The School for Good Mothers

Starred review from September 27, 2021
Chan’s enthralling speculative debut opens with a woman having “one very bad day” in Philadelphia. Frida Liu, Chinese American and recently divorced, has left her daughter, 18-month-old Harriet, alone at home in an ExerSaucer for two hours so she can work, a decision that results in Harriet’s removal to a crisis center. Frida is then sentenced by a family court judge to one year in a live-in rehab program for bad moms that will use constant instruction, training, and supervision to determine if she can make “sufficient progress” as a mother or if her parental rights should be terminated. Guided by the mantra “I am a bad mother, but I am learning to be good,” Frida and the other 200 moms must prove their worth by raising surrogate children in order to earn their own children back. Chan raises the stakes as she explores Frida’s relationships with the other mothers, Harriet and Emmanuelle (her surrogate daughter), her ex-husband’s new family, and her romantic interests. Chan (a former PW reviews editor) also tightens the screws of the program itself as the leaders capriciously deny privileges, such as 10-minute Sunday phone calls home, and broaden the definitions for what’s considered an offense. Woven seamlessly throughout are societal assumptions and stereotypes about mothers, especially mothers of color, and their consequences. Chan’s imaginative flourishes render the mothers’ vulnerability to social pressures and governmental whims nightmarish and palpable. It’s a powerful story, made more so by its empathetic and complicated heroine. Agent: Meredith Kaffel Simonoff, DeFiore and Company.

March 1, 2022

Frida is a single mother of 18-month-old Harriet. She works full time as well. One very bad day, a series of poor choices and worse luck lead to Frida's being charged with abandonment and neglect. To have any chance of regaining custody of her child, she is required to participate in a new rehabilitation program. The one-year residential program pairs her with an AI-enhanced robot child, with whom she is to learn good parenting skills. The tasks set for the mothers and their robot children have completely unrealistic goals--for example, one task is to get the child to go to sleep in under five minutes at every bedtime. If the mother does not reach that goal, she is given a zero. Zeros lower the chances of regaining custody. At the end of the year Frida appears before a judge who not only denies her custody but terminates her parental rights entirely. Frida decides to flaunt the system one last time. Chan's debut creates a horrific yet believable scenario for the not-too-distant future, capturing the frustration and fears of fighting a system rigged against you. Beautifully read by Catherine Ho. VERDICT Highly recommended.--Joanna Burkhardt

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