The School for Good Mothers is Jessamine Chan’s debut novel.  She dove into the deep end of the dystopian pool, with the hopes of creating a modernized version of The Handmaid’s Tale.  Not only did it fail to accomplish that feat, the book fell flat for a number of reasons, which I’ve detailed below.  

Despite its shortcomings, the novel is well-written and thought provoking.  It will make anyone – parents and non-parents alike – empathize with the struggles of raising young children.  Unfortunately this empathy is not enough to save the story.

Misplaced focus on bad mothers, instead of all parents

At first I thought the school was limited to mothers based on the book’s title.  But bad fathers get sent to a dad’s school too, although Chan never goes into much detail on the similarities and differences between the two.

The basic premise of this book is that mothers (and fathers) get sent to a government-run reform school when they behave badly.  Some mothers were there for neglect, others for abuse and a variety of other parenting sins.  Many were reported by neighbors or even family members.

The main character, Frida Liu, is sent to the School for Good Mothers for leaving her young child, Harriet, home alone.  Chan does a great job of making the readers’ heart ache for the challenges of single motherhood, from the lack of sleep to the inability to do anything independent from the child.  What Liu did was unacceptable, but it’s hard to not feel for her. 

This leads me to the primary issue of the book.  Chan clearly wanted to create a dystopian world where the government has taken an overbearing and authoritative interest in child rearing.  She covers what the state does when parents behave badly, but never addresses how the state is comfortable that any parent is fit in the first place.

Why doesn’t every parent have to go to this type of reform school?  There isn’t a preparation program for first time parents?  The state trusts that the bad parents will all be reported and then put through the system?  If it is such a compelling state interest, it’s odd that the state wouldn’t take more action from the start with all parents.

In the book, Liu’s child goes off with her ex-husband who cheated on her with a younger woman who now lives with him.  There was little mention of the state weighing the best interests of the child given these circumstances.  Instead the presumption was that the biological mother screwed up and therefore she must be reformed.  Send the mother away without any thought.

Many of the women at this reform school had their children sent to foster care.  There was little to no mention of whether the state cared or even considered the potential consequences.  The story was hyper focused on the mothers who had their “one bad day.”  This misplaced focus missed broader macro issues and necessary context.  

Without it, I was left constantly wondering how the state could achieve its goals by ignoring parents who were presumed “good”, not to mention the likely detrimental effects on children from separating them from a biological parent.  For me, these were fundamental flaws of the story and the overall construction of the dystopian society.    

Society accepts it? 

Another issue that kept nagging at me was the fact society seemed to accept the existence of these “schools.”  They basically operated like mini concentration camps.  The mothers were put through parenting tasks and training with lifelike dolls.  They were allowed to leave, at least in the beginning, but in return they would forfeit any parental rights to their real children.

Their family members were aware of the situation.  Industry stakeholders, including the lawyer who represented Frida Liu in her hearing, were aware of the schools.  Yet there was no indication that anyone cared enough to do anything.  Liu’s lawyer was so spineless, basically telling Frida that she would have to go through the state’s program. 

I don’t believe it.  If these schools existed in reality, I cannot imagine family members accepting the fact that their loved ones would need to be sent to prison camps.  

It would be one thing if all the mothers abused their children.  But many didn’t.  Some made mistakes that many parents either commit or come close to committing, like not watching their child closely enough, causing them to fall and hurt themselves.

Society would really just acquiesce and let the state ship away these “bad” parents to a remote reform school?

In the book, there was no mention of protests, resistance, civil disobedience, or the like.  The mothers barely protested themselves.  This was a missed opportunity for a captivating plot line or twist. 

Other issues amounted to a disappointing read

I wanted to like this book.  I love the dystopian genre, with 1984 ranking as one of my all time favorites.  The best dystopian novels serve as realistic warnings, signaling what society should be aware of and cautious to avoid.

This book took on a topic that warrants more airtime – parenting, especially as a single mother who was raised in a non-western culture.  But it fell flat when warning of a world where the state takes too much control over parenthood.  The reform school took a year for Liu to complete, and it felt through the repetitive nature of the school, that it took me about a year to read about it.  That combined with forced sex scenes and dull character development at the school, left me disappointed in the end.

Most of all, I could not get over how the book missed a major part of parenting – how to teach first time parents what to do.

I can speak from personal experience that as a new dad I was absolutely clueless.  Despite everything I had read or been told by family and friends, I was not prepared for the realities of parenting.  I have not met anyone who was.

My wife and I learned by doing.  In retrospect, I probably needed a parenting course of sorts.  Whether I would be comfortable with the state mandating a state-run course is another story.  And one that probably warrants its own story.  It would explore and include many of the themes present in The School for Good Mothers.

If only The School for Good Mothers had covered it, even in part.