lovelock

Oh, Tom Perrotta. How I adore you. There is one common denominator in Perrotta books: infidelity/adultery. I've often questioned whether this is a common denominator in Perrotta's relationships, as well, or simply a fantasty he entertains. But whatever, I digress. Little Children is a dark satire into middle/upper-class suburbia, where moms at the playground compete with each other on who has the nicest J. Crew khakis or who remembers to bring the snacks, stay-at-home-dads can be labeled "Prom King", and women with sexual ambiguity can still mourn the loss of their college girlfriends who left them to marry rich male doctors, while looking after their children and remaining oblivious that their husbands are addicted to online smut. Ah, Suburbia. The main characters, Sarah (sexual ambiguous girl) and Todd ("Prom King") begin an unlikely affair, considering Sarah is frumpy, frizzy, and frazzled, and Todd is extremely handsome. Sarah fantasizes about running away together while Todd fantastizes about avoiding the BAR exam that his wife desperately wants him to pass. The story complicates when a convinced sex-offender/pedophile, Ronnie, moves to town, a man known for "exposing" himself to girl scouts, and also suspected for the murder of a nine-year-old, which has never been proven. Oh, and of course, there's Larry, the retired cop who becomes obsessed with Ronnie, even though the person who gets the brunt of Larry's obsession is poor Ronnie's mother, the only character you'll actually like. And that's mostly a pity-like. Overall, a very dark read, sometimes hard to get through, always interesting. You won't root for anybody but yet you'll like them all. Perrotta has a gift for making the mundane interesting, for pointing out everything that may or does happen in every-day life. A great read among the many other books he has to offer.

2023-02-06 19:02