Little Children

Rating:
Summary: Perrotta hits another home run
Review: Anyone who's ever been bored to tears pushing their child on a swing for the umpteenth time will be amazed to discover how much drama Little Children can cull from the interaction between parents who meet regularly at their neighborhood playground. The novels gets inside the heads and explores the arrested development of more than a half dozen characters including Sarah, a formerly bisexual feminist trapped in a loveless marriage; Todd, a stay-at-home dad who is studying for the bar after two failed attempts and who is so handsome the moms at the playground call him "The Prom King"; May, the mother of a convicted child molester who's resettled into the neighborhood; Larry an ex-cop who mistakenly killed a local kid and who is now obsessed with tormenting the child molester; Richard, Sarah's husband, who's become obsessed with Internet sex; and Todd's wife Kathy, the beauty queen who needs to rescue her marriage after Sarah and Todd start an affair.

There are very funny scenes here -- Sarah walking in on her husband while he's pleasuring himself while sniffing panties he received through the mail from an Internet porn queen; Sarah getting her revenge against the neighborhood's Supermom Snob over a discussion of Madame Bovary at a ladies' book club meeting. Some of the most poignant moments come from the mundane details Perrotta can mine from the moments when people should feel transported -- Sarah smelling pool chlorine and thinking about all her pathetic previous rejections while she's ecstatic about making love to someone as handsome as the Prom King.

There's never a false note with any of the characters' interior monologues -- ranging from Sarah's angst over buying a bikini that will sufficently entice Todd to Todd's inability to understand why he's become obsessed with watching teenage skateboarders while he's avoiding studying for the bar. It's a great testimony to Perrotta's depth and range. He's often compared with Nick Hornby, but the humor here comes not so much from clever one liners, but rather the feelings of the characters. (That doesn't mean there aren't some very funny one-liners here, too. Several times I laughed out load reading the book). It all builds to an exciting climax at the very playground where the Little Children -- the kids, the parents who behave like children, and the man who's obsessed with them -- meet.

Rating:
Summary: Is this what constitutes fast-reading literature?
Review: I love books full of intellignet insights to the 21st century human condition... so long as they aren't written by people who are trying so damn hard to be GREAT writers. Mr. Perrotta just so happens to be a damn fine writer who never once tries to show off. Somehow, in the span of 350 pages, this novel deals with marriage, parenthood, children, sexuality, infidelity, financial realities, artistic and regular careers, lost childhoods, aging parents and declining health, vanity, sagging Catholicism, Internet porn, stay-at-home moms and dads, the fragile suburban community structure, and the deviant and mundane passage of another summer.

What this novel shows is that none of the people around you, not the career fast-trackers, not the artistically inclined and accomplished, not the ruggedly handsome nor the practiced beautiful, are leading perfect lives. It's brilliant how we come to understand that the ugly-duckling and the swan, the upper-middle class and the middle middle-class, envy each other while harboring identical insecurities.

I can't remember a novel so full of fascinating characters, good and bad, flawed and tragically funny, heart-achingly human, every single one of them. And if the saying, "the easier the read, the harder to write" is true, then Mr. Perrotta is a genius. This book sails along better than the latest John Grisham (which by the way just sucks) and yet it's full of insights, depth, honesty, moments of coveted elation and great sadness. I went to school with these people, I know these people and I saw myself in these pages.

As a man, 31 years old, married to a wonderful woman for 5 years, and flirting with first-time parenthood, I couldn't help feeling as if some of my most private thoughts were plucked directly from my brain and laced throughout this fine story. This is the kind of book that will send you flying off into startlingly clear reflections about how you got to this point in your life and where you are headed. It's rewarding if not always comfortable-- especially if you're honest with yourself. And yet, finishing the book, I felt a great sense of relief, the kind you have when you realize you're not the only person (or couple) in the world who longs for a return to innocence while the world around you grows darker every day.

