Ann Patchett Reveals Why She Didn’t Love Bestseller ‘Yesteryear,’ Saying, ‘This Was Not Written for Me’
The popular novelist got candid about missing the cultural moment entirely
Key Takeaways
- ‘Yesteryear’ by Caro Claire Burke has sold over 1.4 million copies since April.
- Ann Patchett says the bestselling trad wife novel "was not written for me."
- Anne Hathaway is set to star in and produce the ‘Yesteryear’ film adaptation.
One of the hottest books of the year is Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. It’s a New York Times bestseller, is becoming a movie starring Anne Hathaway and has over 780,000 reviews on Goodreads. Safe to say everyone loves it—except for Ann Patchett. That’s right. The Whistler author didn’t love the “trad wife” mystery. Find out why below.
First, what is ‘Yesteryear’ about?
Yesteryear was published by Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in April of this year. It was a Good Morning America Book Club selection and has sold more than 1.4 million copies. The dystopian plot follows a modern-day trad wife influencer Natalie Heller Mills after she wakes one day trapped in the past in a life that’s not hers. It’s a dual-timeline tale with a shocking twist that will leave readers guessing until the very last page.
“There are a lot of elements to Natalie that I did relate to. She’s so ambitious, and you’re always experiencing this claustrophobia between what she really wants and what she’ll admit to herself. I don’t have it to the same extent, but I have felt that,” Burke told Vogue in April of this year. “I also relate to her daughter, Clementine. She’s a side character, but she’s so important. She’s this person that’s always watching and can see the person offline and the person online, and I think we all have people like that in our lives.”
As mentioned above, Yesteryear is becoming a movie and Hathaway is expected to executive produce and star.
“The film auction took place right as I sold the book, and the book was just a draft. The plot was there, but it was very skeletal. So [Anne Hathaway and I] had a number of conversations about who Natalie was, and what it means to live as a public person, what it means to feel surveilled. It was really helpful to talk to everyone about what they were relating to, and how we could take advantage of her interiority versus what she says aloud,” Burke told Vogue. “I’ve read an early script that they’re still working on…They have some really interesting ideas that I’m excited about, and it’s going to be really cool to come together.”
Why Ann Patchett didn’t like ‘Yesteryear’
As a bestselling author and bookstore owner, people expected Patchett to have read Yesteryear. What they didn’t expect was how she was going to react to it.
“I am 62. I don’t watch television. I’m not on social media. I had never heard the phrase ‘trad wife,’” Patchett said on the National Writers Series stage earlier this year. “A friend of mine sent me that [book] galley six months before it came out. I got to page 50 and I was like, ‘This was not written for me.’ It seemed snappy. The writing seemed good, but I missed the boat before the boat even left.”
Does Ann Patchett recommend any dystopian novels?
While Patchett has not recommended any dystopian novels specifically, she has praised author Margaret Atwood in the past, who is best known for writing the feminist dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale.
“My favorite Canadian author is everybody’s favorite Canadian author, Margaret Atwood,” Patchett said on the National Writers Series stage. “I’ve met her on several occasions, and I always think, ‘What a drag it must be to be Margaret Atwood, because it would be like being Einstein in a Montessori school all day long.’ Like she’s so much smarter than any of us, and she’s very gracious about it.”
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