The novel is about a woman named Frida, who is sent to an experimental facility for rehabilitation. She’s sentenced to a period at this facility after she’s accused of parenting infractions.

Frida’s mistake

Frida, a Chinese-American writer has an 18-month-old daughter, Harriet. Her husband leaves her for another woman just three months after Harriet is born. Now, Frida has to manage a toddler as a single working mother. Besides, she’s in a city she moved to only for her now ex-husband. One day, she runs out to grab a coffee after getting little sleep and being late on a deadline.

She has left Harriet home alone, strapped into a bouncer. Frida then runs to the office to get an important file now that she’s out. She has been out of her house for two and a half hours. It’s only when she gets a call from the officers does she realize this. Frida had never meant to be out of her house for that long.

Harriet is now with her father, Gust, and Susanna, his soon-to-be second wife. A 28-year-old former dancer, Susanna seems to have some maternal instincts. In her own house, Frida spends months under the surveillance of cameras. She also makes supervised visits to Gust’s home to meet her daughter.

The rehabilitation center

The judge still feels that Frida has not learned her lessons. So, she’s sentenced to a year at a state-run facility, which has been newly opened. It acts as a rehabilitation center for mothers. While she’s in the facility, she works with a robot girl who is the same age as her daughter.

Frida has to demonstrate her capacity for genuine maternal attachment and feeling. She can be trusted by the officials only if she has honed her maternal instincts. If she fails, they’ll terminate her rights as a parent.

Frida’s clinical assessment

The metrics that would decide Frida’s success rely on data and clinical assessment. Her sessions work through units on the constant daily patter of high pitch between her and the robot child. The appropriate types and time-lengths of hugs are recorded. Frida’s ability to get the robot child to eat enough vegetables is evaluated.

Even her ability to put the child to sleep in a reasonable amount of time is under evaluation. The real problem of all these methods is that the data ignores nuance. They depend merely on action items. All of this could be useless in the real world which is extremely hard to predict. Even worse is the fact that the instructors are not parents themselves.

While Frida is alone at her home and under surveillance, there’s an obsession in her. It is over how to appear remorseful in a convincing manner. Everything she does is recorded with great suspicion. During the supervised visits that she make for meeting her daughter, her tears and affection come across as ‘neediness’. It eventually goes against her in the testimony.

A mother’s love

It is important for mothers to trust their intuition. This is an inclusive affirmation in theory, but a way for blaming mothers in function. It’s a known fact that mothers get the unspoken rules wrong. The ideals associated with being a good mother is the central theme of this book.

During the course of the book, Susanna’s love for Harriet is demonstrative. It’s quite foreign to Frida, whose Chinese culture is all about living the love rather than displaying it. Unfortunately, everything goes against Frida and she somehow knows it.

This is evident right from her first meeting with the social worker as a part of the rehabilitation process. He judges her in all the aspects. Questions are raised about her career ambitions, her ethnicity, and her history of mental illness. During the meeting, Frida reveals that there was a lack of demonstrative affection during her childhood.

However, she tells the social worker that he can’t judge this from an American point of view. He’s not happy with the fact that she’s not teaching Harriet to speak Mandarin. Frida tries hard to convince everyone that she’s too Chinese and yet not that Chinese at the same time.

Topics that the book explore

You’ll struggle with your temptation to put The School for Good Mothers into the category of science fiction. This is mainly owing to the presence of robot children and surveillance systems. Upon reading further, it’ll be clear that success at the rehabilitation facility or ‘school’ is nearly impossible. There would be times when you’ll find yourself thinking about the robot children or dolls with artificial intelligence.

You might begin to raise questions about humanity and consciousness. This is where the strengths of Chan lie as an author. This novel is full of characters who have an obsession with the idea of who’s a good mother and who’s not. In the process of narrating the story, the author doesn’t allow you to get too comfortable in a clear answer.

There are lines in the book at the beginning that describe Frida’s mistake. Eventually, there’s only one easy and reasonable moral you arrive at. It’s the fact that there’s a lot more to a mother than a set of moral values.

Closing thoughts

There are two things that can be true at the same time. One is the fact that a mother is more than her worst mistake. The other is that one bad mistake can lead to a damage that’s almost irreversible. Chan very smartly makes you think over certain questions that surface in your mind as you turn the pages.

Frida leaves her small daughter home and for two and a half hours she’s all by herself. It’s possible that Harriet could’ve run into a dangerous situation and died. Frida knows this very well and so does the reader. Despite this, you’ll surely empathize with her as you get to know her.

