The School for Good Mothers
Ratings47
Average rating3.8
In this New York Times bestseller and Today show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick, one lapse in judgement lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance, in this “surreal” (People), “remarkable” (Vogue), and “infuriatingly timely” (The New York Times Book Review) debut novel. Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. She can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with Harriet, their cherubic daughter, does Frida finally attain the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she is just enough. Until Frida has a very bad day. The state has its eye on mothers like Frida. The ones who check their phones, letting their children get injured on the playground; who let their children walk home alone. Because of one moment of poor judgement, a host of government officials will now determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion. Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that a bad mother can be redeemed. That she can learn to be good. An “intense” (Oprah Daily), “captivating” (Today) page-turner that is also a transgressive novel of ideas about the perils of “perfect” upper-middle class parenting; the violence enacted upon women by both the state and, at times, one another; the systems that separate families; and the boundlessness of love, The School for Good Mothers introduces, in Frida, an everywoman for the ages. Using dark wit to explore the pains and joys of the deepest ties that bind us, Chan has written a modern literary classic.
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so promising in terms of dystopian concepts, but delivery fell short. i wanted more creepy stuff basically lol
also some women are simply not meant to be moms. perhaps this was the point, but listening to frida say what she would've done, how much she really cares about her daughter, etc. after what she did was f-ing annoying. my own strained relationship with my mom might not help, but it certainly took away from my overall enjoyment
What does it mean to be a good mother? And what should happen to bad mothers? The School for Good Mothers tackles these questions in a new, interesting way.
Frida is a woman struggling to adjust to motherhood. A cheating spouse, a demanding workplace, and her own mental health challenges all contribute to Frida making a choice that results in a neighbor calling CPS. As a result of the investigations (and under threat of losing her daughter permanently), Frida is enrolled in a program designed to help her become a good mother. This is where the story takes a dystopian, troubling turn. The School For Good Mothers is a year-long, residential program that lumps offenders of all levels together. Parenting classes are frighteningly prescriptive, and the goalposts of success seem to be constantly moving. It's unclear what success looks like, but failure is specific and constant.
There is a lot to wrestle with in this book. Frida is a difficult character with whom to empathize. As a mother, I am certainly sympathetic to the challenges of parenthood, among them the immense societal pressure to parent “correctly” or risk screwing up your kids. The line between negligence and mistake can be blurry and difficult to navigate, but the choice Frida makes is so clearly negligent that it is difficult to feel sorry or troubled when she faces consequences.
The depth and reach of those consequences, however, feels too big - outsize for the infraction - and so the reader ends up on Frida's side, sort of. The School is a terrifying place, and the things that happen there are so clearly bad and wrong - but one is left wondering, what would be the right consequence? What should happen to parents like Frida? Whose kids should be taken away, and for what reasons? What should parents have to do to prove their fitness?
This would be a great read for fans of The Handmaid's Tale. I also think that this book would be a wonderful book club book, as the scope for discussion is so broad and relatable.
This book absolutely wrecked me. Great commentary on what the world expects of us as mothers and how impossible it is to live up to the expectation. Deeply triggering and moving.
