Review: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Our May Fiction Book of the Month, Yesteryear, is the perfect book club book. It is a clever, biting, wicked book that lifts itself out of the cartoonish world of much modern satire by giving us far more to chew on than just caricature. I am not saying you will feel much more than pity for the deeply flawed and often repugnant ‘tradwife’, influencer protagonist, Natalie, but the attention the author, Caro Claire Burke, gives to her reveals a foe worthy of our attention.

Burke takes the trouble to build a rich backstory for Natalie, and makes her far more savvy and self aware than the plot requires. For in truth, as stupid as the far right in America may appear from afar, it has its own internal structures and logic, giving it a persuasive power and durability the left ignores at its own peril.  

That said, Yesteryear is also just a lighthearted comedy about an influencer who gets her comeuppance by landing back in time and experiencing just how hard life was for a woman in ‘olden days’. 

Yesteryear has already started a great deal of talk online. You don’t have to overthink it to enjoy it (like I have). But it will get you talking.