Over the past few months, I have been in a terrible reading slump. Between the stress of working over the summer, preparing for my junior year of college, and all the other small inconveniences that crossed my path, I hadn’t found the time to really engage with a book. Of course, I tried my best to connect with my beach reads and the countless other books collecting dust on my shelves, but something was always missing. I thought I had finally and unfortunately lost my desire to read, which was a terrible thought to entertain.
That was, until I found “Yesteryear”.
Authored by Caro Claire Burke, “Yesteryear” had been recommended to me by one of my professors earlier this year, however life got in the way and I never got around to reading it over the summer. However, during a recent trip to the bookstore, the novel was displayed front and center, beckoning me towards it until I eventually caved and bought it. The book initially sat in my bag for a few days until a slow shift at the library gave me the chance to actually begin reading. And boy was I in for a ride.
In her debut novel, Burke details the “perfect” life of Natalie Heller Mills- a traditional, Christian, mom-fluencer who invites the world to watch through their screens as she and her family live the ideal, American life. With her cowboy husband and five little angel children, Natalie has it all. Until one morning, she wakes up in a life that isn’t hers; more specifically the homesteading life she claims to idolize. Alternating between her past and present, Natalie’s life goes on full display, showing the world what she’s lost and what she aims to get back.
At first, I felt bad for Natalie. She had no idea where she was and got transplanted into a time period and a family that isn’t hers but somehow is at the same time. Her modern attempts at homesteading also prove unhelpful, and soon enough she is injured and sick in a world she doesn’t know. I sympathized with her for a while, and then Burke began detailing how Natalie had gotten to this point.
From the beginning, Natalie knows what she wants; a life where doesn’t have to put on a smiling face yet she can still be a good, Christian girl. This is her main reason for moving across the country all the way to Boston, however that only causes more harm than good. During her time at Harvard (yes, the Harvard), she meets her future husband, and decides that rather than finishing her education, she should drop out and be his good, Christian subservient wife. Her in-laws are also huge catalysts for her decision, and as the story continues they only seem to cause more trouble.
After their quick marriage and the birth of their first child, it’s clear that Natalie regrets her life choices thus far. Her husband has no interest in employment, and she’s realizing that motherhood isn’t for her. Due to these circumstances, the little Heller-Mills family moves in with Caleb’s exuberantly wealthy family, where Natalie is given the task to help Caleb find a real job. At this point, I started to feel bad for her; so much pressure had been put on her to achieve the nearly impossible, and I was hoping she’d somehow get out of this terrible situation with her wits intact. However, rather than getting out while she can, Natalie does the exact opposite- she stays.
The reason she decided to stay? God told her too.
Now, I understand that Natalie’s faith is a huge piece of her character, however this is where she lost my sympathies and I realized that this woman is causing her own issues. Sure, God “told her to stay”, but she chose to listen, leading her into what is quite possibly the most loveless, unfitting marriage I have ever read about.
From here on out, Natalie makes some less than favorable choices, ultimately leading to the demise of her media empire and the destruction of her family, which honestly could be seen coming from a mile away. However, this ultimately leads to the twist that I never saw coming from a book like this. I’ll keep the spoiler to myself, but I will tell you that I was floored; there is a chance you will have verbal reactions that may concern your roommates much like I did.
And despite the twists and turns that kept me hooked on reading, there were also tamer sections of the book I enjoyed and oddly felt relatable. A section that stuck out to me specifically would be Natalie learning to “smile correctly” after taking a class on brand reinvention (I promise this makes more sense in context with the rest of the book). She is told that her smile is too stiff and she seems like she’s faking it, causing her to end up practicing the correct smile in the mirror and soon enough she teaches her eldest daughter to do the same. While this scene may seem pretty insignificant in the long run, I found it to be a very subtle metaphor for the performance of womanhood.
While there is no correct way to perform being a woman, society will always say that there is a womanly way to do something, including the small act of smiling like a woman. By including this scene, I think it perfectly sums up how Natalie is struggling to perform as the traditional, happy, Christian wife she portrays herself as. By teaching herself to smile “properly”, she is not only learning to smile in a way that is appeasing to the patriarchal values of society, but also teaching herself to perform in a way that is appealing to the patriarchy as well. And teaching her daughter to smile “correctly” is truly the cherry on top of it all, showing how these values are passed down despite how harmful they are. There are plenty more scenes like this that I could discuss, but I’d rather let everyone else read and interpret them instead of me just giving my thoughts.
I’ll admit, I had my reservations about this novel at first, I turned out to absolutely love this story and it was just what I needed in order to get out of my reading slump. I never anticipated that reading about a Trad-wife’s life and times would have me hooked, but I’d say that stranger things have happened in terms of my literary adventures. I hope to find more books like this in the future, and maybe even a sequel to this story if Burke finds it fitting to write; I would love to hear perspectives from Natalie’s children on this madness considering what they had to deal with growing up.
Overall, I highly recommend Yesteryear to anyone and everyone looking for an engaging and entertaining book to read. And if you’re in a reading slump like I was, this is definitely the book I’d recommend to pull you out of it.