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Feb 23, 2019DavidSpencer99 rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Along with other such memoirs about escaping deleterious family situations---Hillbilly Elegy and Educated are two popular ones right now---I'm fascinated and repulsed by the lunatic father. His paranoid and grandiose delusions defy social norms and common sense, yet nobody opposes him. Tara finds a different path through education and manages to escape from his influence. Notable philanthropist Bill Gates says the interest lay in “people who remove themselves from society because they have these beliefs and knowledge that they think make them more enlightened. Their belief systems benefit from their separateness, and you’re forced to be either in or out.” A reviewer on Good Reads named Shelby thought “it repeated itself so much that I didn't think the story was ever going to move on. Some parts were just mind bogglingly boring and I almost threw it aside.” Both have a point: the study in religious obsession is fascinating and the book really should’ve been made shorter and tighter by an editor. I enjoyed the gritty realism of the junkyard, the early boyfriend, etc. Many times, her statement of some newly perceived fact did not satisfy. The book is really about her struggle to gain perspective, to determine what is real and what is utter fantasy. That’s a difficult thing to convey, and this effort is worthwhile even if it’s a bit tedious at times.