Fiction, 2022
Devouring a novel in a day is a unique experience. You forget your surroundings, confuse your life for that of the story arc, and dizzy your retinas with words that cascade like burlesque curtains; rich, weighted, and dazzling when you rest. This is all to say, I wolfed The School For Good Mothers in less than a day and when I finally got to bed, eyes heavy with exhaustion, I found myself too unsettled to actually fall asleep. Though I don’t recommend this method of book consumption, I do recommend the novel.
Meet Frida, a new mother living in a world too similar to our own to be called fictional (more like boiled dystopian, instead of the usual char-grilled). After having a “very bad day” and leaving her toddler alone at home for a few hours, strapped into a safety chair, she is sent to a correctional facility for mothers. Over here, we meet several other mothers, all of whom have been sentenced to a year in the facility for varying degrees of neglect, abuse, and abandonment. I won’t spoil what truly takes place once she’s here because it’s too unbelievable, and highly believable, to reveal so soon.
The novel is rich in themes, so many that at a certain point, you feel them swirl into a vortex and surrender your powers of analysis to sheer amazement. To name a few (and resist the swirl), Chan discusses government surveillance, the impossibility of being a good mother, the difference in expectations between mothers and fathers, and the ethics of androids.
Song - Goodbye Blue Sky - Pink Floyd
Film - The Stepford Wives if it were directed by Jordan Peele (to replicate, guzzle some Peele before settling into the film)
good morning!
What delightful writing, Mahika. So happy to read this first thing in the morning. Your prose is eloquent and juicy.