Comments on: Shut out from a mystery: Guest Blog reviewing “Educated” by Tara Westover

By: Monique

Monique — Mon, 06 May 2019 18:32:18 +0000

In reply to Hephzi.

Dear Hephzi

Thank you for your comments and pertinent questions. Yes! I was thinking the same thing last night as we watched Line of Duty. If a foreigner watched that programme, they might think we were all violent and corrupt. But this book is different I feel. There is violence and a kind of corruption but there is also real hope and redemption. It also gave me an insight into how fanaticism of one kind and another can be so damaging.

As for your question about writing about happiness. That’s one that Prince Charles raised a long time ago about newspapers. They just wouldn’t sell…

By: Monique

Monique — Mon, 06 May 2019 18:24:05 +0000

In reply to Lyn Inned.

Dear Lyn

Please don’t be put off reading this excellent book; that is not at all what I intended! It’s a tough read but eminently worthwhile not least of all because it’s a story of triumph over adversity. Also, an an educator, I was so buoyed up by how learning helped her through so many difficulties.

Monique

By: Carrie Dunne

Carrie Dunne — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 18:46:37 +0000

I really enjoyed reading your guest blog, Monique. It raised so many questions about childhood and the adults we look up to, expectations and how we pull ourselves out of such difficulties. I also enjoyed the moments of humour in your personal introduction. Great read.

By: Diana

Diana — Sun, 21 Apr 2019 09:22:42 +0000

A most thought-provoking piece and a great contribution to the blog. Like Hephzi, I linked the review with the Turpin trial. Religious indoctrination has been so harmful over the centuries, whether Catholic, Protestant, Muslim or other, and yet those responsible seem to have believed they were doing good. Such a strange paradox.

By: Hephzi

Hephzi — Sat, 20 Apr 2019 21:57:05 +0000

Many thanks for your thought-provoking review, Monique. Your opening section about your own childhood is fascinating, and I thought of all sorts of things to say in response. Then I read your perceptive review and more ideas buzzed around my mind – but I was stopped in my tracks by your question ‘why do we read books like this, so full of hurt and anguish?’. Yes, why do we? Yesterday I was reading online – almost not wanting to read – about the couple who have just been jailed for life for imprisoning and maltreating their own children – and part-way down was a link to another article ‘How can parents torture their children?’, which gave some psychological explanation (Turpin trial, BBC news). I find it very hard to understand how such things can happen, and wonder what the parents’ own childhoods were like. I also wonder why I enjoy reading crime novels, or watching Nordic Noir, for relaxation, but don’t want to read about real crime. (I gave up on Jo Nesbo, though, he descended into totally unrealistic misogenistic torture fantasy.) Having said that, I would like to say something about story-writing, whether fiction or life-writing – but feel I am in danger of descending into meaningless platitudes. Here goes anyway – does a story need to have darkness and difficulty in it for anyone to be interested to read it? Would a story where everything was fine and all the characters were happy be worth reading at all?

By: Lyn Inned

Lyn Inned — Sat, 20 Apr 2019 13:32:53 +0000

What an interesting and beautifully written review. The personal introduction at the beginning and the questions at the end serve to connect reviewer, book, and reader of the review in a very involving way. But do I want to read the book now? Not sure!