THE FARM by Joanne
Ramos
An idea – pay poor women large sums to be the surrogate for
busy, important, wealthy, lazy women who want their own child, but don’t want the
bother, time commitment, inconvenience of actually bearing them.
Ramos has written a novel that presents that idea carried
out to the fullest extent. The Farm is a lap of luxury prison for the
surrogates. Reagan, an idealist asserting
her independence from her father but controlling father, Jane, an impoverished Filipina
eager for the large financial payout, and Lisa, a wild child with unknown
needs, are the three surrogates.
The novel presents many topics for book groups to discuss
and casual readers to ponder. Among them – attitudes toward money; styles of
parenting; the poor; immigrants (legal or not); power vs weakness, education;
exploitation by class, money, education, status, or race; crime and punishment;
family; and of course, women.
A question that is not addressed in the novel but should be:
What did Reagan do with her bonus and why?
Although there is an epilogue, several questions remain of the final
outcome for each of the women presented in the novel.
4 of 5 stars
I received an ARC for my freely given opinion.
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