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filmingpages 's review for:
Educated: A Memoir
by Tara Westover
My first ever memoir and it was an unbelievable book, but you might have noticed that I haven't rated it and as soon as I finished it, I decided I'm not going to. I don't know how you are supposed to rate someone's life and experiences, like how am I supposed to say I enjoyed/not enjoyed it when it's someone's life story?
Apart from that, this book broke my heart in so many different ways, it frustrated me, it filled me hope and joy and in the end all that was left was undeniable admiration for this woman's journey. This memoir made me feel so many different things at once, it was an emotional rollercoaster, a wild ride of a book, that I recommend to everyone.
The way her family behaved, especially her parents, was very strange and bewildering to me. And no, I don't mean that it was strange, because of a difference of cultures, I mean that it was strange because basic human and parental instincts were missing. Putting your child's life in continuous danger, barely educating them and keeping them isolating in a questionably clean space seems very outlandish to me.
It was deeply saddening seeing how her parents, through their blind following of their religion, hindered so much their children's lives. Being religious is supposed to be a freeing thing, something that makes your strive to be better, not something that shackles you to ignorance. Being religious is about believing in something bigger, not something that hinders you from going to the hospital when your brain is literally oozing out of your head or going to the police when your brother is physically and emotionally abusing you and your siblings. Still I cannot fanthom how they chose him over Tara, how they decided that protecting an abuser is more important than protecting the one suffering from abuse. I just cannot wrap my mind around it.
Overall, I wholeheartedly admire Tara Westover. What she did was in no means easy, but her courage and thirst for knowledge are only two of the many admirable qualities she has. She's an inspiration to me from now on and I will definitely read anything else she writes!
Apart from that, this book broke my heart in so many different ways, it frustrated me, it filled me hope and joy and in the end all that was left was undeniable admiration for this woman's journey. This memoir made me feel so many different things at once, it was an emotional rollercoaster, a wild ride of a book, that I recommend to everyone.
The way her family behaved, especially her parents, was very strange and bewildering to me. And no, I don't mean that it was strange, because of a difference of cultures, I mean that it was strange because basic human and parental instincts were missing. Putting your child's life in continuous danger, barely educating them and keeping them isolating in a questionably clean space seems very outlandish to me.
It was deeply saddening seeing how her parents, through their blind following of their religion, hindered so much their children's lives. Being religious is supposed to be a freeing thing, something that makes your strive to be better, not something that shackles you to ignorance. Being religious is about believing in something bigger, not something that hinders you from going to the hospital when your brain is literally oozing out of your head or going to the police when your brother is physically and emotionally abusing you and your siblings. Still I cannot fanthom how they chose him over Tara, how they decided that protecting an abuser is more important than protecting the one suffering from abuse. I just cannot wrap my mind around it.
Overall, I wholeheartedly admire Tara Westover. What she did was in no means easy, but her courage and thirst for knowledge are only two of the many admirable qualities she has. She's an inspiration to me from now on and I will definitely read anything else she writes!