The Farm by Joanne Ramos

For my second buddy reading ever, I read The Farm by Joanne Ramos with my friend, Ariel. We had a timeline and everything for reading and discussing the book but it was so good that we finished it within a week, within hours of each other! For this post, Ariel’s comments and notes are in red.

If you have read The Farm already, I am sure you will have a lot to add to our discussion. The discussion is divided into three parts (Pages 1-154, Pg 155-end, Overall impressions) so navigate to the section relevant to you, if you are currently reading the book. If you have not read it yet, know that this post has some spoilers and thread lightly. Let’s start with taking a quick look at the synopsis of the book. Then we will head right into the discussion.

Nestled in the Hudson Valley is a sumptuous retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, private fitness trainers, daily massages—and all of it for free. In fact, you get paid big money—more than you’ve ever dreamed of—to spend a few seasons in this luxurious locale. The catch? For nine months, you belong to the Farm. You cannot leave the grounds; your every move is monitored. Your former life will seem a world away as you dedicate yourself to the all-consuming task of producing the perfect baby for your überwealthy clients.

Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines and a struggling single mother, is thrilled to make it through the highly competitive Host selection process at the Farm. But now pregnant, fragile, consumed with worry for her own young daughter’s well-being, Jane grows desperate to reconnect with her life outside. Yet she cannot leave the Farm or she will lose the life-changing fee she’ll receive on delivery—or worse.

Heartbreaking, suspenseful, provocative, The Farm pushes our thinking on motherhood, money, and merit to the extremes, and raises crucial questions about the trade-offs women will make to fortify their futures and the futures of those they love.

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First Impressions about The Farm

Ariel, what got you excited about this book based on the synopsis?

I always enjoy books that strive to push the boundaries of thinking and perspectives; especially when they raise important intersectional feminist issues. There’s been a lot of conversation in our society about whether or not governments have the right over a uterus-owner’s choice regarding their bodies, and I think that this book may be able to provide another voice in this conversation that will further explore the nuances of motherhood and a person’s control over their own body, especially when the person is not in a place of privilege.

Dystopian/What-If novels often reveal a lot about an author’s worldview, and I’m really excited to dive in to see what I can learn about the society I live in and how I interact with it. The plot and the characters have significant potential, so I’m sure I’ll be on the edge of my seat the whole time!

Kriti, what made you think this would make a good buddy read?

A couple weeks ago, I had just finished reading The Warehouse by Rob Hart. While writing about it, I realized that dystopia seemed to be one of my most-read genres recently. I asked one of my instagram friends who loves dystopia about recent books she has read that fall in that genre. She suggested a bunch and I added them all to my TBR pile. As I was reading the synopsis of The Farm, I was instantly reminded of Mother of Pearl by Angela Savage, another book I had reviewed this year, which was about a family in Australia that hired a surrogate mother in Thailand.

I reached out to Angela and asked her if we could read the book together since it is connected to a topic she had already written about. Angela had already read the book at that point for a session by Joanne Ramos during the Melbourne Writers Festival. When you and I started talking about buddy reading, I thought I would mention The Farm. And here we are! 🙂

Discussion for Pages 1-154

The Farm starts at the dorm where Jane lives with her aunt, Ate. We learn that this dorm is full of Filipino families, people who have come to live in America and earn a living, so that they can support their families back home. Were you at all aware of this aspect of immigration, Ariel? Have you heard of such places before? For myself, when I first moved to Canada, I learned that it is quite common for people from the same country to stick together in one place and support newcomers. It does not surprise me that such dorms exist, but Joanne’s story brings them to the forefront of my mind at least.

Yes, growing up in California has made me very familiar with the immigrant experience (I am a third-generation American myself). Many times people come to the US with absolutely nothing, so groups renting out small studios and arranging their sleeping times around the clock so they can all have a roof to sleep under is a fairly common experience. The dedication to their families and the incredibly difficult work and living situations sets a good stage for the book. 

What are three words/phrases you would use to describe the first half of the book? Mine are: quickly-moving, educational, thought-provoking.

