Karen
"Instagram tradwife influencer wakes up in an Idaho farmhouse in 1855" is the hook, but the most interesting part of the story is how she got there. Yesteryear is highly readable. Its main character, Natalie Heller Mills, is a smart woman who is sceptical about the feasibility of the modern societal expectation that women should pursue both career and family life. She is also judgmental, unforgiving, smug, and a whole host of other petty flaws. Her voice is funny, intimate, as if a girlfriend was telling you her story over coffee (or an Instagram influencer was narrating her story over a series of vignettes). You find out some details of her life that make you feel sympathy for her. She's not a straw woman, but she is also not a nice person, and she is blind to her own flaws. She refers to the Angry Women who make derogatory comments on her videos, without understanding that she is also a very angry women. Her own mother asks her, late in the book, "WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR YOU TO BE KIND?"
I am not sure if I find the answer to what Natalie is doing in 1855 Idaho all that believable or even effective for the story. I'm still mulling that over. But I do think this book is worth reading for what it says about the difficulty of being a woman, whether you're in 1855 or the present day.
"Instagram tradwife influencer wakes up in an Idaho farmhouse in 1855" is the hook, but the most interesting part of the story is how she got there. Yesteryear is highly readable. Its main character, Natalie Heller Mills, is a smart woman who is sceptical about the feasibility of the modern societal expectation that women should pursue both career and family life. She is also judgmental, unforgiving, smug, and a whole host of other petty flaws. Her voice is funny, intimate, as if a girlfriend was telling you her story over coffee (or an Instagram influencer was narrating her story over a series of vignettes). You find out some details of her life that make you feel sympathy for her. She's not a straw woman, but she is also not a nice person, and she is blind to her own flaws. She refers to the Angry Women who make derogatory comments on her videos, without understanding that she is also a very angry women. Her own mother asks her, late in the book, "WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR YOU TO BE KIND?"
I am not sure if I find the answer to what Natalie is doing in 1855 Idaho all that believable or even effective for the story. I'm still mulling that over. But I do think this book is worth reading for what it says about the difficulty of being a woman, whether you're in 1855 or the present day.