I am in the midst of writing my full review of Tayari Jones’ Kin (will be publishing it in early June) as our official Magpie Book Club discussion piece, but I know a lot of us are itching to talk Yesteryear now, and I wanted to get the conversation rolling.
I finished Yesteryear in a fever dream in under 48 hours — I can’t remember the last time I’ve binged something so intensely. The writing is gripping, biting, vociferous. The animus both within and behind this book are intense; I don’t normally like to hang out in that octave, but the unhinged, spiky pace, charioted by truly propulsive prose, locked me in. There is a scene in the second half of this book where an animal trap snaps the protagonist’s ankle: an apt metaphor for the way this book held me. It was painful, snap-and-snarl reading!
At the beginning of the book, I found the critique of aestheticized domesticity, and the industry that supports “tradwives” in their performance of it, riveting. Burke writes in such a way that we are not so much waiting for the mask slip (as we might be while watching a video of the protagonist performing her life from the outside in) as we are watching the protagonist construct and fine-tune the mask. That behind-the-scenes look at the motives and methods is both fascinating and disturbing. But as the book continued, I found the singularity of the protagonist’s story, the way she grapples with her identity, her religion, her upbringing, her marriage, her dark view of the world, and especially her motherhood, overwrote some of the “meta” critique Burke seemed to be angling for. I found myself — sad. I found myself worrying about the dark headspace and heavy thoughts that appeared to sluice themselves through the protagonist’s mind. I found myself sick over the treatment of her children, and sick over her…how to characterize it? Her misguidedness? Her vitriol? Her mental unwellness? Her desperation? Mainly, I couldn’t wait to exit at the other end of the tunnel.
I found the mechanics of the second half of the book narratively confusing. I can’t tell if I’m being willfully resistant to metaphor or if I need to just let the book’s imaginative arc exist as it is, but I felt that the novel’s realism in certain parts complicated the unhinged middle section of the book. I still can’t quite understand how she went from the day Shannon left into some time warp where she woke up disoriented and couldn’t unpack what had happened. Were we meant to take this at face value, as in, she straight-up time traveled (fast-forwarding to her second set of children and forgetting how she got there)? Were we meant to think she’d had some kind of mental break? Or was it just a convenient plot device? Was it a big “watch what you wish for” deus ex machina moment? No matter which path we travel here, things feel unsettled. Maybe this is OK. This is a book that reads like a tilt-a-whirl anyway. But I found her children’s (the second set of children’s) responses to her entry into “yesteryear” strange. They seemed almost resigned to it, as in “this happens sometimes” — but this is never fully resolved. And Old Caleb’s shocking violence toward her — while he is villainous in other ways throughout the book — felt out of suit at that moment. It was almost as if Burke descended into some sort of nightmarish hall of mirrors place for that section without fully reconciling how it related to the rest of the plot. Was she dragging us into the worst possible outcome of wishing for a life of “yesteryear”? I couldn’t put it together, but it was ugly nonetheless. I started to have the sense that Burke just wanted to see the protagonist punished as violently as she could. And that in turn made me feel uneasy.
I think in the end the book does an incredible job of asking us what it means to perform, and of mucking around in patterns of thought that in certain contexts can be beautiful (religion, motherhood, dedication to family) and in others can be bent towards darkness and divisiveness. I was particularly disturbed by the protagonist’s mother’s talk about re-centering herself by imagining she is performing for God, or by considering God her constant audience. This is, I think, true on some level to me, but the artifice of it, the way the protagonist laminates that kernel into something unwholesome and hateful — yikes.
All in all, this book is worth the buzz. Burke is a tremendously talented writer and I loved the novelty of it. I’m delighted by the story of a first time author catapulting to the top of the bestseller list — and especially one who attended my own alma mater (UVA). Wow! At the same time, I felt uncomfortable on a soul level with the animus that governs the characters and the writing; it was difficult for me to process. There is a point in the novel where the protagonist observes that her biggest detractors are in fact her biggest and most loyal “fans” and I couldn’t help but see a trace of that in the authorship of this book. (All judgment is confession?) What did you think?
Next in My TBR.
+Currently reading Maine Characters on the rec of many Magpie readers — a much needed palate cleanser. More great beach reads for the summer here.
+Cannot wait for: Ann Patchett’s Whistler (releasing June 2). This will be our June book club pick. The owner of Wonderland Books received an advanced copy and absolutely raved about it. She said she hadn’t loved Tom Lake but this felt like a return to Ann Patchett core. Cannot wait.
+If you’re looking for more another buzzy, juicy memoir-ish read in the same general vicinity of Belle Burden’s Strangers and Burke’s Yesteryear, try Lena Dunham’s Famesick.
+If you’re looking for something gentler: The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion.
+BRAD rec (beach read after dark, a la Katie’s coinage): Elsie Silver’s latest cowboy romance!
Shopping Break.
+Loving these new statement pants, this blockprint dress (Doen vibes), this striped blouse (Staud inspired), and this fab shell from J. Crew’s latest crop of new arrivals. And don’t miss the nautical sweaters — this cardigan, this rollneck!
