Author : Tara Westover
Narrators : Julia Whelan
Genre : Non-fiction; Memoir
Publisher : Random House Audio
Listening Length : 12 hours 10 minutes
Rating : 4.3/5
Narrator Rating : 4.5/5
In this book, author Tara Westover describes her childhood with her parents and her siblings on a rural farm in Idaho. Her father is what we would term a conspiracy theorist, someone who’s rabidly anti-government, convinced that the government is out to get him and his family, subjugate them and take away their rights. Thus, he is always predicting the end of the world and preparing himself and his family for it – storing food, fuel, ammunition and supplies in underground bunkers for the day that they will need them. Her mother, although initially displaying an independence of spirit, later becomes devoted to her husband’s theories and becomes equally complicit in an abusive family life where the children seemingly have no voice and are prevented from going to school or develop interests outside of the home.
Tara manages to leave the family home by getting into college by the skin of her teeth, often wondering whether she will have the money to pay for her tuition and board. As she learns about various world events and gets a perspective of her own, she begins to view her life in her parental home, a home that she does not go back to, as the abuse that it actually is.
In her details about her day-to-day life, she painstakingly sketches a portrait of her parents and some of her siblings. They all work on the family business – her father’s junkyard often in dangerous conditions. None of them actually go to school or receive much of a homeschooling. Tara teaches herself the basics and studies for the ACT. Learning and science is pooh-poohed upon; the Westovers do not go see doctors, even for serious injuries.
Some of the situations Tara faces are harrowing but her description is unflinching yet never cruel. The affection, if I can call it that, that tinges this memoir probably comes from the fact that even though she now understands the abuse she’s suffered at their hands, they are still her parents and her family, and that mountain farm was still her childhood home. Her journey is remarkable and her tenacious courage in standing up for what she believes in is to be applauded. This book was an engrossing tale and read almost like fiction. Highly recommended.
I’ve heard two books by narrator Julia Whelan before – Gone Girl and The Wife Between Us. She is just as good as she was narrating those books, does male and female voices equally well, and gives apt voice to Westover’s tumultuous emotions.
