The School for Good Mothers

A much more recent book that can be read in conjunction with The Handmaid’s Tale.

I had no idea what to expect from this novel and was truly gripped by the unfolding tale of a world in which women are incarcerated for being deemed bad mothers. I am not going to give away any of the plot here, as the power of the book depends on its unfolding horror.

D W Winnicott's definition of the ‘good enough' mother resonated with me throughout this book, and I do worry that we are facing this dystopian reality in a 21st-century America… show more.

I loved this dystopian novel about what can happen to a mother having one bad day when the government and a world gone slightly mad get involved.

I struggled to feel sympathy for Freida, wanting to always put myself in the category of ‘I would never do that,’ but the more I read, the easier it became to identify with someone whose whole life was upended by a single mistake. The terrifying interference of a bureaucracy kept me glued to the pages.

This book is a fine example of where we are now in the depiction of diversity in fiction where the main character, Frida Liu, is Chinese-American, and although we have references to her parents and her immigrant upbringing, it is not really what this book is about.

Not usually one for speculative fiction, I found myself mesmerised by this tale of how a fictional authoritarian state dictates who and what makes for a good mother. 

Leaving your wife with your tiny baby while you run off with your mistress? Fine.

Being a frazzled, deserted working mother who inadvertently leaves her… show more.

The School for Good Mothers follows Frida, a Chinese immigrant to the US, after a “very bad day” that lands her at a state-run facility for bad mothers.

As a mom, I found much of this book difficult to read. (I’m not usually a crier, but this one got me.) And yet, despite this (or maybe because of it), it is one of my favorite books of the past few years. It forces you to consider what makes a “good mother” and whether we have created a standard that no woman can live up to.

Unputdownable from page one, The School for Good Mothers follows Frida, a recently divorced new mother, who, sleepless and stressed out, makes the mistake of leaving her baby alone in the house for two hours, and is subsequently stripped of her parental rights and forced to attend a dystopian re-education program where she must spend the year “learning to be good.” There she becomes part of a heartbroken society of women whose crimes range from serious physical abuse (burning a child’s arm with a cigarette) to arguably reasonable decisions like allowing their eight-year-old to walk home alone from the library.… show more.

This highly acclaimed novel follows Frida, a divorced mother, who out of sheer exhaustion and boredom, leaves her young daughter at home alone for way too long. As punishment, she is required to attend a special school where she’s supposed to learn how to be a good mother. “I am a bad mother but I’m learning to be good” is the institution’s motto. But is Frida really a bad mother? Most importantly, will she be successful and get her daughter back?

The School for Good Mothers is not just a great read but describes perfectly how parents, but especially mothers… show more.

This one’s a bit different from the other books on my list in that our heroine doesn’t want to get sucked in. It’s court-mandated. When she’s deemed a “bad mother” after a temporary lapse in judgment, the state takes her away from her daughter and sends her to a dystopian school with the other “bad moms.” As the women are monitored, forced to wear uniforms and recite chants, and encouraged to turn on one another, we start to wonder: is the only way to get their children back to go all in? Gripping and unsettling.

A fascinating peek at our own potential near-future, this book presents Frida, whose emotionally arid childhood drives her into needy, combustible relationships. When she has a child, someone who needs her even more than vice versa, Frida winds up leaving the little girl alone in the house one day, entombed in an exer-saucer. She either ignores or is unwitting to how the vaguely totalitarian – at least in terms of child-rearing – culture will mete out punishment, which comes in the form of a sentence at a school designed to retrain moms, immersing them in the fires of penitence along… show more.