Audiobook Review: Educated by Tara Westover

Westover's memoir, Educated, struck me as it explores the pull of a family connection no matter what sort of instabilities are present.

Tara grew up in rural Idaho in a Mormon family where her father was bipolar, and her mother overlooked all sorts of really terrible situations that her seven children were exposed to.

Facts of Tara's life: her mother is an herbalist, and they were not allowed to go to the doctor. For anything. Broken bones, burns--nothing. Her mother was also an unlicensed midwife and suffered brain damage in a car accident.

Her father is a survivalist hoarding weapons, gasoline, water, food, etc. The family owns a junkyard and Tara and her siblings were required to work in it. Safety was of no concern, and this is where many of the accidents happened, but "God would protect them."

Her older brother was physically abusive, and no one seemed to care.

They were not allowed to go to school. Their homeschooling was nonexistent, until Tara decided, at the age of 17, to study and pass the ACT so she could go to college.

While reading this, you keep thinking, "Don't go back!" Why would you want to subject yourself to the danger and instability of life at home? But Tara returns, again and again, even trying to crawl back after her entire family, and extended family, have disowned her. It's easy to think she was stupid, but I'm reading this having grown up in a "normal," safe environment surrounded by friends and family that were neither mentally ill, nor religious fanatics. My family was easy to love.

It borders on disbelief. But even if some of what she remembers isn't entirely accurate (and she admits this at times) it paints a picture of where her mind was, and is, and how her extreme changes in mindset came about after years of education and some counseling.

So what struck me after reading Educated is that everyone needs family or some type of substitute family. We crave it. We are compelled to return to our roots. And for Westover, this was the source of turmoil that took her years to overcome. I'm sure she is still working on overcoming it.

The narrator, Julia Whelan, is excellent. I believed that this was Tara telling her story.

Fans of memoirs of difficult childhoods (ex: The Glass Castle) will enjoy (well, that might not be exactly the right adjective) Educated.

Published by Random House, February 20, 2018
Audiobook obtained from the library
352 pages

Rating: 4/5

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Book Review: Every Falling Star by Sungju Lee

Every Falling Star is a harrowing memoir about a young boy first fighting for his life and then escaping from North Korea.

Sungju lives a life of wealth and comfort in the capital city of Pyongyang.  His father is high up in the military fighting off the evil Americans and South Koreans.  His life drastically changes when his father falls out of favor with the government and he and his parents are sent to Gyeong-seong for a "holiday."  Sungju very slowly realizes that his family is now helpless.  They get nothing from the government, and even if his parents worked, they would not be paid.  He has led a very sheltered, brainwashed life and has difficulty adjusting to their abject poverty.  He can't let go of his loyalty to Joseon (the natives' name for North Korea.)

After both of his parents leave him to find food and don't return, Sungju must learn to survive on the streets.  He forms a gang and after struggling, starving, and being beaten, they become very adept at stealing to survive.

Every Falling Star is very difficult to read. There is so much heartbreak and suffering, it was hard for me to pick it up at times.  I did think the book was a bit long.  The trials Sungju and his "brothers" must go through become a bit repetitive.  I realize this is all true, but we know at the beginning that he is going to escape, so I just wanted to get to that part more quickly.

Ultimately this is a story about family and love.  Sungju's gang become his family, and even to this day he worries about them and is trying to help them, and many others, from afar.

This book, although set in a different country, had the same feel as McCormick's Never Fall Down, so if you have kids who liked that book or like stories about different cultures and survival, point them to Every Falling Star.

Published by Amulet, September 13, 2016
ARC obtained from School Library Connection Magazine
316 pages

Rating: 4/5

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