The only other author I have read who possesses the ability to render every single scene so compelling and fresh is Colin Harrison, possibly the bigger, wilder, and more violent urban older brother to Mr. Perrotta's suburban (but no less authoritive) sharp-eyed and quick-tongued bard. Consider just one of the challenges he sets for himself-- to take on a character who is a convicted child molester and not resort to the stereotypes of tabloid monster or fallen saint, but to paint a man who is guilty and not getting any better, yet utterly human. You will never guess where this book is going to take you, and why would you even try? There are too many masterful depictions of the human animal gone astray here to worry about the climax (which in itself manages to be at once more mundane and majestic than you will expect). And oddly, among all the hilarious scenes involving sex and anger and sadness, it's the quiet scenes involving another 30 something man, watching a group of skateboarding teens whittle away their youth, that will stay with me for months and maybe years to come.

The only reason this book did not get a 5 star rating from me is... oh, ..., I convinced myself, I'm changing my rating from 4 to 5 stars. There's precious little else being published these days that even comes close.

Rating:
Summary: Poignant and powerful look at modern suburbia.
Review: In Tom Perrotta's latest novel, "Little Children," the author focuses his microscope on the marital problems of suburban mothers and fathers with young children. Thirty-year-old Todd is a former jock and a blonde hunk dubbed "The Prom King" by the playground mothers. He is a stay-at-home dad who takes care of three-year-old Aaron while his gorgeous wife, Karen, works as a documentary filmmaker. Todd has failed the bar exam twice, as his wife reminds him repeatedly, and his prospects of ever becoming the family breadwinner seem dim. Sarah is a college graduate who is stagnating mentally as a stay-at-home mom. Her marriage to her businessman husband, Richard, is in the doldrums.

The other playground mothers watch in horror as Sarah strides up to Todd one day and kisses him the first time that they meet. Sarah arranges to "bump into" Todd and the two forge a strong bond that threatens their fragile marriages.

The characters in this book are out of touch with their spouses, themselves, and, at times, with reality. Although Perrotta's writing is often humorous, this book is not merely a lighthearted satire of suburban mores and modern marriage. There is much ugliness here, mostly centered on the townspeople's horrified reaction when a convicted sex offender moves in with his mother after a stint in prison. One bitter retired ex-cop named Larry engages in a personal vendetta to harass the ex-con and his aged mother. Todd goes along for the ride, and although he verbally protests, he never makes much of an effort to stop Larry from committing his horrible deeds.

"Little Children" is a brilliant and merciless look at the sterility of suburbia and at the dark emotions that threaten the characters' placid and predictable lives. Most of the individuals in this novel are hypocritical, selfish, and immature. Nevertheless, Perrotta is such a gifted writer that he humanizes the characters and makes us care deeply about them. The author implies that even when we grow up and become parents ourselves, in some ways we all remain "little children" inside.

Rating:
Summary: Real Parents
Review: Little Children is the perfect follow-up to Election and Joe College. Tom Perrotta captures beautifully people falling into parenthood and a house in the suburbs and the ways in which they all deal with the shock of discovery that it has happened to them. The story is moved forward by the two leads, Todd and Sarah, having a kiss in the playground that develops into an affair and a child molester moving into the neighbourhood. The book is quite funny in the beginning as it gets the narrative smoothly flowing. It is a generous book to all of its secondary characters, even the ones the reader is not supposed to like. The author also nicely skirts around the melodrama inherent in the situation. A very satisfying read that captures perfectly how people with children actually behave.

Rating:
Summary: not a bad summertime read
Review: my girlfriend picked up a copy of Little Children on our way through o'hare this weekend. it's the story of several suburban couples as they struggle to deal with aging (well, as much as you age from college until your early 30's, along with the normal fears of life in general) and their lives. at this time a convicted child molester moves to the neighborhood, and he's a pivotal point for some of the book's events. in some ways this is akin to the scenario if faulkner's "a light in august", in the similarity of a single character's entrance acting as the catalyst in the story. at some points you feel for the characters, and in others you detest them or don't much care about them. however, perrotta efficiently and effectively creates a world which i found i could easily slip into as i read the story. the story moves at a decent pace, and you find it easy to keep turning the page.

before i knew it the story was over, it had a somewhat predictable ending, but all the same it was enjoyable. not a bad summertime read. perrotta explores similar themes as he has before: affairs, shells of marriage, and bittersweet endings.

the book doesn't explore the anxiety of 30-something life as well as it could, nor does it really explore the effect of suburbia on people as much as it could, as well. it's definitely more popular, and not nearly as edgey as others (ie a.m. homes) can be with the same subject, and i don't agree with some reviewers who say that this book is a masterpiece on these subjects. it is, however, a pretty good read and reccomended.

