Overall, The School for Good Mothers had good content and messaging buried within the text, but the format didn’t work and is in need of some heavy editing and rewrites. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood who strives valiantly who errs, who comes short again and again…who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” In this instance, I am the critic in the cheap seats, but I hope that this review isn’t seen as a mean barb but an encouragement, an encouragement to shake off the dust and sweat and blood, to pick up your lance and shield once again and continue your journey, because there is a story worthy of telling in this book. Chan, this book review brings to mind a quote by Theodore Roosevelt: “It is not the critic who counts not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. Your case is being called.” Each character’s testimony should have been presented with more flashbacks. Then, I would flash back to the end of the book with “Ms. If I was the editor, I would start with the last two chapters and write something like, “If only Gust could have kept it in his pants…” then shifted to a flashback. The emotions need to be stirred, and there needs to be some excitement/action, but this book wasn’t written that way. However, facts alone don’t usually make great books. What happened to chapters with cliff-hanger endings? The prose was like reading a newspaper article, fact-driven, flat, unemotional. The program was one-year long, and it felt like I was reading this book for one year. Most important: the storytelling was off in The School for Good Mothers. This book is intended to be an updated The Handmaid’s Tale however, The Handmaid’s Tale it is not. The School for Good Mothers is Jessamine Chan’s debut novel, and it was a solid first draft in a very competitive subgenre. What will the school be like and will Frida be reunited with her daughter? This propulsive, witty page-turner explores the perils of “perfect” upper-middle-class parenting, the violence enacted upon women by the state and each other, and the boundless love a mother has for her daughter.įemale dystopian that doesn’t hold up against the competitionįrida Liu has a very bad parenting day resulting in The State sentencing her to a one-year school to become a better mother. Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that she can live up to the standards set for mothers - that she can learn to be good. Now, a host of government officials will determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion. The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida - ones who check their phones while their kids are on the playground who let their children walk home alone in other words, mothers who only have one lapse of judgement. Harriet may be all she has, but she’s just enough. Only with their angelic daughter Harriet does Frida finally feel she’s attained the perfection expected of her. What’s worse is she can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. In this taut and explosive debut novel, one lapse in judgement lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance.įrida Liu is struggling. An alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781982156121 can be found here.
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