You’ll find yourself worrying about Frida. The government’s rehabilitation center and evaluation process could lead to termination of a parent’s rights based on one mistake. That would be something that the mother never thought she was capable of.

The post Analyzing The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan appeared first on anovelmenagerie.com.

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Someone has a relationship, a job, and all the material things that are accumulated over time. There’s always a risk of losing all of them. Everything depends on faith, efforts, and calculated decisions. Here, we’ve presented some truly exciting novels about gambling and casinos that you might love to read:

1. Casino Royale

This novel from Ian Fleming was first published in the year 1953. It also marked the beginning of James Bond’s career as a spy, but in print. Many of the Bond movies that have been made until now has featured a casino. In the novel, James Bond’s mission is to bankrupt the bad guy named Le Chiffre by playing Baccarat.

In the James Bond movie that came out in 2006, the game is Texas Hold’em. The outcome of this movie was more probable. You might be aware that Baccarat is a game of chance and James Bond is well-known for taking chances.

2. The Gambler

Fyodor Dostoevsky, the author of this novel, was a gambler himself. This novel is a cautionary tale that talks about loss at the table of Roulette and addiction. Dostoevsky is famous across the world as a great writer from the 19th-century Russian literary world. Dostoevsky bet his publisher the publishing rights of all his works against the money the author owed him.

He told his publisher that he could write a book within 30 days. The Gambler was a result of this bet. It gives you an insight into the casinos and the lives of their patrons during the mid-19th century.

3. Tishomingo Blues

This novel from Elmore Leonard has everything that a fictional tale about casinos and gambling must have. It has gamblers, gangsters, and some gorgeous women. Tishomingo Blues is set in Mississippi, and is Leonard’s favorite of all the books that he has written. In the novel, all the action happens in a casino.

The story delights you with its punchy dialogues and is quite gritty and realistic. Leonard wrote this book when he was 77. Film4, a British television network, had planned to make the novel’s movie adaptation with the actor Don Cheadle. Unfortunately, the project didn’t materialize.

4. The Music of Chance

This absurdist novel from Paul Auster was a 1991 PEN/Faulkner Award finalist. The main character in the book is a fireman who has a two-year-old daughter. His name is Jim Nashe. As his wife has left him, he knows he can’t work and raise the child at the same time. So he sends his daughter to live with his sister.

He gets a large amount of money from his father who has died. He pays off all his debts, but ends up spending all his money while living a life of freedom. Along with a young gambler, he plans to fleece two wealthy bachelors in a game of poker. This novel was later made into a film with the same title in 1993.

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Here, we’ll discuss how book reviews are not something worthless as many people think. If they come from professional book reviewers, they can be of great value to authors, readers, and publishers.

A guide to the readers

The book market is really huge and there are millions of books you’ll find online or offline. With such vast number of options, finding the right book can be overwhelming. Book reviews that professional book reviewers offer can act as a guide to the readers. They can get an idea whether a particular book can be good for them. Many of the avid readers of books can also be good reviewers.

However, they must be careful not to give away too much information in their reviews. There’s always a risk of bias in book reviews, which often lead to manipulations. Nevertheless, this is hardly a big issue in the world of literature. Reviews that unbiased reviewers provide do more good than harm.

A genuine feedback for authors

Authors are often eager to know how the readers are reacting to their literary works. Now, book reviews can either be extremely helpful or utterly pointless. Regardless of how the reviews are, authors can always gain some good insights from the book reviews. They’re both a means of reflection and a one-way interaction. Authors can get to know the areas where they need to improve.

They also get a better idea of what their readers truly want from them. Of course, there are authors who don’t give any importance to book reviews. They’re the ones who don’t have the desire to impress their readers. All that these authors want is to express themselves freely through their writings.

Free and unadulterated publicity

Honest book reviewers have a huge fan-base just like the authors. This is because their reviews are untainted and speak the truth. A wise author would always value such reviews, as such individuals are always looking to improve themselves. If the author’s book gets good feedback in the review, it’s almost certain that the readers would like it.

So, we can say that book reviews act as free and unadulterated publicity for the authors. Generally, it’s not possible to have tainted reviews publicized for gaining the readers’ attention. One major reason is that such reviews are risky for the author and the publisher. If the readers get even the slightest hint of it, they’ll end up disliking the author. They might never again buy the author’s and the publisher’s books.

Presenting the industry in a good light

The book reviews project a positive image of the literary industry and community. The entire industry comes across to many as transparent and open to criticism. This maintains a certain degree of trust for the industry in the minds of readers.

Perhaps this is the reason why successful authors and publishers have embraced the genuine book reviews. Many of the distributors and book stores also hold the book reviews in high regard.

