Anna Dunlap

Anna is the central character in The Good Mother. Recently divorced from her husband Brian, Anna works as a private piano teacher and, later, as a research technician working with rats in a laboratory at Boston University. Anna is self-reflective and sensitive, but she lacks a clear identity and a strong sense of self, having grown up burdened with her family's expectations for her professional success. Anna is mother to four-year-old Molly, and after the divorce she takes on full custody of her daughter. Anna meets Leo Cutter one day at the laundromat, and eventually the two begin to date. Leo, a free-spirited artist, opens up a new way of being to Anna. In particular, Anna is sexually liberated in her relationship with Leo, and takes a new interest in sex, which had, up until meeting Leo, been an insipid activity for her. Anna's newfound comfort with...