Educated: A Memoir

Jesus Christ. That's all I could say after I finished this book. The entire time it was amazing to me how Tara Westover wrote about the different worlds she lived in throughout her life and the bridges she used to crossover. The connections she makes between her delusional and rejecting father and the fatherly professors are heartbreaking. The comparison between her proud ignorance in her childhood and her expanding intelligence in adulthood is inspiring. And the effect the mountain from her past has as it casts it's looming shadow over her and her life surroundings is harrowing. Each one of these hits you like a steel pipe in the gut when you quickly remember that Tara Westover made these connections in her own life; it's not just an amazing story but one lived by an amazing woman. The emotional struggle within Tara caused by her manipulative, delusional, and violent family hurts intensely. Yet, each family member comes to her aid at some point in her life to show that there are no true villains, but an evil mindset of fear and pain causes those same family members to reject or harm her. You want to yell at 17-year-old Tara at some points to do the opposite of what she is doing and escape the pit of negativity she throws herself in at times. But it's even more difficult to imagine how Westover felt at herself writing those words on the page.

At times, Tara Westover's life feels like it could not have possibly happened in a modern American household. At others, it feels she could be anyone of us living with our own fears and apprehensions.

Truly a powerful account, and the best autobiographical work I've ever read.