On the surface, women project an appearance of ease and comfort with their chosen roles, but what happens when a devastating event shatters their lives and tests their relationships, finances, careers, and brings unwanted secrets out of hiding? That is a question that will haunt the four women in the May Mothers group.
Winnie, Nell, Francie, and Colette are all part of the May Mothers, a group of women who all happened to give birth in the same month. They know one another superficially until the fateful day on July 4th, when feeling bad about Winnie's situation, (who happens to be a single mother,) the rest of the group invites her to go out clubbing, and ask her to leave her newborn son Midas with a babysitter. However, that decision will prove to be devastating when someone kidnaps Midas. As days pass without a ransom note and the police bungling the investigation, the women decide to figure out what happened to Midas on their own.
There are plenty of things that I loved about THE PERFECT MOTHER, such as the heart-pounding suspense. I often felt as if I was part of the women's families and was seeing the numerous obstacles of being a mother first hand, be it staying at home vs working, issues of breastfeeding, and of the all-too- real struggle that mothers experience no matter what choices they make. Aimee Molloy examines what, if anything, constitutes a "perfect" motherhood, and deftly points out the worries and flaws that haunt each woman as she makes choices that satisfy society rather than herself and her family. Amongst that examination is a woven tale of Midas' kidnapping and of how it affects the four women as numerous secrets and indiscretions come to light.
A study of motherhood, kidnapping, and friendship in one novel is a difficult task, but Molloy does it wonderfully, writing something for everyone in this suspenseful tale. Told from different points of view throughout, Molloy mixes in both domestic realism with having a child as well as suspense in creating a tightly woven story of love, greed, friendship and how it always feels as if the grass is greener on the other side. For readers who are curious about reality and struggles experienced by mothers and those who love heart-pounding suspense, THE PERFECT MOTHER by Aimee Molloy is a read not to be missed.
They call themselves the May Mothers—a collection of new moms who gave birth in the same month. Twice a week, with strollers in tow, they get together in Prospect Park, seeking refuge from the isolation of new motherhood; sharing the fears, joys, and anxieties of their new child- centered lives. When the group’s members agree to meet for drinks at a hip local bar, they have in mind a casual evening of fun, a brief break from their daily routine. But on this sultry Fourth of July night during the hottest summer in Brooklyn’s history, something goes terrifyingly wrong: one of the babies is taken from his crib. Winnie, a single mom, was reluctant to leave six-week-old Midas with a babysitter, but the May Mothers insisted that everything would be fine. Now Midas is missing, the police are asking disturbing questions, and Winnie’s very private life has become fodder for a ravenous media. Though none of the other members in the group is close to the reserved Winnie, three of them will go to increasingly risky lengths to help her find her son. And as the police bungle the investigation and the media begin to scrutinize the mothers in the days after Midas goes missing, damaging secrets are exposed, marriages are tested, and friendships are formed and fractured. Unfolding over the course of thirteen fraught days and culminating in an exquisite and unexpected twist, The Perfect Mother is the perfect book for our times—a nuanced and addictively readable story that exposes the truth of modern mothers’ lives as it explores the power of an ideal that is based on a lie.
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