Just finishedI have just finished reading a book which left me thinking "Could all that possibly be true?"
Best sellerThe book is not new. It has taken three years to get to me, even though the American public pounced on it as soon as it was published in 2018. In the USA it hit the best seller lists and the "top tens". But I only came to it in the last few weeks after my wife Marion had it recommended to her by a friend. Hard and cruelTara's life by most ordinary modern standards was hard and cruel. She worked from quite an early age in her father's junk yard adjacent to her house. Scrap metal dealing required sorting, pulling things apart, draining fuel from vehicle fuel tanks and using heavy machinery. Accidents happened – bad ones – but hospitals were never called. Her mother's salves and oils were the treatments. Brutal bullying from one of her brothers, pseudonymously called Shawn, was tolerated or denied by the parents. Music a way outIn one of the softer parts of the narrative, Tara's mother finds Tara a singing teacher and when the teacher pronounces her ready to sing in church Tara's singing attracts great praise from the congregation. Her father glowingly describes the family as "greatly blessed". Participation in music and listening to her brother's cds gives Tara a glimpse of another world. As she grows through teenage years she more and more determinedly moves towards that world, eventually going to university and even on to a Phd at Cambridge, England. The story is astonishing. Parts of it are like a gripping horror story. I hope you will read it. If you've already read it, see what you think of 'struggling to an identity.' Struggling to an identityEducated is more than an escape chronicle though it is that, and Tara is estranged from that part of her family loyal to her father. It's a psychological account of someone struggling to an identity with which she's comfortable. Tara calls part of that struggle a mental breakdown; dreams nightmares, sleep walking and periods of irrationally. Hours talking to a counsellor over many months helped ease her to health – quite a testimony to counselling. We may not have gone through the extremes Tara did but many of us may identify with elements of a process that is often called "finding yourself". BarrierSince October 2020 Tara Westover has faced a new barrier to any family reconciliation. Her mother has written and self published a 300 page book – Educating. Yes, that's the title. It's her mother's memoir. It's a pushback written to give "the true story" in response to Educated. How about that for family conflict? Libraries to which I have access don't stock it but I have managed to read a sample by going to it on Amazon. A trioTwo other odd American family books I've previously written about came to mind as a I read Educated.
Peering into other's livesI find life stories interesting, especially unusual ones. Sometimes I find them inspiring. Sometimes they extend my understanding. These three together certainly extend my insight into "working class" American life and thus into the country as a whole. They also give me a continued interest to follow. I like to see outcomes. Sometimes they give me something to worry about. I will worry about Tara. Westover. But I will also hope. I hope she will find a permanent and satisfying relationship or a contentment in remaining on her own. I hope that in some way she, her parents and her estranged brothers and sisters will find some sort of reconciliation. I hope the person she is now pleases her. □ John McInnes Friday 26 November 2021 Publication details: Educated by Tara Westover. Random House February 2018 Hardcover ISBN978-0-399-59050-4 Note: I read the ebook version borrowed from my local library. ##########
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