My Podcast Script of the BookReview of Educated by Tara Westover

Hello to all my dear readers and listeners,

Welcome to the world of The Alchemist Reads,

Today’s book is very dear and close to my heart but before I talk about, let’s create a much needed background for it.

As of now May 2020, the whole world is placated into wearing masks and hand gloves, use sanitizers and keep oneself socially distant from others, cooped up inside their homes, with medical staff looking like aliens in their PPE suits, all bubbled and wrapped in and out, up and down and everyone else just simply living their lives in the good old hope that normal days would be back again, very very soon and not to spoil the mood, I too for one, really hope that happy days will be here again pretty soon.

But now imagine living such a quarantined, sequestered life all through your childhood, all the more, when you could see that the whole world is having the time of their life but you on the other hand, are insulated from such a glamorous, happy go lucky lifestyle? Imagine how hurtful and scarring it would have been for a small child? And all this not because you were grounded or punished for some unlawful or silly thing that you did but because of the beliefs held by your family, particularly your parents, who think that either the Aliens up there or the Federal Agents out there are on the prowl to get you all.

Now such a paranoid delusional demented way of thinking and living had always been present and still is in many of the undeveloped and developing third world countries but what was shocking in this book by Tara Westover aptly titled EDUCATED: A Memoir written in a total of 376 pages and published by Random House on 18 February, 2018 is that such overtly religious, hill-billy families who love living on the fringe, cut off from the mainstream society are present in huge numbers and growing, in the most developed nation on the Earth, the US of A.

And the reason behind such irrational and schizophrenic beliefs held by such families is simple, FEAR and NESCIENCE. Fear of losing oneself in the rat race of the world to eke out one’s living and create a home and hearth for one’s kith and kin by fighting against this cynical cynical world in all its contests of getting ahead than the other, whether it be in school, college, office or any other event or walk of life. Yep people are afraid of such a busy engrossing life. And Nescience of not knowing the truth about this world, it’s people, their history, culture and all the beauty and alchemy of nature through Science and History.

Such fearful people in their fright of not knowing how to fend for themselves or even how to defend themselves end up living in trailers or slums or in country side rural farms where no modern thought of University Education and Industrial Civilization could reach them or provide them with the dream of a successful career and jet set life all due to the gains made by immersing oneself in the commerce culture everywhere around us.

And Ultimately its these such people who shun knowledge and education imparted by schools and colleges often end up as cannon fodder for politicians, rich money moghuls and people with racist and bigoted agendas of their own, dare I say, since such na?ve people can be easily brain-washed into becoming partisan and polarized section of society, toward one or other perspective of life, culture or history.

Such a thing is now being witnessed not just in America but everywhere in the world, in every city and country on every continent. People who aren’t really in touch with themselves through proper learning and education about a global culture and work ethic, are just simply spiraling down into the narrow divisions of xenophobia and nationalist machismo and mumbo jumbo, thus playing into the hands of the forces that want to keep you divided for their own selfish gains.

And similar was the severity of the patriarchal family atmosphere of Tara’s household where she was never send to any school, never had any proper academic syllabus home schooling either, was never allowed to use any western medicine or doctoral treatment, wasn’t allowed to gulp down any western fast food or watch any movie or sport or even indulge herself in spending her childhood days with other kids in the neighborhood. Such segregation was implemented due to the fear of her typical Mormon religion following extremist, rural survivalist, father in rustic parts of Clifton Idaho, USA.

Tara, the youngest of the seven children in the house was given the same treatment as her other six siblings, she was made to do the rough and tumble physical work in her father’s wrecking yard and when any one of them got injured, they were given treatment by their mother who used herbalism and alternative healing therapies to cure even the most lethal injuries suffered by anyone of the children or they, the parents themselves, like her mom once had herself suffered so in a car accident.

