Class Mothers

For anyone who enjoyed Stewart's first book "The Yoga Mamas", this second novel does not disappoint. Same narrator (intrepid social ingénue Laura); different cast of wealthy, social-climber characters. The themes in Class Mothers are darker than in the earlier book. While The Yoga Mamas was about unexpected and unlikely friendships formed through shared pregnancy and early motherhood experience; Class Mothers explores the world of ambitious, competitive pre-school Moms, with all the attendant alliances, schemes and betrayals. As before, Laura enters this milieu clumsy and inexperienced, but she soon finds herself co-opted by the values and preoccupations of this crowd. The competition between these women of means, played out on the grounds of their children's pre-school may seem trivial and absurd, but it's their all-encompassing world. Having one's child perform well at the most exclusive pre-school (or more importantly, avoiding disfavor and expulsion at an early age), has life-long consequences. Stewart profiles her characters with a delightful combination of spoof, satire and insight. To watch Laura get caught up in the intrigue and run around frantically trying to uncover the secrets of her various rivals is truly hilarious. And who would think of investing in a resort property with a name like "Iguana Cay"? Highly recommended.

We chose this book for our book club because we are all mothers of preschoolers, and we loved it. It's a fun, fast read. On the surface, Class Mothers is frothy and fun, but the themes underneath resonate deeply. Friendship, wanting the best for your kids, anxieties about parenting and social standing, facing down marital pressures ( like annoying ex-girlfriends who won't leave your husband alone), and the potential for corruption in our educational system are just a few. I don't think you have to live in New York to relate to the extreme pressures around preschool education that this book very accurately portrays. The system is not at all transparent where we live, and the potential for corruption and back-room deals is definitely there. In the end, the plot gets kind of over the top and campy. The main characters were pretty complex, which is more of what people are like in real life. None of the women was as simple as she first appeared. Each one had a secret struggle, something that made her more ultimately more likeable and kept the plot rolling along. There is a lot of satire, which also made it fun to read. We had a lot of fun with Class Mothers, and I recommend it to other readers, especially mothers.

This book was fantastic, I used it for my book club selection, all of us pre-school moms loved it. Highly recommend to any pre-school mom.

Class Mothers is a pleasure to read: fast-paced, witty and perceptive. It picks up the three main characters from Katherine Stewart's previous novel, The Yoga Mamas, when daughter Anna is three years old and her parents, Laura and Richard, have entered the high-stakes world of New York preschools. Although Laura and Richard have succeeded in getting their daughter into one of New York City's most prestigious (fictional) preschools, they are already worried about whether she can get into the best elementary school. Stewart is brilliant at capturing the way the parents, and especially the mothers, in this world struggle to demonstrate their superiority over one another. Parents must appear happily married and successful, children must show no traces of disability or misbehavior, and every detail of a mother's appearance, and a child's daily routine, marks their class position (birthday parties, clothing, after school activities, gym memberships, nanny's nationality). Because Laura and Richard's finances put them on the margins of this social world, Laura is perfectly positioned to observe and critique it. Much of the pleasure of this novel comes from Laura's hilarious send-ups of the other characters' class pretensions. Yet Stewart finally suggests that the blame for this back-biting atmosphere lies not so much with the class-conscious parents as with the schools themselves, which force parents into this behavior through their admissions procedures and fund-raising policies. As Laura realizes near the novel's end, her recent (crazily competitive) thoughts and actions are "a test case of what could happen to an ordinary mother under extraordinary conditions" (202). The resolution of the plot offers a satisfying wish-fulfillment for all of us who have ever felt frustrated by the jockeying for position at our children's schools. Laura becomes friends with three of the women with whom she had been in stiffest competition, and together they take actions that show that Stewart, like her character Kim, has "faith in people's abilities to forge their own destinies" (219). In the novel's near-final auction scene, Stewart is able to indulge her delight in describing the details of food, clothing, décor, and auction patter, while simultaneously giving her characters the chance to, as they say, "take back our school" (224).

True - I could not put this book down. From the very first page, I was pulled into the story and followed this group of "class mothers" anxiously through to the very last page. Now I want more! The author weaves an amazing tale of these women and their families through the insidious world of an elite private pre-school in New York. Ms. Stewart's flawless craftsmanship of this tale gives us a real peak into the world of upper class New York private education. I loved this book and highly recommend it.