Dystopian Novel The School for Good Mothers is a Twisted Take on Mom Shaming

In Jessamine Chan’s brilliantly appalling and riveting dystopian novel, The School for Good Mothers, the perfection pressure on mothers in modern-day American culture reaches a whole other level. When missteps are made, the cost far exceeds the typical ensuant mom-shaming: Instead, the government steps in to make things “right.” One mistake can land a mom in reform school, separated from her offspring while she is re-trained in the skills of parenting. The kicker? Reunion with the little ones is not a given — and the tests to graduate get more absurd each day. Fans of The Handmaid’s Tale and Orange Is the New Black will especially appreciate this one. Here’s hoping the biggest takeaway for those readers with a tendency to judge is a bit of empathy.     

The School for Good Mothers

by Jessamine Chan

Red wine pairing:  Mother Clone Zinfandel by Pedroncelli	White wine pairing: Eden Valley Dry Riesling by Pewsey Vale
Imagine if mommy finishing school was a real thing? It would certainly compel endless weird, divisive, debatable outcomes, perhaps with one of those outcomes being a whole lot of clone-like mamas out there. That would compel us to reach for this Mother Clone Zinfandel from Pedroncelli in Sonoma, California. It’s everything you’d want in a red zinfandel; we appreciated the pepperiness most. It’ll pair perfectly with our mother-approved recipe this week.	For our white pick this week, we’re going with a classic — and very highly rated — Riesling. This dry wine from Pewsey Vale will pair with plenty, but we’re coming to it for its beautiful citrus notes, delicate at first before landing with more intensity. What’s more? The nod to the first mother there ever was in the wine name.

Weeknight Vegan Sloppy Joes

from Love to Eat by Nicole Keshishian Modic 

Sloppy Joes have stood the test of time as a sort of weeknight family meal staple. We can easily imagine The School for Good Mothers’ protagonist, Frida, serving them to her young daughter. This recipe celebrates the simplicity of the meal — but adds a little extra healthy flair (which would also likely get them a thumb’s up from Frida’s ex-husband’s new partner). While we would never turn our nose up at the canned stuff, if you’ve got a little bit of time, this version is worth every minute of it.  

Love to Eat: 75 Easy, Craveworthy Recipes for Healthy, Intuitive Eating

by Nicole Keshishian Modic

There’s so much to dig into in The School for Good Mothers, from the characters to the story to the way it plays into the state of mother culture today. For a little help guiding your own deep thinking or perhaps the conversation with your book club, consider these provocative questions for discussion.

Get the questions.

One evening’s reading’s pause left us trolling Spotify for great songs that speak to all that we want for our little ones. Here are a few we landed on, for your listening pleasure.

Listen on Spotify.

“My process was that of a short story writer learning how to write a novel by trial and error. I initially thought I was working on a complicated short story, which was the result of an incredibly productive writing day where I basically laid out the foundation of the whole book, with all the main characters, Frida’s arc, and the voice. It was the burst of inspiration that every writer dreams about. It took a year and a half to turn that promising story draft into the first draft of a novel, and several years to rewrite that draft into a manuscript with proper chapters.

“In that first year, I did compose an outline of the school’s curriculum, had a forest of Post-it notes on my walls, and had a character list handy, but otherwise didn’t have the world’s most orderly process. I’m not sure that the process changed over the years. Each day’s work required committing to the project all over again and convincing myself that I could do it. Thus far, I haven’t been the sort of writer who plans things out ahead of time, though I envy those who do! Ideas emerge from scribbling, and sometimes it takes an enormous amount of scribbling to have a good idea.” —Jessamine Chan