Rating: 
Summary: Life Choices
Review: The Good Mother is the story of a good mother who made some poor choices.
Anna Dunlap is a recently divorced woman with a young daughter, Molly. They live together in a small apartment in Cambridge, and they are reasonably happy together, and then Anna meets Leo. Leo is an artist, a free spirit, and Anna begins to lose herself in her relationship with Leo, losing herself so much that she often "forgets" Molly. This absentmindedness of Anna's costs her more than she could ever imagine, when her ex-husband, Brian, takes her to court for full custody of Molly.
The Good Mother is an excellent story and a must read for any mother, especially those who are separated or divorced. I found parts of this novel, especially at the beginning, when she is going through the divorce, extremely true to life.
The writing is a bit choppy in spots, and some of the sex was a bit graphic for me, which is why I gave 4 stars instead of 5. Other than that, I found The Good Mother very difficult to put down, and a fascinating glimpse into the psyche of Anna Dunlap.
Rating:
Summary: realistic stuff
Review: The Good Mother touched me. It is something that could easily happen to anyone. I know myself went through a separation with my husband when my daughter was very young, and I could see how easily this type of thing might happen. I was young though. It touched me. I like Sue Miller, This is not my favorite of hers, but it was a good read.
Rating: 
Summary: Real, Honest and Great Reading
Review: This book dealt with powerful issues regarding the lifestyle of a woman needs to be both power of example to her child yet have a life of her own. Anna clearly realized she had to make a choice and the choice was her child though she lost dearly, both the relationship with her daughter and loss of Leo. Anna knew she could not reconnect with her daughter if she kept Leo in her life and she made a very brave and difficult decision. To amend her behavior she moved near her daugher for her comfort, giving up her own and left Leo and the friends she made in her town. Sue Miller did a great job.
Rating: 
Summary: So Boring
Review: This book was so memorable that I got to page 200 before remembering that I HAD READ IT ALREADY! I didn't finish it the first time, either.
In classic Sue Miller style, she uses so much description that you get lost in adjectives and can't find your way out to the dialogue. I wanted to empathize with Anna, the main character, but she is just not likable. I didn't care enough about the characters to even read the book to the end.
Unless you enjoy 10 page descriptions of irrelevant things, I don't recommend this novel.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect writing
Review: This is one of those books that sorts out those readers who can understand what makes Tolstoy a great writer from those who simply see Tolstoy as a writer of soap operas. Miller's novel is raw and powerful, but her prose is precise and lucid.
The first impression a reader will receive is the lack of indulgence in the writing, and her ability to present highly emotional events with perfect clarity. Those who are more interested in the exciting story than the perfection in the telling of the story may - as shown in other reviews - become bored. But those people who love the well crafted story, the dry re-telling of an event, will probably claim this book as one of the best in the last 100 years. I certainly would.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent mother
Review: This is the first work of Sue Miller's that I have read. I found the book to be an excellent narrative of what we mother's go through in our daily thought processes about the mistakes we make. I thought that Anna was an EXCELLENT mother. As Ursula points out in the book, it is only rare here in America that families do not share "the family bed". The "intercourse incident" hardly constitutes child endangerment. Leo probably did make a bad judgement call with the incident between himself and Molly, but that hardly makes Anna a bad mother or neglectful in any sense. To me the worst moral mistake she made was sharing her bed without being married! As for her sexual awaking and the behavior she and Leo exhibited around Anna....I found nothing abberant in it. It is a shame that the prudish judge made the decision that he did, but it is also a sad reality in today's society. Sue Miller did a great job of capturing the mind of a VERY caring and empathetic mother. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book...
Review: This is the second novel I've ready by Sue Miller and this one was much better than the first (Family Pictures). I think a lot of woman could sympathize with Anna. I couldn't help but find myself hoping she would end up with Leo in the end (and I'm a mother of 2!). Although it was hard to get into early on, I truly enjoyed this book.
Rating:
Summary: The things you do for love
Review: This is what happens when you let yourself get picked up. The divorced mother in question meets a man at a laundromat, accepts his phone number and makes a date with him. They have whirlwind courtship with lots of sex (her first orgasm!) and ten things go quickly downhill when a questionable occurance between her 4 year old daughter and her lover is revealed to her ex-husband on the child's visit to him. Why would she still want to be this guy that allowed a child to touch him while surprised by the child in the bathroom. And before this event, she becomes pregnant and he assumes she wants an abortion (she does, but why couldn't he let her decide?). She goes through with the procedure and still stays with him! Another case of deperation for love for women.
Rating:
Summary: Flimsy and unbelievable
Review: This story is about Anna as she recovers from a separation and faces the prospect of raising her child Molly on her own. Anna then embarks on a journey of self discovery and sexual awareness that glaringly leads her down a path of self destruction to an inevitable custody battle.Miller portrays Anna as a complex character that should be understood and attempts vainly to introduce characters that would asuage your feelings towards this "flawed but good" character. Anna faces down many demons in the book including an Aunt who committed suicide and a very strict and critical GrandFather. As a result, the situations that lead to the custody battle are so ridiculous and the arguments so thin that by the time Anna gets to court, you're cheering for the rotten ex husband and his pernicious new wife! This book should have been named "The awful Mother who got what she deserved" If you want to read about flawed Mothers and children - try Rebecca Well's "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" and skip this trite novel.
Rating:
Summary: Good Mother/Good Book
Review: This was a very realistic story of a divorced mother and her choice to love a man. It is very hard to begin a life again after a painful divorce, especially when it is not by your choice. Anna Dunlap had to face this challenge alone with a 4 year old daughter, Molly. She decided to move on with her life and try to love again. This was a decision that she probably regretted most in her ordeal, but she would have never known it could come to her losing her child. We all make decisions that we regret later, without any forshadow, but then we have to learn to live with our choices. Anna was naive about a few things in choosing her mate, Leo. One, he had no children of his own and two, she slept with him so soon after the first date. That to me was the foreshadow that things were not going to be pretty. The trial, the aftermath and the romance was very real. Sue Miller did a good job intoducing us to Anna Dunlap. All characters were fully developed and the story line was captivating. Job well done.
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