an Education

I saw the film An Education back when it was nominated for the 2010 Oscars; the book was a very quick, enjoyable read. I didn’t realize when I started reading that the film was based on an article Barber wrote not the memoir. The movie actually only covers the first 40 or 50 pages of the book.

So the story anyone who knows the movie is that: Lynn Barber began an affair with a much older (con)man named Simon when she was sixteen. The experience broadened her horizons- she visited luxury hotels & fancy restaurants and traveled around Europe. Then it imploded.

But that was really just the beginning.

Barber went to Oxford following her relationship with Simon, she had a promiscuous couple of years (claiming to bed 50 guys) eventually meeting the man of her dreams David. The story follows her illustrious career in journalism- including her years at Penthouse– which is equally as interesting as her teenage relationship.

The whole story is well rounded featuring personal and professional stories from the 60s up to the 00s. Barber is incredibly candid about her life experiences. She boasts about not having any skeletons in her closet “not because [she] lived a virtuous life, but because [she’d] never kept anything a secret for more then ten minutes.” A wonderful outlook to have when writing a memoir.