+OMG, if you got yourself a sailboat sweater, your little one needs this!!! ADORABLE.
+Eby just relaunched its lace bralettes — apparently these sell through with each relaunch. I’m ordering one to try given how much I absolutely adore the other bras in their line. Comfort first.
+Helix’s Mem Day sale is still ongoing! We just received our mattress for the guest bedroom along with their cooling pillows.
+Sale standout! 50% off a fabulous striped caftan.
+While we’re talking breezy stripes, how incredible is this ditty?
+My friend Mackenzie recommended this inexpensive gingham workout set, and…I love it! The fit is surprisingly good. Almost like a swimsuit material, super flattering and high-waisted. I wore it while doing some Melissa Wood Health videos outside this morning. Exercising outside makes it, like, 50% more enjoyable — lol. Reminder that they gave us 33% off with code JENSHOOP5. (And don’t forget the padded mat! Truly love this thing. Makes working on the flagstone patio possible and pleasant.)
+Always drawn to rich chocolate brown patterns — how great is this Me+Em for tucking into white shorts? (Also comes in a gorgeous dress variation.)
+Love the crisp poplin pintucking on this dress.
+These tailored shorts in the cocoa stripe.
+A great nautical striped lounge pant. Also love the options on this cotton tee — the ringer style, the stripes!
+Mother released their white kick flare jeans (a bestseller) in a petite inseam.
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So—Yesteryear! On the one hand the book kept me reading and involved. (And anyone who writes knows the difficulty in creating a page turner, chick lit or pop literature or whatever. Making the reader want to go to the next page is an art ). Moreover, I loved the politics of the book and made reading it so right for this particular historic moment. (I could go on and on here—female objectification and the embrace of feminine performative, controlling patriarchs and molesting politicians, etc etc) I found all of this compelling.
But I also found the book slightly cartoon like. Natalie never feels real. The abrupt plot shift while conceptually interesting feels contrived and unconvincing (and I admittedly have a bias against works that start in one genre and become another).
I think it’s very difficult to make political statement feel literary. Yes, The Iliad is an anti war statement —but Homer understood the necessity of developed characters. Natalie remains flat and despite her time travels rather one dimensional.
Trad wife lit is becoming its own niche in the larger field. I think its critique is important. If nothing else Yesteryear is entertaining and dies, as we used to say, important cultural work.
I agree, I think this book really extends and almost memorializes (?) a conversation that has been happening for a long time elsewhere. I confess to know virtually nothing about that conversation and so I found this book eye-opening. I think your critique of the book feeling cartoon-like was interesting, too. It made me reflect texts with an obvious political/social agenda that DO also nail the literariness, and Barbara Kingsolver came to mind. I think Tayari Jones’ Kin, too, though maybe in a more oblique way. Thanks for the great food for thought here.
xx
I read the novel slightly differently. I felt quite sad for Natalie and while she made painful decisions left and right, I saw her as a sympathetic character in witnessing the tension brought from her upbringing (her religious and familial pressure) and her ambition. This tension is coursing through the book and reveals to me an author who is frustrated with the limitations in certain parts of our society for women like Natalie. Rather than a complete judgement of her, it feels like an indictment of how society (and specifically this sect of religion and traditionalism) doesn’t allow women to pursue their ambition nor men to pursue caretaking (as her husband seemed to really struggle with this limitation in the first half of the novel). Her mental breakdown is upsetting to say the least but the decades of suppression and self-denial seem rightfully to be building toward this kind of break. I felt the author writing with sadness that Natalie could never fully express herself.
Interesting! I agree that the way Caleb was written was intriguing, especially the way Burke positions him at constant odds with his Dad, as sort of the weak and slightly dopey understudy. She could have written him as his dad, you know? Why paint him in this way? I do think that gave Burke latitude to suggest some of these themes you’ve laid out here.
Thanks for chiming in!!
xx
I loved this book! I really enjoyed it as an examination of the expectations of womanhood – you can tell Natalie is smart and ambitious (and super controlling) but she is so set in this idea of what she thinks is right that she oppresses herself.
To me, her obsession with her roommate and her reaction to her sister’s divorce were the clearest indicators that she wishes for that kind of freedom deep down and is projecting her insecurity onto them. She has to be better than the roommate – her roommate must be miserable having a job because otherwise that was an option for Natalie and she can’t believe that… same with her sister – if her sister can just leave her husband, then that is an option for Natalie, and she can’t accept that. I also thought it was pretty obvious that Caleb was drugging her for years with valium or whatever his mother was on – she had memories of the interim years later on – buying the pioneer outfits and whatever – but she was obviously just delusional and out of it most of the time, just like his mother. Mary had several moments where she alluded to Natalie being out of it often. To me, the ending made most of the book make way more sense and I thought it was super well done!
Natalie IS an awful person but I think the takeaway is meant to be that she did this to herself – kind of like a Serena in Handmaid’s Tale or something like that. Sometimes women feel they can acquire power by aligning themselves with the goals of the patriarchy but ultimately all women suffer, including them.
