Yesteryear: A GMA Book Club Pick

This is a story about contradictions, and an explorations of expectations: the expectations we place on ourselves and others, the expectations that others place on us, and how those affect each other. It’s also about parenthood, womanhood, lies, families, and conspiracy theories. I read it while away from home on a work trip and it made me want to run home and hug my wife. The main character, Natalie, is an engaging anti-heroine. I found myself rooting for her even as I found her intensely unlikable. She elicits sympathy because she is a victim of a sheltered upbringing, a broken family, and unrealistic expectations of role as a woman and Christian. Meanwhile she seems to have no genuine sympathy for anyone else, including her own children. Unlike many anti-heroes, she is not driven by ruthless ambition or greed. Her first steps down her cursed path are driven by a longing for intellectual challenge and a community of peers, but when she leaves home to attend college it’s not how she expected it to be, which creates frustration and bitterness. Later she’s driven by her need to live up to a certain ideal, her fear of what other people think of her, and her fear of poverty. Most of the other characters are fairly one-dimensional, and familiar archetypes (cliche?) but they serve their purpose well, and there are some moments where their complexity and humanity is acknowledged. Natalie herself doesn’t seem capable of appreciating the depth of others, so it’s fitting. Through Natalie’s eyes, everyone is a simplistic version of the stereotype she assumes they are. Natalie’s character arc is not direct, and does not come to a tidy conclusion, which I appreciated. She struggles with squaring the circle of so many conflicting expectations: her own, her faith’s, her community’s, her instagram followers’, and her family’s, as well as the conflict between those expectations and reality, and between reality and the untruths, mistruths, and partial truths we tell each other, particularly the truths that lie outside the frame of social media posts. By the end of the book, we see that Natalie is capable of love and thoughtfulness, of shedding some of her rigidly oppressive personal standards, of forgiveness, and possibly (but not quite for sure) opening her mind to others’ point of view. While the book is obviously highly focused on the many competing demands on women by society, it also touches on issues that men face: rigid gender roles that prevent men from pursuing their interests or being themselves, and lack of fulfillment (perhaps due to those rigid gender expectations) leading men into the swirling paranoid Man-O-Sphere world of right-wing conspiracy theories and toxic masculinity. I appreciated the pace of the novel, especially the way it picked up steam around the climax and toward the ending. However, the end felt a little lacking in volume and detail. I think section 3 could have been fleshed out a little bit more. It felt like kind of an abrupt conclusion. The reveal was done well though, and I thought the epilogue/section 4 was great and brought some much needed additional resolution. One thing that I really disliked were the couple lines where a character mentioned foraging in the forest for saffron in autumn or winter in the mountains of Idaho. Saffron is a rare and expensive spice that comes from flowers that are cultivated in the Middle East and grow wild nowhere. I thought everyone knew this? How did that make it through editing and fact checking? She might as well have said she was going out to pick pineapples in the Idaho winter. I thought maybe it was some clever clue to the reader as to some deceit, but after finishing I feel confident it was just a bizarre mistake. I also thought it was weird that fishing and trapping were mentioned as ways of obtaining wild meat, but not hunting? The Man-o-sphere sucked characters into conspiracy theories about chemtrails and plague infested cities and civil war, but didn’t turn them into gun nuts? Seemed like an oversight to me. Overall, it was a very entertaining read and fairly well written. It was exciting and thought provoking. It had me wondering what was really going on right up to the big reveal, which I thought was surprising and creative. I took off one star for the slightly underweight final chapters, and one star for the saffron thing and gun oversight.

The word ANYWAY does not have an S at the end.

Less than the sum of its parts, this book touches upon important ideas without ever fully exploring them or providing any satisfying conclusions. I thought maybe the author was bringing a radical vision into clear view, but alas, it’s an unreliable narrator tale with some moments of brilliance.

Great story- I loved all the different time lines and how the end tied it together!

This was a total waste of time and money. Do yourself a favor and don’t read this book. It’s actually just plain stupid. DO NOT READ

One of the most depressing books I have ever read.

This book captured me immediately and I was hooked. Read it every free moment. Now that I’m older, I don’t have the focus I used to have, can’t read as fast - but with this book - I got it back! Loved her writing, the clever story. I was worried I would hate the ending, thought it would leave me wondering but it was a great ending. I do have questions though. I can’t ask without spoilers. Please read this book. You won’t regret it. It will take you away and that’s why we read wonderful fiction. Thank you to this talented author.

It felt really political but without a resolution. Making the enemy a type of person we all have interacted with was controversial and made me love it but also my compassion and empathy grew exponentially for those who stay in their echo chamber. It’s hard to see truth when there is a filter on.

I stuck with this book all the way through, even though I felt lost during most of it. The time and place transitions were never clearly explained until the very end, which frustrated me. The characters were not likeable enough to keep me engaged. And the children were also a mystery. On the whole, I’m sorry that I cannot recommend this book. Not my cup of tea.

A lot of hype but a disappointing read. Lack of cohesive follow through that reflected the main character’s development as a person of power and choice.