 Yesteryear, by Caro Claire Burke.
This book is a wild ride. Yesteryear is a biting satire of the "trad-wife influencer" phenomenon. Natalie, the narrator, turns her Instagram account into a viral moneymaker, posting images of herself and her husband Caleb as wholesome farmers who homeschool their children and earnestly quote the Bible. The social media images never show the two nannies, the possibly-undocumented farmhands, or the large amounts of money they get from Caleb's parents. Natalie brags about her "perfect" life so much that it's impossible to like her. But it's clear that she hates herself, her husband, her in-laws, her adoring followers, her hate-followers (whom she calls the "Angry Women"), and even her kids. Then she wakes up, and somehow she's in the 1800s. She has a houseful of children, but not the ones she remembers. Caleb is there, but he's changed: her doofus husband now the stern patriarch she thought she wanted. No one will answer her questions or allow her to leave the farm. She has to learn to manage without her microwave, dishwasher, and smart phone - or even decent medical care. The story moves back and forth between Natalie's 21st-century life and her 19th-century one as she tries to understand how she got here. Did she really time travel? Is she the subject of a cruel reality show, being filmed with her husband's complicity? Is God testing her? It's a fantastic premise, but the author kind of painted herself into a corner with it. The explanation at the end requires not so much suspending disbelief as actively throttling it. It does, however, fit the theme of the book, which is that everything about Natalie's life is fake. Booklist Queen: A book everyone is talking about. Around the Year Challenge: Related to "yesterday."
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |