Little Children: A Novel
by Tom Perrotta
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tom PerrottaEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-19
ISBN: 031236282X
Number of pages: 355
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Book Reviews of Little Children: A Novel
Book Review: Little children, big impact...
Summary: 5 Stars
While maintaining a somewhat satirical atmosphere, `Little Children' can and does come across quite unsettling. There's an air of haunting disturbia that runs its claws into the very veins of this modern masterpiece. Many who take a passing glance at this brilliant novel may get the impression that it's nothing more than a tortured love story, a story of an affair that ruins the lives of those involved, and to an extent that subject is broached, but this novel truly is about so much more than that. The affair is more of a basis for the actual meat of the story, the trunk of this tree that supports the limbs or the real focal point of this book.
The story itself revolves around two very different people and their unlikely affair that sparks because of each others undying need to break away from their normal and reserved lives. Sarah is a stay at home mother of one who never would have imagined her life panning out as it has. She had much larger dreams that those of middle class suburbia. She's trapped in a loveless marriage to a man that prefers the attention of online sex sites to that of his wife, and she feels even more repressed and outcast when she is around the `other mothers' and their perfect lives with their perfect children and their perfect husbands.
But the one thing these women call all pine over is Todd, the `Prom King', a stay at home father who is as handsome as he is paternal and that in itself is such a turn-on to these women. Sarah is the only mother with the audacity to actually speak to him, and there is something about her that oddly attracts Todd to her side. She doesn't judge him for who he is or what he wants. She just accepts him and that makes him crave her all the more. You see Todd isn't trapped in so much a loveless marriage, for he loves his wife Kathy but he continues to grow tired with her constantly degrading his decision to remain at home with their son instead of aggressively pursuing his one time dream of becoming a lawyer. Sarah gives Todd someone who understands what it's like to sacrifice you're dreams for the one you love, or think you love, and the growing feeling of making something more of your life. Sarah's `Madame Bovary' speech says so much on the subject.
This novel becomes more about acceptance and the human desire for someone, anyone, to understand where you're coming from. This becomes very apparent when Ronnie moves back to town. Ronnie, a convicted sex-offender throws the whole community into a tizzy as every parent begins to panic at the thought of their young children falling victim to this monster. Ronnie and his mother May seem to be fighting a losing battle as they struggle to find some sort of redemption in the eyes of their neighbors even as it becomes apparent that Ronnie is not a changed man. As they try and deflect the vicious attempts of ex-cop Larry Moon to get them to leave town they are tested to the limits of their sanity, May more so than Ronnie. As much as Ronnie is detestable, Tom Perrotta is able to make him sympathetic, especially in scenes like the one at the local pool.
As the affair between Sarah and Todd threatens to expose itself the pace of the novel begins to quicken and poor decisions are made, life altering decisions that threaten to unravel the fabric of these people's lives. As has been mentioned before, as much as this novel revolves around the adults in this community, every decision, good and bad, ultimately effects the children, and in the end as Sarah drives with her daughter in the back seat she makes this realization, and the reader does as well. It's a realization that no matter what you sacrifice, no matter what you throw away or give back in order to make a better life for the little life you helped create, it's all worth it in the end because you will always have each other, and that's the most amazing gift you can give those little children.
Summary of Little Children: A Novel
TOM PERROTTA's thirtyish parents of young children are a varied and surprising bunch. There's Todd, the handsome stay-at-home dad, dubbed "The Prom King" by the moms at the playground, and his wife, Kathy, a documentary filmmaker envious of the connection Todd has forged with their toddler son. And there's Sarah, a lapsed feminist surprised to find she's become a typical wife in a traditional marriage, and her husband, Richard, who is becoming more and more involved with an internet fantasy life than with his own wife and child.
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