by Tara Westover
Wow. I didn't know what I was getting into here. The girl grew up with a manic-depressive psychopath for a father; a weak-willed but intelligent mother; and three or four older brothers who shared the general lunacy of growing up in a nuthouse. Among his many absurd paranoia, the father didn't believe in doctors or hospitals. When his kids were severely injured--or he, himself--he expected his wife to fix them up with her homeopathic home remedies. Oddly enough, they mostly survived.
This memoir is chapter after chapter of disaster, and nearly impossible to stop reading once you've started. The story of a girl growing up in a 24x7 train wreck. There is a lot of stomach-churning abuse here, meted out by an older brother who is alternately nurturing and torturing. It's pretty sick stuff, but told in a matter-of-fact voice that lets you get through the humiliation and pain quickly.
The title, Educated, reveals how she might--possibly--escape from the insane asylum. One of her brothers goes to college, and somehow, after no formal schooling and very little home schooling, she decides to do so, too. You have to love her. She's smart, but so very ignorant. She knows nothing of the world--no history, geography, mathematics beyond simple arithmetic, literature, philosophy. Is this even possible?
When you read it, you'll see.
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