When writer Michelle Richmond moved to South Bay, she noticed a peculiar fixation among parents and schools on test results. Photo: Nick Elliott
When the news of the college admissions scandal broke in March 2019, novelist Michelle Richmond had just finished drafting her eighth novel, “The Wonder Test,” and spent three years in Silicon Valley studying parental over-participation and claims.
Richmond, who grew up in Alabama, noticed a peculiar fixation among parents and schools on test scores when she moved to South Bay with her husband and 5-year-old son in 2009. It laid the groundwork for an idea for her fun new book, which portrays status-seeking suburban parents willing to do almost anything – even commit heinous crimes – to ensure that their children are successful and that their property value is linked to the test scores of their public Schools is coupled. Remain stratosphere.
“The fraud scandal appalled me, but it also confirmed some of the beliefs underlying the book’s premise,” Richmond told The Chronicle.
“The Wonder Test,” out Tuesday, July 6th, is a fast-paced thriller exploring these hot topics and a compassionate portrait of an FBI profiler, Lina, whose spying mind is based on Richmond’s own husband, one longtime intelligence officer.
The novel begins with Lina, mourning the death of her husband, and her precocious son Rory move to the tony-like, Atherton-like fictional town of Greenfield, where the kids are taught by specialists and motivational speakers to be “better, faster, smarter Versions “to become of themselves,” writes Richmond.
Instead of regular classes, teenagers in Greenfield spend hours every day cramming on the Wonder Test, a supercharged standardized test with abstruse categories and unsolvable puzzle-like questions.
When Lina learns that three greenfield students at Rory’s new high school were kidnapped shortly before their exams, only to reappear frail and traumatized a week later, her years in counter-espionage help solve the mystery.
Richmond said she remembered the publishers’ disbelief over whether her plot was too far-fetched when she submitted her manuscript “Wonder Test”. But months later, when wealthy parents – including more than a dozen in the Bay Area and celebrities Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, among others – were criminally charged with buying their children off to college, Richmond’s book seemed right to the moment.
“When fiction shows how bizarre things can get in real life, it helps us realize that nothing really is impossible, even if it hasn’t happened yet,” said Richmond.
Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges for paying $ 500,000 to admit their daughters to the University of Southern California. Photo: Joseph Prezioso / AFP / Getty Images / TNS 2019
Q: You told two different stories in this novel: a criticism of competing Silicon Valley parents and also a spy thriller. Which idea came first?
A: The idea for the book came 12 years ago when we moved to Silicon Valley. I realized very quickly that there was this kind of competition that I wasn’t used to, and it was often more about the children than the parents. There were also many tests in the local public schools, and fundraising was often related to test results. I decided to take these ideas to the extreme.
I knew from the start that Lina, like my husband, would be an FBI agent. I’ve lived the life of an FBI spouse all my adult life, but I’ve never written about it.
Q: Given the secrecy of your husband’s work, were you able to learn enough details about the work of the FBI from him to make Lina credible, or did you conduct outside research?
A: I haven’t done any research outside of my life. If you have a partner in any career, you take on a lot together in the course of life. My husband is always my first reader, and if something is wrong or I understand myself wrong, he will correct it.
Q: Lina and Rory are moving from New York to California, and their outsider perspective helps them see the absurdities and excesses of Silicon Valley. You grew up in the south and moved here as an adult. Did that perspective also help you see things more clearly?
A: Certainly. I grew up working class in Mobile, Ala. I went to a huge, public, very diverse high school and the way I grew up it just wasn’t competitive. I feel for the students now because children are under pressure to be good at everything. So much is expected of them and it’s crazy.
“The Miracle Test” by Michelle Richmond. Photo: Grove Atlantic
Q: Did you enjoy writing the actual Miracle Test questions that start each chapter?
A: Yes, it was fun to write test questions that are supposed to be impossible. When my son was still in elementary school, we laughed together at the dining table and did his homework. The family joke about his math became: What is Braun’s girth?
Something just seemed to be out there, and you asked yourself, “What is the value of trying to do these extremely complicated procedures?” It’s annoying for parents, and it has to be absolutely frustrating for kids.
Q: Have you seen any positive changes in parents in the Bay Area since the admissions scandal?
A: I think the pandemic really had an impact and there was a reset for families fortunate enough to get through it safely. My impression is that the parents were relieved. They were sad to see their children in isolation, but relieved to see the break in intensity.
All of the kids who should be doing their SATs or PSATs haven’t done them, and no one seems too excited about it. Maybe I’m too optimistic, but I’m curious to see if there will be a long-term effect as people reevaluate what is really important.
“The miracle test”
Posted by Michelle Richmond
(Atlantic Monthly Press; 448 pages; $ 26)
Michelle Richmond in conversation with Katie Crouch: Virtual book presentation. Wednesday, July 7th, 6 p.m. Free. Registration is required to access the stream at www.booksmith.com.