"The Farm" by Joanne Ramos

As I mentioned in my "Right Now" post earlier this month, Lyz Lenz at Men Yell At Me recently started a book club. Her first pick was  "The Farm" by Joanne Ramos, a novel that's been in my "to-read" pile since it was published in 2019.  The book was a national bestseller and was named one of the best books of that year by media outlets such as Time, Glamour, Real Simple and The Globe and Mail. 

("The Farm" was also chosen by the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights for the One Community One Book program, and the author will be delivering a lecture at the university, in Iowa City, on Oct. 8th. "So we will be reading this book along with other Iowans, during a time when our reproductive rights are being taken away," Lenz noted, as she introduced the book to her readers.)

Our protagonist, Jane, is a Filipino immigrant who is broke, separated from her cheating, abusive husband, and desperate for money to support herself and her baby daughter, Amalia. She lives in a crowded dormitory in New York City, packed full of other immigrants, including her older cousin Ate, who works as a baby nurse for wealthy families. At Ate's suggestion, Jane leaves Amalia in Ate's temporary care and becomes a "Host" -- a surrogate/gestational carrier at Golden Oaks, a luxurious facility in the countryside outside of the city ("The Farm" of the title -- essentially, a baby farm).  

Golden Oaks caters to ultra-wealthy Clients who cannot have their own babies (or who don't want to go through pregnancy themselves).  The Clients get charged huge fees, and the Hosts can earn a lot of money, with bonuses paid for reaching certain milestones. But every aspect of the Hosts' lives is monitored, recorded and controlled, and they are not allowed to leave the grounds of the estate..... 

The story is told from multiple perspectives -- mostly Jane's, but also her roommate at Golden Oaks, Reagan; Mae, the ambitious woman who runs Golden Oaks on behalf of her corporate bosses;  and Ate.  

The book kind of plodded along for a while as the various characters are introduced, backgrounds are established, and Jane's pregnancy progresses  under the watchful eyes of the Coordinators at Golden Oak. Tension builds gradually, until everything comes to a head in the last quarter of the book. 

Some have called "The Farm" a "dystopian" novel, and there are certainly shades of "The Handmaid's Tale" here. But the truly scary thing about "The Farm" is that it's not set in some distant future or imaginary society. In fact, just about everything depicted in "The Farm" is entirely within the realm of possibility right now. 

I started out thinking this book was likely 3 stars at best. I finished thinking it was actually better than that.  I'm giving it 3.5 stars on StoryGraph, 4 stars on Goodreads. 

ALI caveats:  This will NOT be a book that everyone in the adoption/loss/infertility/childless world will want to read. I found the first few chapters (particularly the parts about breastfeeding and pumping) a little hard to read (even after all these years...!)... 

MYAM's discussion of "The Farm" runs through Oct. 5th.  The next MYAM book club selection will be "Ex-Wife" by Ursula Parrott, which was considered scandalous when it first published in 1929!  (It also ties in nicely with Lyz's next book, "This American Ex-Wife," to be published in February 2024.) Discussions on "Ex-Wife" will start in November, with questions posted every Thursday. Most MYAM newsletter discussions are for paying subscribers only, but the book club comments will be open for anyone who wants to participate. Details here. 

This was Book #36 read to date in 2023 (and Book #4 finished in September), bringing me to 80% of my 2023 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 3 books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2023 tagged as "2023 books."