Rose Macaulay's "What Not," with Leigh Rossi
Part One:
Part Two:
Works Cited:
What Not, by Rose Macaulay. Edited and introduced by Sarah Lonsdale. Handheld Press, 2019. Originally published in 1918 by Constable.
Rose Macaulay: A Writers Life, by Jane Emery. John Murray Publishers Ltd, 1991.
Rose Macaulay, by Sarah LeFanu. Virago Press, 2003.
Recommended Reading:
The School for Good Mothers, by Jessamine Chan.
From Chan’s website:
IN THIS TAUT AND EXPLOSIVE DEBUT NOVEL, ONE LAPSE IN JUDGEMENT LANDS A YOUNG MOTHER IN A GOVERNMENT REFORM PROGRAM WHERE CUSTODY OF HER CHILD HANGS IN THE BALANCE.
Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. She can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with Harriet, their cherubic daughter, does Frida finally attain the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she is just enough.
Until Frida has a very bad day.
The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida. The ones who check their phones, letting their children get injured on the playground; who let their children walk home alone. Because of one moment of poor judgment, a host of government officials will now determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother–like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion.
Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that a bad mother can be redeemed. That she can learn to be good.
A searing page-turner, The School for Good Mothers introduces, in Frida, an everywoman for the ages. Using dark wit to explore the pains and joys of the deepest ties that bind us, Chan has written a modern literary classic.
