Frida
Liu has a “very bad day” and leaves her eighteen-month-old daughter home alone
for two and a half hours. As a result,
she must spend a year at the School for Good Mothers, which is actually a
school for bad mothers who need to become good mothers. The beginning of the book, before Frida enters
the school, is tense and suspenseful, but her time at the school involves too
much angst and hand-wringing. The
students are assigned a robotic doll, reminiscent of the artificial friend in
Ishiguro’s Klara
and the Sun, who has human-like capabilities. Frida names hers Emmanuelle, which the doll
struggles to pronounce. Frida and
Emmanuelle are a team in the quest for Frida’s parental rights being
restored. Their practice sessions
include subjects such as stranger/danger and empathy for those less fortunate,
but Emmanuelle initially sees a homeless person as stranger/danger, not as
someone in need. I like the idea and
originality of this novel more than its actual substance. Eventually, the author paints herself into a
corner with Frida’s many failings--with only one way out.
