The School for Good Mothers

By Isha Sharma

Name: The school for Good Mothers

Author: Jessamine Chan

Number of pages: 324

Overall Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Jessamine Chan’s debut novel ‘The School for Good Mothers’ is a dystopic fictional tale that raises some important questions. Chan beautifully weaves the character of the main protagonist Frida, a 39-year-old Chinese American woman whose only source of happiness comes from her 18-month-old daughter Harriet.

The novel not just deals with the journey of a mother trying to prove herself ‘good’ to raise her child but is also a commentary on state-sanctioned surveillance, gender roles and diasporic communities. While love as a part of the mother-daughter relationship forms the heart of the story, the writer also puts emphasis on the very question, what does it mean to be an ideal mother?

It, therefore, becomes an important work of fiction that highlights many punctures of the real world. Women, motherhood, communities and state- come together in Chan’s acclaimed work.