Caro Claire Burke : photo credit Alfred A. Knopf
Caro Claire Burke’s novel “Yesteryear” is written with the confident pacing of a metronome.
Ricocheting between modern times and life in the mid-1800’s this 391 page opus accelerates like a self-driving pick-up truck hell-bent on a mystery ride.
Readers are immediately introduced to the mind of Natalie Heller Mills. As a Harvard co-ed she majored in being a good daughter and good student with the intention of graduating into life as a good wife and good mother. Her road map for success was to follow traditional values all the way to life’s finish line.
After meeting an affable upperclassman in a prayer group Natalie’s desire to graduate from the Ivy League program mysteriously vanished. When she married into Caleb Mills’ image-conscious family she was well on her way to her promised land.
Comfortably numbed into concentric circles of role playing, the modern-day domesticated diva developed an on-line ‘trad-wife’ image for income and identity. YESTERYEAR FARM landmarked the multi-platformed sanctuary of branded ideals.
Devotés of the popular site perceived rejection of contemporary feminism as inspirational. They celebrated Natalie’s super-power to distance herself and her growing family from the dystopia of current cultural conformity.
Others considered YESTERYEAR’s mindset to be a breeding-ground of gender repression, a virtual wasteland of pathologies.
Whiplashing from chapter to chapter Natalie’s pseudo-satisfactions collide without explanation into the barren existence of tragical-wife-aries. Never at home with herself, trapped by self-imposed expectations to ‘behave’ Natalie lived without agency in psychosexual despair.
As the image of alter-egos worn frail by isolation becomes more clear, “Yesteryear” transitions from a curious read into a cautionary tale of interpretations and misinterpretations.
If there is a stylistic quibble with the book it’s the unexplored arrested development of Natalie’s husband Caleb. His child-like lack of responsibilities and absence of moral compass inexplicably absolve him of consequences caused by living in the vortex of yesteryear.
Nonetheless the originality of this Good Morning America pick makes “Yesteryear” worthy of a Beach Bag Book Club recommendation.
If you’ve already read it, what’s your spin?
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