Rating: 
Summary: Compelling but painful story about relationships & loss
Review: "The Good Mother" is the painful story of a woman, Anna, who tries to rebuild her life with her 6-year-old daughter Molly after she splits up with her husband, Brian. She moves, gets a job, and eventually develops a relationship with a man, Leo, who brings out parts of herself she hadn't expressed before. An unfortunate incident triggers Brian to take legal action to get custody of Molly, which is all the more surprising after their reasonably amicable divorce. The book covers the legal proceedings and Anna's stunned reaction to it, how it harms her relationships with Leo. Once again, we see Anna steel herself against her losses, starting over again, each time more distant and further inside herself.This book is very real. I found it a compelling portrait of how the community and the legal system respond to personal issues having to do with raising children and sexuality. There is something very scary about how the courts can so dramatically affect our lives, even when the system does not seem well set up to determine what's right or what's best. But moreso, I was interested in Anna, how she adapted to the divorce by turning into herself, how she gradually emerges in her new relationship, but still with a harder, private self that she protects. Once the accusations break, again I felt her drawing in, numbing herself to her world and those who care about her. It rang true to me as the way many women (perhaps men too) deal with this type of hardship. In many ways, this book reminded me of Jane Hamilton's "A Map of the World," which also explored society's reaction to family issues and a woman's reaction to loss. The book spends some time discussing Anna's childhood as a piano student who never made it to prodigy status, and how that disappointment dominated her large extended family's perception of her, and therefore her perception of herself. There is an interesting contrast with the other side of her family, which seems cold and empty, but at least does not judge her, offering her a odd kind of comfort. Although this aspect of her life was interesting and helped draw my picture of Anna, I felt like there was still something missing in the connection between Anna the child, and Anna the adult. We eventually hear the stories that bring Anna from adolescence to her marriage, but somehow I didn't gain the sense of satisfaction that I did in Miller's "While I Was Gone" when the main character's life story came together. Still, Miller's perceptiveness and her ability to tell a compelling, thought-provoking story make this book a solid, enjoyable read.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book
Review: Brilliantly written book exploring the conflicts between adult love and maternal responsibilities. I didn't have much sympathy for Anna in the end. She initiated the divorce, refused sufficient support and was too permissive with Leo. Then she complains she's lonely, poor and finally loses her child. But still, the book is well written and does affect the reader.
Rating:
Summary: I didn't like the main character
Review: Even though I didn't like the main character, I did enjoy the read. Even though I kept thinking, what is she THINKING??
Oh well, at least you can read this & see that your mother could be worse. I do enjoy Sue Millers books, she takes unique plots and does a pretty good job of drawing you into her world.
Rating:
Summary: I didn't like the main character
Review: Even though I didn't like the main character, I did enjoy the read. Even though I kept thinking, what is she THINKING??
Oh well, at least you can read this & see that your mother could be worse. I do enjoy Sue Millers books, she takes unique plots and does a pretty good job of drawing you into her world.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, sad, honest, but most of all....human
Review: For anyone who has been sexually abused or has been accused ofit. This book will challenge your reality. Sue Miller is so brave,and so honest in depicting a family in crisis. She does a wonderful job describing a parent's relationship with self and child and the boundries that can become blurred. A very emotional and human book.
Rating:
Summary: thought provoking
Review: Having worked for Social Services in North Carolina for 42 years, I have seen it all. I cannot believe a Mother would accept her boyfriend letting her 4 year old touch his genitalia, much less let him "stay in her" after the child got into bed with them. I think Anna got what she deserved, although I felt sorry for her and especially for Leo. Sue, It was almost a true story for me!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book...
Review: I bought this book so I'd have something interesting to read during my son's tonsillectomy last fall. I was hoping to enjoy the torrid love scenes in it! I got half-way through the book, and it bothered me so much (my own issues getting in the way?), I put the book away. I felt Anna was emotionally neglecting her daughter, Molly, while involved in her lustful dysfunctional relationship with Leo. I didn't like any of the main characters, including Molly---all too unrealistic. But I picked up the book yesterday and finished it. The book was too flat! Though I don't think she was a BAD mom, she certainly exercised poor judgment (and for what? Like Leo was a good catch?)! I wasted my time (I don't read books very often) on this story. Yet I did read the whole book, hoping it would get better, so I'm giving it 2 stars. I didn't think I'd get any more of Sue Miller's books, but other reviewers said she has better novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't care what happened to the main characters
Review: I bought this book so I'd have something interesting to read during my son's tonsillectomy last fall. I was hoping to enjoy the torrid love scenes in it! I got half-way through the book, and it bothered me so much (my own issues getting in the way?), I put the book away. I felt Anna was emotionally neglecting her daughter, Molly, while involved in her lustful dysfunctional relationship with Leo. I didn't like any of the main characters, including Molly---all too unrealistic. But I picked up the book yesterday and finished it. The book was too flat! Though I don't think she was a BAD mom, she certainly exercised poor judgment (and for what? Like Leo was a good catch?)! I wasted my time (I don't read books very often) on this story. Yet I did read the whole book, hoping it would get better, so I'm giving it 2 stars. I didn't think I'd get any more of Sue Miller's books, but other reviewers said she has better novels.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting...
Review: I couldn't put this book down! Miller has written a book that at times is troubling, and at times suspenseful, and ends on a shocking and sad note. No, I didn't respect the choices that the main character Anna made at times, and I think her character remained kind of stagnant and a little self absorbed throughout the book, but it was the premise behind the story that gripped me: Other people can and will decide for a child if a situation is deemed unfit. Was Molly's situation with her mother unstable or unfit based upon Anna's lifestyle and the two incidents that brought it all to question? Opinions will vary if Anna was indeed A "Good Mother", and for that reason I find this book extremely thought provoking and well thought out. A good, deep read.
Rating:
Summary: Was she really that GOOD of a mother?
Review: I don't feel that Miller made much of an attempt to prove that Anna was in fact a "good" mother. Like another reviewer said, I don't think she was a BAD mother, but the book really didn't go into much detail about Anna's relationship with Molly (especially up until Anna' ex-husband filed for custody) and instead focused on Anna's life experiences and psyche. After Brian said he wouldn't send Molly back, Anna didn't even seem that concerned about Molly's mental and emotional well-being. She just focused on her notion that Leo's actions were simply taken out of context, and while she wanted to see Molly again, I got the impression that it was based on a selfish concern for her "rights" as a mother, not out of a concern for her daughter.
And what was so great about Leo anyway?? He wasn't exactly nice to Anna, often condescending to her, and from the beginning I felt that his affection for Molly was a farse, simply to stay on Anna's good side. He also seemed sexually possessive of Anna--like the scene when he kept having sex with her after Molly came into the bed because of a nightmare. I think Anna loved her daughter, but she made the error of confusing sexual attraction with true love, since she had never felt such an attraction before. As a result, her daughter became an afterthought to someone she had known for 2 months, with dire consequences. Although she did show some signs of remorse, she spent a large amount of time trying to justify her actions instead of showing a very deep concern for her daughter's welfare. If she had put her daughter first from the beginning, instead of being swept up into a sexual frenzy and creating illusions about the new "family" she and Leo were forming, then she probably never would have lost custody of her child.
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