This is a powerful, raw and probably unique memoir that examines issues at the intersection of (amongst other things) the personal, family, belief, learning and organised religion. Westover’s prose is at once dense and flowing, hesitant and sure footed but above all it is authentic.
She is a reliable narrator even though much of what she is writing about relies on her memory as a young child and young woman. Where she has doubts she lets the reader know.
Westover’s 5* story left me thinking about two main aspects of her life, Firstly, the way our given intelligence and curiosity about the world, past and present, surfaces and how it does this come what may. In this way a child who never went to school becomes an original thinker -as she says, she becomes someone who writes history.
Secondly, at times reading Tara’s struggles with herself in respect of leaving or staying within her family, I could hardly believe the impact of the strength of her Father’s belief (for example, that the world would end and they had to be prepared) on her. The bonds are almost unbearable and unbreakable when she is a child and they persist as she matures. Eventually the connections between her and her family start to fray and her knowledge of how others in and outside their religion (they are Mormons) see the world grows.
One day when she makes her choice. I won’t add the spoiler. Read the book! It is well worth your time to do so.
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