Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (an unpopular opinion)

If there’s anything redemptive about this book, and believe me, it isn’t the writing, it’s that Caro Claire Burke is able to point out the illusions under which our society now lives.

Let me go back, for a minute, to the annoying writing. First we’re in a contrived setting perfectly marketed for Instagram. Then, we’re in Natalie’s youth, wearing prairie dresses and long braided hair. Then we’re back in Instagram heaven, followed by her days as a college student at Harvard, and suddenly…bam! Where are we, exactly? Natalie doesn’t know. She doesn’t even know the children who call her Mama. The narrative is so disjointed it feels awkward and surreal.

Natalie herself is unreliable. She proclaims to be a Christian, yet scattered throughout the mental dialogue she discloses are untold passages like these, found within the first 28 pages:

…that stupid little bitch.

Sorry, Lord. Sorry, sorry, sorry. 

and

Jesus fucking Christ, it’s cold.

Then: Sorry, Lord. 

I’m all for forgiveness for a profane mouth. But, at some point, this “Sorry, Lord,” loses its sincerity. 

The further I read, the more distraught I became. Her husband will find no job; they go to live with his parents. He spends his days practicing yoga and watching porn. He eventually sleeps with the woman who films Natalie’s content. Content, you know, carefully staged to present a facade of what life is like on the farm. Where it ought to be natural and wholesome, if not downright dirty and difficult.

Is there nothing of value in this book which is being applauded on too many feeds, news articles, and bestseller lists? Is this what our society is able to relate to, and even call a good book: a cheating, lazy husband; a college where education is not valued; a home where nurture is an illusion created for content; a scornful slant on faith? 

I am baffled by its popularity, and I am disgusted I read as much as I did.

Anticipating Paris in July 2026

 

I have been compiling some titles for Paris in July this Summer, so eager to begin, in fact, that I have already read two of them. I have published my thoughts on Your Promise by Camille Laurens, sent to me by Other Press, here. I have scheduled the post for Old Goriot by Honoré de Balzac to be published on July 1. 

So, you see a mix of contemporary fiction, as well as classics. I’m highlighting them here in case you feel drawn to any yourself; in case you are looking to compile a list for yourself. They are as follows:

Your Promise by Camille Laurens, winner of the Prix Femina (sent to me by Other Press)

“An ingenious legal thriller in the vein of Anatomy of a Fall, this gripping story of a writer’s toxic relationship exposes the gap between who we are and who we seem to be.”

Madame Chrystanthème by Pierre Loti, (sent to me by Espresso Publishing Company)

“Madame Chrysanthème was one of the most widely read French novels of its era. From it descended a short story, a Broadway play, and finally Puccini’s Madame Butterfly. This is its first new English translation in over a century.”

The 6:41 to Paris by John Philippe Blondel (sent to me by New Vessel Press)

“This is a psychological thriller about past romance. With all its pain and promise.”

Old Goriot by Honoré de Balzac:

“ Honoré de Balzac’s great theme was money, and in his best-loved novel, Old Goriot, he explored its uses and abuses with the particularity of a poet.”

Jacqueline in Paris by Ann Mah:

“From the bestselling author of The Lost Vintage, a rare and dazzling portrait of Jacqueline Bouvier’s college year abroad in postwar Paris, an intimate and electrifying story of love and betrayal, and the coming-of-age of an American icon – before the world knew her as Jackie.”

The Belly of Paris by Emile Zola:

“Part of Emile Zola’s multigenerational Rougon-Macquart saga, The Belly of Paris is the story of Florent Quenu, a wrongly accused man who escapes imprisonment on Devil’s Island. Returning to his native Paris, Florent finds a city he barely recognizes, with its working classes displaced to make way for broad boulevards and bourgeois flats. Living with his brother’s family in the newly rebuilt Les Halles market, Florent is soon caught up in a dangerous maelstrom of food and politics. Amid intrigue among the market’s sellers–the fishmonger, the charcutière, the fruit girl, and the cheese vendor–and the glorious culinary bounty of their labors, we see the dramatic difference between “fat and thin” (the rich and the poor) and how the widening gulf between them strains a city to the breaking point. 

Are you planning to read for Paris in July 2026? It is always one of the highlights of my reading year; I hope I have enticed you with some of these French titles.