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The line talks about Olga dying, dreaming about getting a five-dollar raise. However, the Olga in this novel by Xochitl Gonzalez will not meet such a fate.

The lives of two siblings

The protagonist of this novel is Olga Acevedo. She is the daughter of Puerto Rican activists. Her mother is a revolutionary who goes into hiding when she’s 12 years old. A heroin addict, her father dies of AIDS. Olga is then raised by her grandmother in Brooklyn. She performs well while studying in the public schools in New York and graduates from an Ivy League college.

In the summer of 2017, she is 39 and a renowned high-end wedding planner. Prieto, her older brother, is a progressive congressman and a divorced father. He’s also a closeted gay man. This secret makes him vulnerable to blackmail from the evil folks who belong to the real estate industry.

Despite being a self-made, successful woman, Olga suffers from depression and feels stuck. Her brief foray into reality television turns into a disaster. She realizes that she has allowed herself to get distracted from living the true American dream. Even her profession appears tedious and stupid to her. She does the work of manifesting the matrimonial whims of the rich.

The build-up of tensions

Olga also knows how to make her profits from this business. Despite this, she has become disdainful of her clients and grown frustrated by the need to adhere to strict ethics. She enters into certain business dealings that are shady. Even though she has noticed that her clients don’t seem contented, she continues the work. There are no real friends in her life.

She seeks sex devoid of any love with an ultra-rich libertarian, whose daughter’s wedding was planned by her. It appears that she’s sleepwalking through life like her brother, though she has the support of her extended family. Her mother, Blanca, has never seen her children in the past three decades.

Even though she never returned, she has managed to know about the happenings in their lives from afar. Blanca has sent letters full of ideological instructions periodically. When Olga is 25 and in love, she disapproves of her man in one of the letters. She also doesn’t like Prieto coming home to tend to his father who was dying.

Closing thoughts

Among the most interesting aspects of the novel is the complex influence that Blanca wields despite her absence. Both her children are, in a way, under her control. They’re desperately trying to prove that they’re more than what their mother thinks of them. At the same time, they’re also rebelling against their mother.

The author Xochitl Gonzalez manages to keep the readers hooked when he allows Olga’s mother to dominate her children. This is through the letters that she sends periodically to her children. The only downside are those frequent detours in the novel into the back story. It somehow affects the momentum of the ongoing plot of the book.

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You’ll get the feeling of having glimpsed something lovely and then lost as you read this amazing book. Lonely authors, exiles, time travelers, grieving friends, and other elements make Sea of Tranquility an interesting novel to read.

The beginning

The story begins in 1912 with Edwin St. John St. Andrew undertaking a solo journey to Canada from England. He is the scion of an aristocratic family who is expelled from home for his act of rebellion. In the forest of Vancouver, he mysteriously encounters an individual named Gaspery Roberts.

Then begins a new section that takes you more than a century into the future. A woman by the name Mirella Kessler learns that her estranged friend named Vincent is dead. References to the mysterious encounter in a Vancouver forest with Gaspery Roberts is made in this section as well.

You then move on to the third section almost a couple of centuries into the future. In this section, you’ll encounter another new character. However, the mysterious vision and Gaspery Roberts appear here as well.

Introduction to the characters

The novel’s first 100 pages would introduce you to a group of people. Each of them are either lonely or sad or purposeless. You’ll get to meet some of the characters from The Glass Hotel who have spent their time with Olive Llewellyn. He is a 23rd-century writer who has become famous for having written a book.

Things get a bit more interesting from here. One big reason is that you get the feeling that the novel is catching up to Gaspery Roberts. He has grown up on the moon during the late 24th century. You’ll find that it’s already the dawn of the 25th century when the story turns to him.

The nostalgic Gaspery Roberts

This mysterious man now works at the Grand Luna Hotel as a house detective. Despite his relocation to the high-end Colony One, he often slips into nostalgia. Roberts remembers how he grew up in Colony Two, which is now relatively derelict. The sky was always black at the place, which gave it the nickname, Night City.

His work at the hotel only involves being present and paying attention to everything happening around him. Soon, he takes up a new position at the shop of his sister, Zoey. His job would take him to some place unusual. He also needs to investigate the anomalous vision that he has.

Closing thoughts

Mandel makes one of her excellent forays into the area of speculative fiction with this novel. What sets it apart is the author’s ability to get a sustaining acknowledgment of beauty from her reader. She also inhabits the ordinary quite convincingly. The book certainly seems to have been born of some hard-won understanding and empathy. You’ll also notice that everything has been beautifully built into the language.

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