Of course, I saw the film first and adored it, it's definitely a personal favourite. I have been intrigued to read Barber's memoir for some time and it was worth the wait. Her witty, brave outlook on life is uplifting. Her romance with Simon really messed with her life, but I think it changed her for the better . It was fascinating to see how the film remained true to so many of the finer details. I loved this memoir. Barber has had such an interesting life and it's a joy to read a memoir of a person who had talent rather than of a talentless celebrity of today. One of my favorite films is An Education staring Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard. It's one of those that I watch every so often, and a few weeks ago when I watched it again, I noticed something in the opening credits that I never had before: "Based on the novel by Lynn Barber." I immediately hopped onto the local library's website and requested the book.An Education by Lynn Barber is her very to-the-point autobiography. Her style is very British in that it's mostly a run down of the facts in the order that they happened. The story that drew me to reading this book, the one from the film about her experiences with a 30 something man named Simon who turns out to be married and deceived her in her teens, is only a 20 or 30 page chapter of this book. The film obviously took a lot of liberties, but the author was involved in the screen play so I can only assume that she filled in more details there than she does in this book. After basically being used as a teen, she becomes wildly promiscuous in college, but still manages to meet the man she would marry and stay with until his death. She went on to write for Penthouse magazine, progressing into writing books to some success, eventually discovering her love and talent for writing interviews, which she is most known for in Britain today.The book was very short and direct, so much so that I powered through it all in less than a 24 hour period. I really enjoyed reading the high points of her life and what she learned. There was one particular facet that sticks out to me is the final story she tells. Her husband very sadly dies in his 50s from cancer, and as she receives condolence cards she was given a photograph of her husband she had never seen before. She was struck by his expression in the photo and how happy he looks, and she became convinced that he is looking at someone he is in love with ... who is not her. This thought stayed with her for weeks after his funeral, helping her cope with him being gone by showing her he wasn't perfect and that he had strayed from her in his life. She then received a letter from the person who supplied the photo answering her question about what was going on at the time. It turns out that the photo was taken at a party thrown for one of his good friends at work who was leaving. The two are both very drunk and laughing while Lynn's husband seems to be looking up at his colleague's wife to reassure her about her husband's state. It turned out to be a completely innocent situation, but due to Lynn's experience with being lied to earlier in her life she immediately suspected infidelity even from the man she spent most of her life with. She ends with this quote,"I am a deep believer in the unknowability of other people - such was the lesson I learned from Simon all those years ago."This is what really summed up the book for me, and what I still think of whenever I see its cover. How sad that this suspicion stayed with her for her entire life all because of how one person treated her when she was so young. A lifetime of being with a person who loved her and she loved in return couldn't erase the damage. I truly hope I nothing I endure ever sticks with me in such an unfortunate way.I did enjoy this book, even if it was very different than what I went into it expecting. It is very well written and her life was certainly a very interesting one. I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.
“What did I get from Simon? An education – the thing my parents always wanted me to have.”Simon was an older man who seduced Lynn Barber when she was sixteen, introduced her to a lot of very unsavory characters and scenes, and ultimately screwed her over mightily. She tells that story, along with details about her childhood, in the opening chapter of her memoir: An Education. It was fascinating — what Simon told her and showed her about a world she’d never encountered; how wholly her family fell for him while Lynn remained unsure; and the consequences of his betrayal (namely, her parents never tried to force their opinions on Lynn again — both good and bad).Unfortunately, this was merely the opening chapter of the memoir, and the rest, about Lynn’s professional career, her marriage and the death of her spouse, paled in comparison. There’s no doubt that she’s a great writer, and she certainly experienced a lot as a journalist in the sixties and seventies, but a lot of the story came off as name-dropping and bragging.Later in life, her husband became seriously ill, and as a result, she spends a lot of time examining her relationship with him. “But perhaps this is what goes wrong with long marriages–you state your opinions, your likes and dislikes, at the beginning and then forget to mention when they change”. I found it depressing. It was depressing, obviously: he was very ill, very unhappy, then he died. But her reaction: avoiding the hospital, not following his wishes when it came to notifying family; that depressed me most of all. I guess I should appreciate her honesty, but it makes me sad that she couldn’t rise to the occasion on his deathbed.Anyway, not a bad read overall, but I can definitely see why they chose to adapt only the story of Simon for the movie.
—pinkpuppiee311
As I'm pretty much Lynn Barber's age, as I used to enjoy her interviews in the Observer, and as we both lived our pre-university lives in London, I thought this would be a book to savour. Well, I dunno really. I whisked through it: it's a quick and easy read. Her teenage years were very different from my own, but after she'd described her childhood and That Teenage Adventure, the book settled down into giving a resume of her career. We learn little of Lynn the wife, Lynn the mother, Lynn the friend or neighbour, and all the other characters in the book, however central to her life, remain hazy. This book is about Lynn the journalist and author. Which is fine, but I wasn't particularly engaged. Still, it's a short book, and soon over. One for the charity shop pile.
—Mikayla
A good, quick read, written in a journalistic style (hardly surprisingly).
—Dominorox121
My rating: 3.5 stars
—Jena
An interesting read.
—rajesh
