Yesteryear and the Cautionary Tale of American Tradwife Culture
In the last few years, the word "tradwife" has appeared in the zeitgeist, leading many people to ask: What exactly does it mean to be a tradwife? Well, that question has been answered over and over again by a multitude of tradwife influencers across social media platforms.
To paint a picture for you, these women are usually Mormon or Christian, dressed in prairie dresses and always seen making a new recipe from scratch in their pristinely beige and white kitchens. They stay at home and take care of the kids while their rich husbands go off to work in politics, or business, or some kind of job that is deemed "masculine." They take the kids to church every Sunday, but not before they make a video telling you they're getting the kids ready to go there. They usually have conservative ideals and value the structure of the typical nuclear family. They're young and blonde and in impossibly perfect shape. Their lives seem picture-perfect until the public deems them not.
Caro Claire Burke takes the meaning of tradwife to another dimension in her debut novel, Yesteryear. Warning: possible spoilers ahead.
Our leading lady, Natalie Heller Mills, finds herself transported from her "perfect" life at her farm, Yesteryear Ranch, to the year 1855. The dream life she has been perpetuating quickly turns into a nightmare when she realizes all of her worldly possessions are gone, and now she's stuck with a family uncannily similar to hers and no contact with the outside world. Throughout the book, the storyline flips from Natalie's college experience up until the present day and her new life as a pioneer woman in the 1800s. It becomes clear throughout the story, as Natalie descends further into her own madness, that she is an extremely unreliable narrator. This all comes to a head when the truth about her new life is revealed.
Not only is this story a nightmare come to life, but it is a colorful depiction of how far gone someone can become when they feed into extreme ideals such as Natalie's. There are times throughout the story when you begin to sympathize with her, although it is very clear that she is the true villain of her story. Natalie is obviously a product of her environment, an absent father and an uber-religious mother who makes the girls tell everyone that their father is "dead" when in reality infidelity was the real reason he was no longer in the picture. Natalie is a smart woman; she got into Harvard and studied there for a year before she dropped out to become a full-time wife and mother. She uses her wit to take advantage of everyone in her life, attempting to mold them into what she thinks they should be. She does this for years until it all comes crashing down around her.
I enjoyed this book thoroughly. I've been following the uptick in "tradwife" influencers for the past few years now and have found it to be highly interesting. In modern times, women have been embraced into the culture of the workforce and encouraged to go get what they want from life. The idea of being a mother and a working woman has been normalized over the years, but now we are seeing more and more influencers trying to encourage the opposite, using conservative and religious rhetoric to back their claims. All of this considered, along with the rise in conservatism in the U.S., it makes sense why some women have begun to idealize this lifestyle, especially when the ones propagating it are selling perfectly polished versions of their own everyday lives.
Caro Claire Burke's writing style feels extremely personal and insightful. Throughout the story, it feels like we, as readers, are living inside the thoughts of Natalie. We see the good, the bad, and the absolute evil that goes through her head. This framing makes you realize that Natalie really only does good things for others when it benefits her. From the moment she marries her husband Caleb, to each of the births of her children, we see her disdain for life in general. She hates being a wife, she hates being a mother, yet she still holds herself and others to an impossible standard that she can't even reach.
I also want to mention how deeply funny this book is. The dark humor of it all ties in so well with the theme. The things Natalie says and thinks are absolutely ridiculous. She paints the modern women she meets in college immediately as immoral for reasons she completely fabricates in her own head. When she meets her roommate, Reena, she assumes she's jealous of her, and throughout Reena's efforts to attempt to include her, Natalie is certain that Reena hates her guts. Even ten years down the line, Natalie assumes Reena still thinks about her and envies the life she has. We don't get to see Reena's point of view much, but at the end, it becomes obvious that Natalie had made much more of their time together as roommates than Reena ever had. You can also see how Reena continuously lives in the subconscious of Natalie in her relationship with her producer, Shannon. It's almost as if Shannon is this extension of Reena and a representation of the type of woman Natalie secretly wishes she could have been.
I couldn't help but think of so many different mommy and tradwife influencers throughout my read of this. First off, the idea of Yesteryear Ranch as a whole reminded me so much of Ballerina Farm, a very popular tradwife influencer on TikTok. The rich cowboy wannabe husband and the home, made to look like it stepped out of a picture book in the 1800s, pointed right in her direction. I also thought much about Ruby Franke, a YouTuber who exploited her six children on the internet for years, before eventually getting arrested for child neglect and abuse. The way that Ruby viewed her children as content was eerily similar to the behavior and practices of Natalie. Natalie's daughter even came out with a memoir about the life she experienced under the care of her mother and father. This reminded me a lot of Shari Franke's memoir The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom.
Yesteryear deserves all of the hype it's getting, and it is one hell of a first novel for Caro Claire Burke. In recent news, Anne Hathaway has been set to star and produce in the movie adaptation of the book, which I will be very intrigued to see when it comes out. There is no set release date yet, with the only name attached so far being Anne. Overall, I think this was a phenomenal first book for Burke, and I am eager to see what she does next. Yesteryear is available online and in stores wherever you can find books.
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