Six in Six: Six Categories, Six Books

 

My friend Emma, at Words and Peace, is hosting Six in Six. For this meme, we take the opportunity to look back at the books we’ve read in the first six months of the year, choosing six books in six categories. (A list of examples for the categories is listed in her post.) And so here we go…

Six of my favorite books listed for the International Booker Prize this year:

The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje 

The Wax Child by Olga Ravn

The Deserters by Matthias Enard

The Witch by Marie NDaiye

The Duke by Matteo Melchiori

Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur

Six books by Robert B. Parker, whose Spenser books I never tire of, and often reread when I need something on the lighter side:

Crimson Joy 

The Widening Gyre

Valediction 

A Catskill Eagle

Pale Kings and Princes

Playmates

Six fulfilling books newly published by beloved authors:

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout

On The Calculation of Volume III by Solvej Balle

The Keeper by Tana French

Land by Maggie O’Farrell

Guilt by Keigo Higashino

Sisters In Yellow by Meiko Kawakami

Six Japanese books:

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata

Sympathy Tower Tokyo by Rie Qudan

Sputnik Sweetheart  by Haruki Murakami 

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

Sisters in Yellow by Meiko Kawakami

Bookstore Girls by Kei Aono

Six books from the Wade Center authors at Wheaton College:

The Fellowship of The Ring by J. R. R.Tolkien

The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis

The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis

Preparing for Easter by C. S. Lewis

Six books that disappointed me (although all are either bestsellers or nominated for the International Booker Prize):

Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino

Sorry For Your Loss by Georgia McVeigh

She Who Remains by Rene Karabash

On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia

Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shang-zi

We Are Green and Trembling by Gabrielle Camara Cabezon

Well, who wants to end on a disappointing note? Certainly not I! So, let me say that I really enjoyed looking over what I’ve read and organizing the titles into categories. It was a worthy endeavor, Emma, and I thank you for continuing to host this tradition.

Your Promise by Camille Laurens (He takes a deep breath. “I’d like you to promise you’ll never write about me.”)

(photo credit of the mimosa tree here)

“Claire,” I want to say, “don’t his two previous relationships present a warning?” For as her relationship with Gilles builds, she seems to ignore that has he left both his wife, Élizabeth, and his subsequent lover, Violetta.

But, love is not necessarily based on reason. As their passion deepens, and with it her dependence, Claire stands on very precarious ground. Gilles is nothing if not persuasive. He even makes her promise that she will never write about him, although she is an author.

He is a puppet master. No, really: he performs with puppets in the theater. He controls their strings. The puppets he manipulates are not always makes of wood. Some are made of ice. They have to be managed very skillfully, or the joints will crack and break; during the performance, the puppet slowly melts.

Oh, Claire. As she tells her story the suspense builds, and eventually we are uncertain if she has lost her mind, or if Gilles is that masterful a puppeteer. I mean, lover. He persuades her to sell her house in Paris in order for them to buy a little place in Hyères with a mimosa tree in the front yard. She can stay in his apartment when she needs to be in Paris for her writing, or her social life. It will be wonderful! Not long after they move in the mimosa tree, which people come from all around to see, dies. What a terribly significant event this turns out to be.

All along there is an undercurrent of psychological tension. We know that something terrible has happened, as we listen to Claire tell her story through her own narrative, her relationship with Gilles, her friends, and even her lawyer. It is revealed through translucent layers, each building upon something quite dark.

The author, Camille Laurens, calls into question the definition of love. Can women ever receive that which we hope for, from our fathers, husbands, or lovers? Or, as she maintains, are we all fearful of abandonment? (I thought that was such a personal fear, but perhaps not.) Your Promise will reside in my mind for a very long time, as I contemplate the ability to keep a promise. Or, why, we even make them to one another in the first place.

They seem so very difficult to keep.

Camille Laurens is an award-winning French novelist and essayist. She received the Prix Femina, one of France’s most prestigious literary prizes in 2000 for Dans ces bras-là, which was published in the United States as In His Arms in 2004. Her previous books include Who You Think I Am (2017), Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (2018), and Girl (2022). She lived in Paris.

Thanks to Other Press for sending me this incredible novel to read and review. It is a precursor to the books I’ll read for Paris in July 2026.