Educated: A Memoir

Part one of reads like a Steinbeck novel: remarkable characters with humble backgrounds, set in the American West, beautifully painted. I had to keep reminding myself that this is a memoir. The second half is less beautiful, but interesting as a depiction of the narrator's huge transformation (her “education”). The big theme, perhaps the biggest, is the strength of the ties we have to our younger selves, to the memories, beliefs, and identities we've built up in our formative years. Sadly, I failed to fully understand the author's monumental struggle to make sense of the past tragedies, to act on them, to let go of them.