Anyway, loved your thoughtful review as always!
Hi Dragana! I’m so glad you brought up the roommate. Natalie is in almost constant (internal/imagined) conversation with her throughout the novel, and I liked the way Burke did that, sort of tethering the two of them together as different paradigms who seem to dislike or misunderstand or whatever you want to call it one another. I wasn’t sure how to suss out what to think of the roommate at the end. Did she have “the upper hand”? Did she win?? Was it about winning?
xx
It is so rare for me not to love (or even like) the “book of the moment,” but I actively disliked every minute of this one, for many of the reasons you’ve described here. It felt as though Burke conceived of the twist first and then wrote herself into a corner trying to get there. Once the reveal came, the missing 20 years made absolutely no sense to me, and the whole thing fell flat.
Honestly, my confusion started much earlier. I found it wildly underexplained that a child of a single mother in a small Idaho town, with no family history of higher education, would decide to apply to and enroll at HARVARD, of all places. That’s a huge leap, yet it felt almost like a plot detail rather than a fully developed part of her character. What made it even stranger was that she then gave it up to get married and drop out quickly, with barely a backward glance. It seems as though it would have taken enormous grit and determination for her to get all the way to Harvard, yet the book never reconciles that version of her with the person who walked away from it so easily.
I usually find Anne Hathaway to have such good taste in projects (hello, Idea of You!) so I am confused as to why she attached herself to star in the movie version of Yesteryear before it was even released! She must see potential that we do not…
Nodding along with you on a lot of these rivulets of thought. I kept wondering, too, about whether the premise came first, i.e., “what IF a tradwife actually WAS sent back in time?!” Really interesting prompt but then not sure if the structure of the novel grew organically or inorganically around that, you know?
xx
ugh YES to all of this! I read Yesteryear in a similar sprint but felt off-kilter by the end. I don’t know that I’ve ever read a book where the author really, truly seems to despise the main character? Even Voldemort had some sympathetic elements to his backstory! Natalie was given next to no redeeming qualities, no character development, no growth. It’s so popular to critique tradwives, but this one felt really nasty, i think, due to the absence of any real nuance. Example – I’d find Natalie more compelling if she was grappling with her faith but forced to perform the Good Christian Wife on camera – or she held strong religious beliefs but somehow they were reduced to #blessed. Something! Instead, the author gives Natalie no depth on the issue. My other major issue with the book is that the plot twists felt lazy as they were not tethered to the narrative. Do you remember reading A Tale of Two Cities in high school? Obviously not trying to hold this first time author to the standard of Dickens, but I still remember it being the first book i really gasped out loud at some of the twists in the plot. It all clicked into place, made sense, felt like the details were there all along I just had missed them. In stark contrast, Yesteryear’s big surprises felt trite. I’m glad I read it for the purpose of participating in the many, many conversations about the book, but i don’t think it added to my knowledge of a subject or enjoyment/happiness and that’s usually why I read.
That’s SO interesting, Elizabeth, because someone else (I think it was Alisha Ramos) described the prose as “hand-wavey,” i.e., “ehhh, forget the details, don’t look too closely at the details.” I agree that there could have been much more dimension if we’d gone deeper on her views/thoughts on religion, education, even love (did she believe it was possible for her?). I think the counter-argument is that maybe Burke wanted to show that there was no development. That she is stuck in this unhealthy mindset, locked in, with no way out. But I think this again leads us back to the initial observation that this is a book where the author hated her protagonist.
xx
#evenvoldemort! I really didn’t think this was well-done, for all the reasons you mention. It was a neat idea, but really needed more skill in the execution. I would say that I read to expand my horizons in some way, and this book seemed designed to ask its readers to just feel confirmed in their own superiority to Natalie. I read some interviews with the author where she insists her take is more complex than that, but that’s not what ended up on the page. I’m trying to read less books I don’t like (or embrace giving up mid-read when I know it’s not for me) and I failed miserably here due to the discourse around this one.
I do agree with the comment that “it asks its readers to just feel confirmed in their own superiority to Natalie.” There is no “other” way to read her!
I agree also with your general prospectus on giving up mid-read if it’s something that’s not clicking for whatever reason. Fully support. Life is too short!!
Thanks for chiming in here! I’m super interested that a lot of you so far have responded in a similar way, i.e., “this felt a little flat / underbaked, even though it gripped me.” One of my best friends just texted me and said, “did she get bored of writing it halfway through?” I knew what she meant — it did feel like it started with this huge axe to grind, a big and enormous energy, and then we wander into woodlands where we watch Natalie be punished over and over again?
xx
Overall I agree – I was craving more Natalie character development. The only moment of empathy I had was when her family of origin was referenced in the context of her telling Mary that the older children died. The theme of generational trauma is one that pulls through (and she even talks about it explicitly when she says her children won’t be ok anytime soon).
It felt like leading up to the twist, it happened slow and then all at once. However, I was gripped. Can’t wait to hear what Caro comes out with next!
Yes, this was such a daring idea! It will be interesting to see her continue to develop as a writer.
Agree!!