Rachel Reviews: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Caro Claire Burke's book Yesteryear is one of those books which for me, I am glad that I can say that I've read but it was a world that I was glad to leave at the end. In fact, to totally unpack what's in it, I might have to do a separate more indepth analysis. This was the second choice for the book club I recently joined so there will be, I think, much for us to discuss.

The book is centred around Natalie Heller Mills, a mother and social media influencer who is a proponent of the "trad wife" image - a woman who stays at home to be with her children and raise them in a wholesome way on a farm where the crops are grown organically and fresh eggs are gathered daily from the chicken coop.

One day, however, she wakes up and she is no longer inhabiting a world where she is the orchestrator of her own destiny. Instead, Natalie discovers that she has been transported back in time to a world of simple living, a 19th century version of the life which ironically, she was presenting via modern means through social media. Her children are different. She tries to make sense of where she finds herself as some things are the same - her husband, although he is older - but essentially, she is no longer in the world which she knew and commanded.

Gradually, through flashback, the truth is revealed and it's surprising and Burke leads the reader to the conclusion brilliantly, making things known by degrees.

But it's a hard read.

Why? Well, Natalie is not an easy person to be around in some ways, and what is happening to her and the truth of it means that you veer between feeling sympathy for her and her confusion but wondering if she has brought this on herself through her behaviour. I think that this is because she too is conflicting and so, in that, Burke's character creation and depiction is spot on.

However, it raises many questions. For one, about how we are fed lives which seem enviable through our phones - but are they actually what they appear to be? Yesteryear takes that then to an extreme with the shift in life for Natalie which is an exaggerated version of her modern day existence - but is this the way that some people, especially in the U.S., would like us to head? Where women stay at home, nurturing and subservient and confined?

Whatever the ultimate message of Burke's book, it's thought-provoking and I have to admit, unsettling.

Rachel Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