That is a great question! I absolutely agree with all three! Glad that there is the option to mention phrases: ‘confronting stereotypes’, ‘challenging world views’ and, like you said, ‘educational’. The first part of the book has most of my notes and, looking back through them, they are all about these themes.

Do you remember that scene (pg 33) where Mrs Richards is filming all the nannies? I was baffled but not surprised by the lack of privacy that the nannies experienced. In some ways they were invisible as hired help but at other times, when it suited the employers, they could be the focus of unwanted attention. I bet we can find numerous such examples in movies and TV shows. Did something about this incident stand out to you, and how it eventually leads to Jane getting fired?

Yeah, that scene had so much happening but I think one thing stood out really clearly to me: the dehumanization of the domestic workers by the mothers. The workers’ existence seems to be conditional to the employers’ choosing, even in the way the employers choose to look through their employee while talking to them, or not allowing them to eat or rest when they desperately need it.  Even as the book progresses, there is a theme of dehumanizing the pregnant women at The Farm in favor of protecting the surrogate child, and so on. 

Yes, Reagan’s appointment with Dr Wilde in which he addresses the computer and asks ‘How are you doing, Mom?’ speaks out to that too. It seems like there was this effort to alienate the child from the surrogate and make sure that she knows from the very start that it is not hers. She is not the mother. She is only there to carry it to full term. Which begs the question in my mind – biologically speaking, who is the mother? The one who bear the child? The one who provides the egg?

That’s a really good question, and we know which one the employees at Golden Oaks would pick! Just like when Jane worked as a nanny, she put in so much hard work for the biological mother to have an “easier” time at motherhood. That parallel was applied to some of the Clients at the Farm (CEO’s too busy to have children, etc) – the surrogate mothers risked their health to go through a pregnancy for the benefit of the biological mothers.

What would you pick? In your mind, should a surrogate have any right to the child?

I think Golden Oaks as a “baby making factory” can quickly become exploitative (as we saw) so in that case, I think the issue in this book is bigger than the mothers’ rights to the child. In society today, surrogacy almost comes with the assumption that there will be a severed relationship between the mother who carried the baby and the baby themselves at some point. It really depends on the situation and the agreed-upon terms that the surrogate mother has created with the biological parents. If the surrogate mother is happy just carrying the baby to full term for the parents, awesome! If the surrogate mother will be staying around and helping raise the baby for awhile during the developmental period, cool! If at any point the situation becomes exploitative, that’s where I would draw the line. 

Discussion for Pages 155-end

The second half of the book has so much going on! I felt sadness for Jane and frustration for her situation, the cycles of being used by one person after another were continuous and all I really wanted was for her to break out of it. The truth is though that everything we do in life involves people in some way or another. No matter how optimistic a view we have of our situation, other people have a role to play in it. Jane summarizes this sentiment in the following quote:

Jane does not believe people are as free as Reagan thinks they are. Sometimes a person has no choice but hard choices. 

(pg 313)

Why do you think the book ended with Jane working for Mae? What message do you think that gives readers? 

That is a great question! I feel the ending was this way to show practicality and making the best of the choices that Jane had. She has dreams and she is capable of standing on her own two feet one day, but she realizes that for her to be successful, she has to stand on the shoulders of giants. Mae is ultimately a good person and she might not have found someone as helpful, who has worked with her in stressful situations. What did you think of this ending?

I think as satisfying it may have been to have an “overthrow the system!!!” ending, there are so many of those out there that almost leave a reader less to think about. At the end of the day, money is power, and wealth passed down the generations is even more power. We don’t know the extent of the employment contract between Jane and Mae, but I think Jane is starting to follow in the footsteps of Ate where she begins to create lasting and powerful connections that will not only support herself, but her descendants. And at the end of the day, isn’t that what we all want? Safety and wellbeing for ourselves and those we love most?

