Similarities in unexpected places...
Apr. 2nd, 2018 12:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearOn my recent writing retreat, two ostensibly very different books were recommended to me by other writers who were there, so I bought one in text format and one in audio format, and read them both last week.
First up was Educated by Tara Westover, which is a memoir of her childhood, growing up on a mountain in rural Idaho in a survivalist Mormon family, and her eventual escape to college and beyond. The prose is beautifully written, full of lyrical descriptions and appreciation of nature. But the stories she tells of injuries in her father’s junkyard, violence at the hands of one of her brothers, and the effects her father’s beliefs had on both her mind and body are truly horrific. While the descriptions of the various injuries are graphic, the religious conviction that led to them being untreated was what I found really disturbing about the book. Part of the reason I kept reading was because I felt I had to see her escape her situation. And I’m really glad she got herself to a place where her intellectual potential could be recognised and nurtured, and that she was able to fight past her indoctrination to be able to accept that assistance. However, there is no easy happy ending to the story, and what she has to give up to be able to pursue a life off the mountain is heartbreaking. Compelling and horrifying in equal measure, this book isn’t for the faint-hearted, but it’s an impressive story by someone who deserves to be lauded for her achievements.
The other book was Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, which tells the story of a young woman struggling to fit in at college, and balance family issues with academic workload and her own writing. Because Cath’s main passion is for writing fanfiction, and she has an enthusiastic online fanbase, clamouring for more chapters of her magnum opus. Rowell has created a series of books (which are a very thinly veiled analogue for Harry Potter) within the world of the novel, so that she can quote both them and Cath’s fanfiction without running up against copyright issues. And the whole thing is delightfully meta, because there are now thousands of fan stories posted online, which are set in the world of those fictional books. I loved the characters, I loved the created world of the Simon Snow books, I loved the discussion of the purpose and value of fanfiction, and I loved how the story played out over the course of the novel. But, the main appeal for me, was that this is one of those rare books that is about *me*. Family and geographical differences aside, Cath is absolutely me from twenty years ago, when my main focus was writing fanfiction and I too struggled with the conflict between obsessive fandom and the obligations of the real world. A must read for fan-enthusiasts everywhere, and especially for fanfic writers.
Weirdly, while reading Educated and listening to Fangirl, I kept getting them mixed up. They might seem totally different on the surface, but they are both about young women with sheltered backgrounds and bipolar fathers, who have difficulties fitting in at college, and have to overcome debilitating anxiety issues, particularly around interacting with the opposite sex. I would recommend both, but maybe not at the same time.
First up was Educated by Tara Westover, which is a memoir of her childhood, growing up on a mountain in rural Idaho in a survivalist Mormon family, and her eventual escape to college and beyond. The prose is beautifully written, full of lyrical descriptions and appreciation of nature. But the stories she tells of injuries in her father’s junkyard, violence at the hands of one of her brothers, and the effects her father’s beliefs had on both her mind and body are truly horrific. While the descriptions of the various injuries are graphic, the religious conviction that led to them being untreated was what I found really disturbing about the book. Part of the reason I kept reading was because I felt I had to see her escape her situation. And I’m really glad she got herself to a place where her intellectual potential could be recognised and nurtured, and that she was able to fight past her indoctrination to be able to accept that assistance. However, there is no easy happy ending to the story, and what she has to give up to be able to pursue a life off the mountain is heartbreaking. Compelling and horrifying in equal measure, this book isn’t for the faint-hearted, but it’s an impressive story by someone who deserves to be lauded for her achievements.
The other book was Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, which tells the story of a young woman struggling to fit in at college, and balance family issues with academic workload and her own writing. Because Cath’s main passion is for writing fanfiction, and she has an enthusiastic online fanbase, clamouring for more chapters of her magnum opus. Rowell has created a series of books (which are a very thinly veiled analogue for Harry Potter) within the world of the novel, so that she can quote both them and Cath’s fanfiction without running up against copyright issues. And the whole thing is delightfully meta, because there are now thousands of fan stories posted online, which are set in the world of those fictional books. I loved the characters, I loved the created world of the Simon Snow books, I loved the discussion of the purpose and value of fanfiction, and I loved how the story played out over the course of the novel. But, the main appeal for me, was that this is one of those rare books that is about *me*. Family and geographical differences aside, Cath is absolutely me from twenty years ago, when my main focus was writing fanfiction and I too struggled with the conflict between obsessive fandom and the obligations of the real world. A must read for fan-enthusiasts everywhere, and especially for fanfic writers.
Weirdly, while reading Educated and listening to Fangirl, I kept getting them mixed up. They might seem totally different on the surface, but they are both about young women with sheltered backgrounds and bipolar fathers, who have difficulties fitting in at college, and have to overcome debilitating anxiety issues, particularly around interacting with the opposite sex. I would recommend both, but maybe not at the same time.
