Final month, once I learn Rachel Hochhauser’s Woman Tremaine — a reimagining of Cinderella from the attitude of her stepmother – I used to be blown away. Within the novel, Woman Tremaine pulled herself out of poverty as a teen, however now, middle-aged and twice-widowed, she wants to seek out her two daughters safe marriages earlier than they find yourself on the streets. Additionally on her to-do record? Caring for an ungrateful stepdaughter, searching rabbits for dinner, and retaining their leaky home from fairly actually falling down.
Woman Tremaine flips the whole lot on its head — the traditional Cinderella fairy story, in fact, but additionally how we view girls and moms, all through historical past, literature, and nonetheless as we speak. (Working example: on Huge Salad, I shared how the e book led me to a serious relationship realization.) Reese Witherspoon simply selected the novel for her e book membership, and I can already envision the film on the massive display. Right here, I spoke to Rachel about her dramatic backstory, favourite sentence, and parenting realization…
First issues first: What impressed you to put in writing about Cinderella’s stepmother?
The backstory is extra dramatic than you would possibly suppose. In 2023, my husband couldn’t get away from bed, he had vertigo, he was throwing up on a regular basis, he misplaced 35 kilos. We didn’t know what was happening. Ultimately we discovered that he wanted emergency mind surgical procedure. The restoration was brutal, and we have been spending a lot time within the hospital. Sooner or later, within the ready room, I used to be scrolling by means of my telephone and was stopped in my tracks by a cartoon picture of Cinderella’s evil stepmother.
Why did that picture soar out at you?
On the time, I used to be a caregiver. I used to be caring for my husband, solo-parenting our toddler, and dealing full time. After I checked out Cinderella’s stepmother, I didn’t see her as a villain. I noticed her as a mom who was doing what she wanted to do to deal with her household.
What a surprising realization.
That seed obtained beneath my pores and skin. I couldn’t cease fascinated with it, I felt compelled and known as to the story.
Have been you first launched to the story by watching the Disney film as a child?
Sure, I used to be enthralled. Even now, once I consider the long-lasting animation, the set design, the dimensions of it, I really feel very taken with it. The fascinating factor is, I’m making an attempt to re-message the story round Cinderella, but it surely’s additionally a love letter to Cinderella.
One pleasant a part of studying the novel was recognizing traditional Cinderella scenes — for instance, she comes down carrying an outdated blue costume, and the stepsisters contact it and it rips.
It was actually enjoyable to play with the acquainted beats and plot factors of the Cinderella everyone knows however defy expectations and make fascinating U-turns. Then the second half of the e book explodes that world.
Woman Tremaine has two daughters, in fact, and in addition turns into accountable for her stepdaughter. In your novel, she finally ends up realizing that she must guardian every of them in another way. That was a phenomenal and profound second.
You go into parenting with a number of unconscious expectations — what it’s going to appear to be, how your youngsters are going to be. However youngsters come out who they’re, and that’s been a vital lesson for me. Parenting is a violation of expectations time and again, on a small and huge scale, and you’ll’t guardian any two youngsters the identical method.
The novel feels cinematic — you possibly can clearly image the grassy fields, the crumbling home, the village market. What background analysis did you do?
The novel’s very a lot in dialog with the western European model of Cinderella, but it surely isn’t truly set in a selected time interval or place. So, it was a little bit of a get-out-of-jail-free card for me; I needed it to learn like historic fiction however I didn’t have to be hyper-specific about what life seemed like in England in 1797. As an alternative, I researched a broader swath of time — I learn the diaries of 18th-century girls, etiquette books for girls, fiction written throughout that point… Since Woman Tremaine has a falcon, I learn outdated falconry manuals and took hen workshops. Helen Macdonald’s H Is For Hawk is an beautiful e book.
How did you selected the duvet?
Ninety-nine % of authors don’t get to decide on their covers, however I did get to supply suggestions and St. Martin’s Press was fantastic about listening. We initially had completely different florals, however I requested, may we ever use one thing from the world of the e book? I despatched over pictures by Clara Peeters, one of many few feminine Dutch Golden Age painters. I didn’t know you can do that, however St. Martin’s truly used the flowers from her portray for the duvet! I LOVED that. They’re not simply fairly florals, they’re from a lady who was forward of her time and doing one thing completely different.
You now have two daughters — ages one and 4. Have been you fascinated with them as you wrote?
Sure, the ending nearly reads like a letter to younger ladies, to my daughters. My favourite sentence is the final sentence: ‘You are the scariest factor within the woods.’
Thanks a lot, Rachel! Woman Tremaine is a pressure.
P.S. Extra favourite books, and Kate Baer’s motherhood poems make me snort and cry.
