger, with harrowing memories of accidents and injuries, near-death occurrences and the oppressive atmosphere of home created by the constant threat of physical abuse from her older brother. Having never set foot in a public school, Tara helped her mother mix tinctures and salves, then worked for her father hauling scrap in the junkyard. In a startling, bold and sentimental memoir, Tara Westover paints the picture of her childhood growing up in the mountains of Idaho, under the constant influence of her father’s unwavering belief in his own rigid version of Mormonism, his rejection of public education and his blatant distrust towards the Government and the “Medical Establishment”.