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A review by savaging
Educated by Tara Westover
5.0
This author was at BYU the same time I was. At the time, she might have frowned at my 'form-fitting' clothing, but all the same how I wish I had met her.
This book is an amazing accomplishment. Powerful ideas, wonderful prose, and a page-turning story.
I think I'm more judgmental of memoirs than I am with other writing. I have a sharp nose for any whiff of self-pity, eagerness for revenge, or possible distortion that comes from wanting to tell a wilder story. This is unfair because I have myself written all of those errors -- but it's just the way I react to the genre now. I think it's hard to write about yourself, it's hard to see yourself clearly.
And so it was extraordinary to read a memoir about family and faith and abuse and never smell distortion. She describes cruelty with an understanding of what drives people to it. She complicates even the worst characters. Even as she describes abuse, she manages a kind of clear-eyed compassion -- that ultimately extends even to herself.
It was also an intense thing to read during the MeToo movement -- to see how men defend and protect each other, and punish the women who speak the truth.
This book is an amazing accomplishment. Powerful ideas, wonderful prose, and a page-turning story.
I think I'm more judgmental of memoirs than I am with other writing. I have a sharp nose for any whiff of self-pity, eagerness for revenge, or possible distortion that comes from wanting to tell a wilder story. This is unfair because I have myself written all of those errors -- but it's just the way I react to the genre now. I think it's hard to write about yourself, it's hard to see yourself clearly.
And so it was extraordinary to read a memoir about family and faith and abuse and never smell distortion. She describes cruelty with an understanding of what drives people to it. She complicates even the worst characters. Even as she describes abuse, she manages a kind of clear-eyed compassion -- that ultimately extends even to herself.
It was also an intense thing to read during the MeToo movement -- to see how men defend and protect each other, and punish the women who speak the truth.