Rating:
Summary: My casting choices
Review: Terrific book. One of my favorite movies is ELECTION, however I was just a tad disappointed with the book (which I read after seeing the movie). It wasn't that the book was bad, it's just that the movie was so great. Anyway, Perotta's latest book kicks ELECTION's butt. So, here are my casting ideas: Vince Vaughn for Todd (I know Brad Pitt's an obvious choice, but Vince hasn't done anything relatively serious in a while), Lili Taylor for Sarah, Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Ronnie (once again, a bit too obvious, but that's because he'd be perfect), Kate Beckinsale for Kathy, Will Smith for Larry (it wouldn't hurt to get a little bit of color into this story).

Rating:
Summary: American Beauty, only more literate and heart-wrenching
Review: This scathing view of suburbia is the very fear I've had of leaving the city for the four-lane-strip-mall-minivan world of the suburbs. I found it heart-wrenchingly sad, poignant and funny and sometimes a little close to home. If you read this book and you are a young parent living in a suburb it would scare the crap out of you.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific: Here's Why
Review: This time around, Perrotta takes satirical aim at the stifling confinement of suburban middle-class existence. To a man, his characters are lost, utterly bewildered as to how they've landed in their unremarkable lives, saddled with spouses and mortgages and children. Having drifted, almost involuntarily, into adulthood, they suddenly snap awake, and begin a dismayed accounting of their lives, all facing the same choice: do they resign themselves to the lifelong tedium of the roles outlined for them by society, or risk the censure of family and friends by abandoning the façade of responsible adulthood and striking out alone after individual happiness? Perrotta's characters are likable and, on a modest scale, tragic; from Sarah's halfhearted forays into being a strong-minded, independent feminist to Mary Ann's hard-won Martha Stewart perfection, their very natures are what will dictate the course of their lives and their inevitable discontent.

Little Children is certainly a pleasure to read, with all of the sly humor and deft observation that Perrotta does so well. Whether it's the subtle jockeying for power among playground mothers, or the threadbare, joyless sexual relationship between long-married spouses, his prose is sparkling and clever. Surrounded by abundance and prosperity, free from any real hardship, the characters must invent reasons to be unhappy in order to give their lives dramatic shape; deliberating over which playground to take their children to, or which fruit juice is really the healthiest, only points up the futility and insignificance of their existence. There's plenty of inherent irony in the self-important, status-obsessed suburban lifestyle, and Perrotta mines it to the fullest - if you didn't know better, you might think the author himself had done time among backyard BBQs and afternoon play dates. This is a terrific read -- don't hesitate to pick up a copy! Another Amazon quick-pick recommendation is THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Superb
Review: Tom Perrotta's Little Children is, in a lot of ways, much like those cheese goldfish on the cover of the novel--addictive and easy to swallow. Unlike the goldfish, however, Little Children also contemplates larger issues. Perrotta is a master. Little Children is funny (laugh-out-loud at certain points), engaging, compelling while also being thought-provoking. I finished this book over two weeks ago, yet the characters and their decisions in the novel still haunt me. The main characters, Sarah and Todd, are two thirty-something suburban parents who are, for varying reasons, unhappy with their lives. Todd and Sarah meet at a town playground and from there, the relationship develops and pretty much serves as the unifying thread throughout the novel. Perrotta manages to create well-rounded, flawed characters with a sympathetic eye. We can somehow forgive them for their flaws and mistakes because we can understand why they do what they do. Little Children is truly an enjoyable and satisfying read--a rare thing. The ending is terrific. I thought there were one of two things that could happen at the end, and I wasn't sure which I preferred. Perrotta had a different idea and took the characters in another direction (a believable one) entirely. I recommend this novel very highly.