General Discussion (whole book)

One of the main things that I appreciated because of Jane’s story and the inability imposed on her to see her daughter was how lucky the mothers are who are able to stay at home with their kids and do every aspect of bringing up the child from pumping milk to feeding the baby. As tedious as it may be, all these activities are stepping stones into parenthood and bonding with the child. We see this with Mae’s admission of jealousy towards Jane and consideration to bear her own second child. As much as surrogacy can take some pressure off the mother, it still does not give the full experience.

Another theme that spoke to me throughout the book was one about unsaid expectations and assumptions. The people working at Golden Oaks were playing a mind game to manipulate the surrogates, trying to make it into a system of favors and punishments. I read Mother of Pearl couple months ago which was based around the surrogate services offered in Thailand. Angela Savage wrote that while researching her PhD thesis, and hence, it is depicts a true picture. There were some stark differences between The Farm and the agency in that book.

Firstly, in the first half of the book, when Jane is introduced to the rest of the Hosts, she gets this advice from Ate to see them as competition. Since Golden oaks already has a system of bonuses and perks, that makes sense. In Mother of Pearl, all women being from Thailand, there was a camaraderie between them. They never saw each other as threats. The fact that Jane ultimately does make friends and they support her through the tough times, speaks volumes.

Yes! Women supporting women is so important! And especially, white women realizing when their privilege can be harmful for people of color and making the efforts to use their privilege for the good of everyone around them. What I loved about this book is that each of these women were so strong in different ways, and they each had ways they could be constructive (or destructive) to those around them. 

Secondly, the whole reason for becoming a Host: In a country like Thailand, the women are there because that is one way they can ensure their family is taken care of. That money that they get from being a surrogate, with the parents being from Australia, for example, has a lot of value in their country. When Mae in The Farm goes to select the surrogates, she is always trying to figure out the real reason why a Caucasian woman would want to be a surrogate vs an immigrant who clearly needs the money. This attitude of trying to pinpoint exactly why someone does anything was revealing and, almost invading privacy at the same time.

The book as a whole was just, wow. I’m always impressed when a book can maneuver nuance well, and this book does an excellent job of humanizing different experiences from different backgrounds. 

Some particular points surrounding each main character that stood out to me were: 

• Ate’s motivation to help her disabled son eclipsed so many of the choices she makes throughout the book, including taking care of her own health.
• Jane’s sacrifices for her daughter, even committing to leave her for nine months for the promise of a better future. 
  • Alongside Jane’s character – the beliefs that people had of Jane that she didn’t “have agency”.

Both of these relate to the importance both Jane and Ate give to family. That was one of my takeaways from Mother of Pearl as well. Philippines is not very far from Thailand and it is not surprising that the women coming from that region share the same values. This also reminds me of Ate’s comment about people in America not taking care of their parents, how she herself will have someone to go back to, but others might not. This speaks to the North American culture, and also stereotypes that other cultures might have about it that children here do not take care of their parents.

• Reagan’s existential realization at the end that she really couldn’t make a difference.

That was a sad one, and yet, in line with everything we know about how life works. No matter how many court cases there might be on Facebook and the magnitude of the fines that it has to pay, it will not stop collecting our data and bombarding its users with Ads. I did whatever Reagan did had some effects on Mae. She does not stop thinking about Golden Oaks and the business, but she does do her best to help out the Hosts, even though her company will not stand by them.

• Mae’s conviction that the Golden Oaks was entirely a business enterprise and not once questioning if she was violating any ethics regulations.

Golden Oaks was Mae’s child and she acts like a mother in its regard. She will do anything to protect it and whether that means taking steps that are ethically unsound, well it has to be done. Like Lisa points out it’s all a business transaction where the babies (or was it the surrogates?) are the commodity.

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That’s all for our discussion! I’m excited to share that we will be interviewing Joanne about The Farm! So stay tuned for that blog post, coming soon!

Interested in reading The Farm and adding to our discussion? Find it on all retail stores. Here are the Amazon links for your convenience.
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle

Hope you enjoyed this buddy discussion. If you are interested in buddy reading with me next year, give me a shout on twitter/instagram. I’m always happy to collaborate with book lovers. 🙂

Photo by Deanna Lewis on Unsplash