Little Children

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.

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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).