Yesterday's read, ironically enough, was called Yesteryear, and I finished it by 5pm. I did skim a lot of it as it was thick and I would have been bored with the excruciating detail of the narrator's every move, but still, it was entertaining enough.
Natalie, the very unreliable narrator, is a #tradwife with a social media account to show off her 5 million dollar farm, five children and cowboy husband - a life that many would envy, and do - apart from the 'angry women' who troll her posts.
It's a life she has created herself, though she isn't quite happy with it.
“Another long drive back home, through the mountains and past the farms and down the long dirt road to the nightmare—I mean dream—of my own making, the world I molded with my own bare hands. Playdough husband, playdough children, playdough life.” ― Caro Claire Burke, Yesteryear
Her husband is a disappointment, someone who she feels the need to shape rather than let be, and her children are barely tolerated, part of a contract she has with her husband's father who has all the money to buy her life.
“Sleep, breastfeed. Breastfeed, sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep. Breastfeed. Cry. Breastfeed. Sleep. Kill yourself. No—sorry. Sleep. —” ― Caro Claire Burke, Yesteryear
Did you ever watch the doco on Netflix or follow the story of Ruby Franke, the mormon influencer who got done for child abuse? That's where I thought this was going or was inspired by, though it didn't go that far - Franke's kids were severely abused and malnourished. Still, the children here are abused, make no mistake - even if Natalie appears like the perfect wife and mother, she doesn't quite live up to this reality. In fact, Natalie is quite the unreliable narrator. There are many moments in the book where her version of events don't quite match what she actually does.
When forced to handle a real starter without an internet audience, her attempt turns "completely inedible"
After reading about how she lands her husband (whose penis is like dough she wants to cover with a teatowel and let rise) and works to get the farm so he can have some kind of purpose in his life, the growth of her social media account, her five children (she impregnates herself - her husband isn't quite the cowboy he appears to be) and the hiring of nannys and a producer who sleeps with her husband, resulting in her being up on assault charges, she wakes up one morning in a house that is not quite hers.
Natalie had done up the house and named it Yesteryear - to have all the "the aesthetics of the olden times and all the amenities of modernity,” - but when she lands in 1855, to her horror (thinking she's been kidnapped) her perfect American Christian life is shattered and the reader is left wondering whether she's time travelled, lost her mind, or is in a reality TV show. I thought there would be a deeper lesson in all this - perhaps she'd realise that a life without being watched (by God or cameras) is a more authentic one, and that she'd have a chance to connect authentically and deeply to her children who aren't quite her children.
However, the plot twist is something else - perhaps unexpected - and feels tacked on to a novel that begins to explore questions about America it never seems to quite finish. There was some really interesting ideas about motherhood - and life - as performance, and how social media commodifies the domestic without showing the reality of fighting children, post partum depression, fraught spousal relationships and financial worries - as well as that brand of American Christianity that has become an online aesthetic. Natalie is a great narrator because she believes her own bullshit, even when the cracks are obvious.
“The goal of an influencer is not to be lovable, and it is not to be unbearable. The goal is to be both at once. In other words: addicting.” ― Caro Claire Burke, Yesteryear
The time travel shift seemed to be a great opportunity to pull this apart - what happens when someone who recreates the past for likes and followers (baking sourdough, making soap) is forced to live in it? What happens when a picture perfect life doesn't have an audience anymore? What does motherhood look like when one is forced to confront it instead of hide from it?
That's not where it ends up though and I thought the ending was disappointing. I don't want to give away too much though I'd be happy to talk about it in the comments. It was definitely a light poolside holiday read and it has stayed with me, principally as I find that whole #tradwife thing fascinating - are these women actually nuts? - and compelling.
Definitely worth a read if you want something to guitily devour in a couple of lazy afternoons, and I do think it'll end up a series or a movie at some point, hopefully with some directorial changes that pull it together a bit better.
With Love,