Final month, after 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 young person, 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, looking rabbits for dinner, and preserving their leaky home from fairly actually falling down.
Woman Tremaine flips every little thing on its head — the basic Cinderella fairy story, in fact, but additionally how we view girls and moms, all through historical past, literature, and nonetheless right now. (Living proof: on Huge Salad, I shared how the e-book led me to a serious courting realization.) Reese Witherspoon simply selected the novel for her e-book membership, and I can already envision the film on the massive display screen. Right here, I spoke to Rachel about her dramatic backstory, favourite sentence, and parenting realization…
First issues first: What impressed you to write down about Cinderella’s stepmother?
The backstory is extra dramatic than you may assume. 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 occurring. Ultimately we came upon that he wanted emergency mind surgical procedure. The restoration was brutal, and we had been spending a lot time within the hospital. Sooner or later, within the ready room, I used to be scrolling by way of my cellphone and was stopped in my tracks by a cartoon picture of Cinderella’s evil stepmother.
Why did that picture leap out at you?
On the time, I used to be a caregiver. I used to be taking good care of my husband, solo-parenting our toddler, and dealing full time. Once 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 handle her household.
What a shocking realization.
That seed received underneath my pores and skin. I couldn’t cease fascinated with it, I felt compelled and referred to as to the story.
Had been you first launched to the story by watching the Disney film as a child?
Sure, I used to be enthralled. Even now, after 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, nevertheless it’s additionally a love letter to Cinderella.
One pleasant a part of studying the novel was recognizing basic Cinderella scenes — for instance, she comes down sporting an outdated blue gown, 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 answerable for her stepdaughter. In your novel, she finally ends up realizing that she must father or mother every of them in a different way. That was a stupendous and profound second.
You go into parenting with a number of unconscious expectations — what it’s going to seem like, how your children are going to be. However children come out who they’re, and that’s been an important lesson for me. Parenting is a violation of expectations repeatedly, on a small and huge scale, and you’ll’t father or mother any two children the identical manner.
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, nevertheless it isn’t really 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 must 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 ladies, 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 great about listening. We initially had completely different florals, however I requested, might 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 would do that, however St. Martin’s really 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. Had been you fascinated with them as you wrote?
Sure, the ending nearly reads like a letter to younger women, 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 power.
P.S. Extra favourite books, and Kate Baer’s motherhood poems make me snigger and cry.
