Joanne Ramos – Author of The Farm

Ariel and I read The Farm last month, both with our unique reasons to read the book. Both of us loved how Joanne Ramos, the author, explored the nuances of motherhood and a person’s control over their own body, especially when the person is not in a place of privilege, through the eyes of Jane. If you have read the book but haven’t read our discussion yet, take a look here (link also at the end of the interview) – this was an amazing read!

We had the fantastic opportunity to talk to Joanne Ramos herself about the book and more, and are super excited to share this conversation with you. A little bit about Joanne first!

Joanne was born in the Philippines and moved to Wisconsin when she was
six. She currently works as a staff writer at The Economist. The Farm, her debut novel, is a national bestseller and has been chosen by over 50 media outlets in America and abroad as a “must read” in 2019. The Farm was longlisted for the Center of Fiction’s 2019 First Novel Prize. It was wonderful to connect with her! Enjoy the interview, and get some insights about the book! 🙂

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• What was the hardest part about writing this book? What research did you have to pursue to write this novel?

The hardest part about writing the book was the first year and a half. I wrote daily while my kids were at school—short stories, stillborn first chapters. I knew the ideas I wanted to tackle; they were ones that had obsessed me for decades, rooted in my sense that I had straddled worlds for so much of my life as a Filipina immigrant to Wisconsin in the late 1970s, as a financial-aid kid at Princeton, as the first female investor hired in a private-equity shop in Boston, as a new mother in a rarefied world in Manhattan uncomfortable with the notion that our kids “deserve the best” (why just our kids? Why the best?). Bringing my ideas to life in fiction, though, was a different matter, and I had trouble finding a way in. I finally did, in the form of a short newspaper article about a surrogacy facility in India, which sparked the “what ifs” that led to The Farm. Still, the eighteen months or so when I was writing in the dark, before I had a story good enough to carry an entire book, were hard. It was a matter of persistence, and faith.

• The relationships between the Hosts in The Farm are amazing examples of finding strength in others, even those who we may think are not like us. Have there been people in your life who have supported you in this manner?

My parents have always supported me and what I wanted to do. My younger sister believed that I would write a book, even as my life veered away from writing for a long time after college. My husband and my kids are my greatest champions. It took me five years to write The Farm, and they believed in me from the very first sentence. In fact, they believed in me before the first sentence.

• Reagan’s character arc begins with her wanting to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives and ends with the realization that even with her privilege, she could do little to “take a stand” against what she believed was wrong. What do you think is the best way for someone to use their privilege to help the world around them?

This is a great question and one that I think about a lot. I don’t have a definitive answer. I think part of it is to stay open to and connected to the world outside, to people who are not as fortunate as you are, to people who are very different from you and who make you feel uncomfortable and challenge you.

It is very easy, if you are privileged and most of your friends are privileged and you live in a bubble of privilege, to lose touch. To forget that life is hard for most of the people in this world.

I think this is one of the reasons that so many studies show (and I cited some fictional studies in The Farm based on real studies) that the wealthier people get, the less empathetic they get. They lose touch. They don’t take the subway; they don’t go to public parks or spend time in places where they might rub shoulders with someone substantively different from themselves; they don’t come across people who are playing by the rules and working hard and still struggling to stay afloat financially, to give their kids a decent life. And, also: you have to act. You have to get off the sidelines and give money, or volunteer, or advocate somehow. It’s not enough to have a good heart and kind thoughts. There is a saying that has always resonated with me, which I first heard it in college: Those to whom much is given, much is expected. I believe that.

• One of the points that Mae made through the book was how the intention behind becoming a Host is different between the immigrants and “Premium” and well-educated Hosts. While the immigrant Hosts are outright honest about doing it for the money to take care of their families, the others seem to justify their choice to the greater good. Why do you think that is? What allows people from one culture/country to be more honest and forthright about their intentions than others?

I think the difference in how various Hosts speak about their choice to be a Host has a lot to do with privilege. For Reagan, the money she could earn at Golden Oaks is nice, but it won’t change the trajectory of her life, or at least, not radically so. For Jane, the “big money” she could earn would change the course of her life and that of her daughter. Additionally, Jane doesn’t really have any other options to make this kind of life-changing money, so her attitude towards Golden Oaks is one of gratitude, in the way it is not for Reagan and Lisa.

• In your interview with The Guardian, you said, “Certain things which are unpaid, like motherhood, are not even seen until they’re outsourced. ” As Ariel and I read the book, we found Mae offered a striking perspective in this regard. As much as she ran the business for Golden Oaks, seeing Jane with her own child made her think if she wanted to have the full experience of carrying the child by herself. With advances in science (there was a recent article about pausing menopause for women), women will eventually (if not already) have the opportunity to focus on their career and have a family later. How do you think the option of surrogacy contributes to having a child later in life?

Certainly, technology today allows women to defer having a child until they’re older—to decide when it make sense to have a child versus having one’s biological clock dictate this. I have girlfriends who froze their eggs in their thirties and, in their forties, decided to have a child. My friends happened to carry the babies themselves, but you could see some women opting to hire a surrogate for health or career or other reasons. Will there be repercussions to this? Yes, there has to be—in terms of women’s careers, the commodification of pregnancy, the institution of marriage, and more.

• If readers could take one thing away from this book, what would you want it to be? If there was one action we could take after reading this, what could it be?

I hope that The Farm inspires readers to try to see people who are different from themselves more clearly. We judge each other too easily. We label each other based on gross oversimplifications—like race, or whether someone is rich or poor or a banker or a nanny, or a working mom or “stay-at-home” one (I hate that term, by the way).

But each of us contains multitudes, and each of us is motivated by complicated, often conflicting, desires and needs and wants. I’ve stood on both sides of various divides, and if I’ve learned anything it’s that very few people are wholly good or bad. Most of us in our own way are trying the best we can.

• What would you recommend your readers to read after The Farm?

Women Talking by Miriam Toews!

• What would you tell your younger self when it comes to writing?

Persist. Practice. Don’t wait for inspiration. Writing is a craft before it can be an art.

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Thank you for joining us for this Q&A! Ways in which you can connect with Joanne –

Website

Instagram

Interested in reading The Farm and adding to our discussion? The book is out on all retail stores. Below are the Amazon links for your convenience.
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle

Cover image: Photo by Deanna Lewis on Unsplash