Tara never got to read an academic text book or write an essay or take an exam or even attend a lecture until she was 17 years old, when she took it upon herself to educate herself by studying independently to pass the ACT Exam and thereby be eligible to get into a University which she finally did by gaining admission in the Brigham Young University. And then there was no stopping to this firebrand of a girl. In 2008, she graduated with Honors and subsequently earned a Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge at Trinity College as a Gates Cambridge Scholar (this bit in the book when I reached there was a shocker to me btw, coz I had never expected this turn of events in her life) and later became a visiting fellow at Harvard University in 2010. And finally she earned a Doctorate in Intellectual History in 2014 from Trinity College, Cambridge.

But more than these bright inspiring accomplishments of Tara, all by herself, this Memoir is the story of her fortitude, forbearance and foresight towards her own siblings as well coz even though one of his elder brother named Shawn, thrice assaulted her physically and abused her verbally often, she didn’t give up on them. She tried to provide this wealth of education to whoever among her brothers and sisters was ready to accept it. And here comes one more shocker in the book, in this twisted family saga of one helluva messed up family that apart from Tara, two other siblings too have managed to get their doctoral degrees.

Wowsie! 3 Phd’s from one such ugly, thuggish and bullying family is just unbelievable. I mean even trying to have three children achieve Doctorates in a conventional household would be a big ask and here this anti-science, anti-medicine, anti-education family ultimately had such kids who went all the way with their Education is indeed motivating.

This one single fact shows how tenacious, persevering and ambitious some of the kids in this holy hell of a family had become from within. Truly, this memoir is a coming of age, brutal to the core, heart-warming story of a girl who always believed in herself, in the liberating power of education and never gave up in the face of extreme ideology and the trauma of domestic abuse.

This book is divided into 3 parts written in 40 chapters in total. Now, the title of the chapters are quite revealing in their nature about both the struggle and the audacity of Tara in this hellacious journey of hers.

Chapters like Instinct, My feet no longer touch Earth in part 1 are real gems.

Going ahead chapters like What we whispered and what we screamed, A Knight errant, Graduation from part 2 are moving for sure.

And then titles of chapters like the hand of the almighty, Sorcery of Physics and the final Chapter Educated at the acme of this Pilgrim’s Progress called Tara Westover.

The entire memoir is written in a fast pace, narrative style, with the typical folksy colloquial words and phrases used often by the people of Idaho. All through the book, the seething pain endured by our protagonist is presented in its entirety without trying to hide or smoothen any untoward fact or incident. That’s how viciously honest this book is. One real saving grace of this memoir is that Tara never tries to portray herself, as the typical victim who needs saving and sympathy from others, nor does she paint the males of her family in a bad villainous light. Never. She only mentions the tribulations heaped on her by the men of her family out of their own convictions about how a woman in this world ought to be, be it within a House or on the street outside.

Now, small little instances like the fact that she never knew about the Holocaust or about Martin Luther King Jr. until she herself decided to delve into History books and read it for herself are very surreal but ultimately highlights the core of the book which is that education whether imparted or self-gained is always truly a force of nature and highly liberating oneself by making one know where he has come from and where is he going.

So, all in all, Educated: A Memoir is a book that ought to be a must read for every girl and woman of this world. For this book will only provide more strength and onus to every lady who has to struggle every prejudice in the book to get to the summit of her success. This book is the fountain head of how sheer finesse and flair in one’s focus and approach can be a sure thing to gain all the success one has dreamt about.

Through this girl’s journey who is now a woman of 33 years of age, we realize that it’s only through proper education that one can become accommodative and tolerant to every other person’s point of view, doesn’t matter how trivial, biased and narrow it might be and how it’s only education that can make us humans prepare institutions and documents that can help us overcome superstitious and surreptitious passions and dogma thus leading to a healthy, cultured, civilized life in every society.

Btw, there is a Netflix documentary called Wild Wild Country that shows such typical people and their families residing in the US.

You can watch to feel and experience this book in one more way.

So this was today’s podcast. Meet all you guys another time pretty soon.

The Alchemist has left the Building.