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mrswhite's review against another edition
2.0
Perrotta's latest installment uses public school health teachers and suburban soccer moms and dads to examine the war between liberals and evangelicals. For over ten years Ruth Ramsay let her motto of "Pleasure is good, shame is bad, and knowledge is power" guide her teaching of human sexuality; in her classroom no subject was forbidden, but the envelope is eventually pushed too far when, in response to a student's vocal disgust over oral sex, she replies, "some people enjoy it." A student complains and cue the evangelical Christians, who have an amazingly easy time swooping in and getting the sexuality curriculum changed to an "abstinence only" approach - a philosophy that Ruth strongly opposes, yet must still manage to teach. In the aftermath of this controversy, Ruth meets her daughter's soccer coach - a former addict turned born-again evangelical Christian named Tim Mason, who unwittingly creates a huge mess the day he decided to lead his multi-faithed, community soccer team in prayer right before Ruth's very eyes. What follows is the story of an unlikely friendship born from the controversy, and a book that pretty much bored me throughout. I admit that my knowledge of Perrotta's storytelling is limited to film versions of two of his novels (Election, Little Children), but on the power of these two films and reviewers' commentaries I was expecting The Abstinence Teacher to be sharp, witty, mildly satirical, and funny when it needed to be. Instead, the story played a bit like a Lifetime Original Movie, none of the characters were particularly likable, barring one moment that I found mildly amusing it was decidedly unfunny, and I probably would not have finished it if it were not for the sake of this review which I now write. Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh, but in a word - meh. You can do better.
alisonhori's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book...I thought the characters were interesting, complex and rang true and I found the book both humorous and touching. I expected a bit more questionable motives from the religious side but I guess that is my own bias coming through. Really good read, IMO!
chinimurali's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
allyjs's review against another edition
3.0
I left this book with mixed feelings.
There was a lot of good: as a lapsed protestant, I appreciated the well-drawn portrayal of church events. I didn't go to any church that went around calling people whores and protesting things but the conference in the third act, the idea that there was nothing wrong with Christianity so what was the harm in sharing it, the idea that Christians are ready to be persecuted were true to form. And I appreciate that it presented a rounded view of Christianity. The parent-child relationships were poignant and genuine.
The not-so-good: I came into the book expecting more Ruth and felt that I didn't get to know her as well as I wanted. I was much more concerned with her story as the sex ed/abstinence teacher and felt that it got slighted to give Tim more screen time. The attraction between them I didn't find to be convincing and I think it might have functioned better as purely platonic. I am okay with some things not being tied up in stories, but this novel left almost everything untied. The only real conclusion we had was Ruth's being re-assigned which was treated as a non-event despite the fact that now her students won't have any access to accurate information.
A strong start, a so-so finish overall.
There was a lot of good: as a lapsed protestant, I appreciated the well-drawn portrayal of church events. I didn't go to any church that went around calling people whores and protesting things but the conference in the third act, the idea that there was nothing wrong with Christianity so what was the harm in sharing it, the idea that Christians are ready to be persecuted were true to form. And I appreciate that it presented a rounded view of Christianity. The parent-child relationships were poignant and genuine.
The not-so-good: I came into the book expecting more Ruth and felt that I didn't get to know her as well as I wanted. I was much more concerned with her story as the sex ed/abstinence teacher and felt that it got slighted to give Tim more screen time. The attraction between them I didn't find to be convincing and I think it might have functioned better as purely platonic. I am okay with some things not being tied up in stories, but this novel left almost everything untied. The only real conclusion we had was Ruth's being re-assigned which was treated as a non-event despite the fact that now her students won't have any access to accurate information.
A strong start, a so-so finish overall.
misscritta's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting. A quick read. My first time reading a Tom Perrotta novel (weird, cause the film version of Election is one of my favorite movies). I'm now going to read all of his books. I'm hooked!
trentsky's review against another edition
3.0
Some real potential here, but the characters were never developed sufficiently for my taste. And the story didn't make up for it. Kind of felt like a rough draft for Perrotta.
billymac1962's review against another edition
5.0
I have read five of Tom Perrotta's novels so far, and his themes throughout them have the same overlying theme: just ordinary people in suburbia trying to find their place in the world and in their relationships. There are no outrageous occurrences, just things that could conceivably happen to anyone, and how they manage. They are heavily character driven, by very well written narrative and excellent dialogue.
And, as is always the case with ordinary people who have normal drives of all sorts, there is a healthy helping of sexual themes throughout.
These normal everyday themes and good plotlines make for excellent, addictive reads. At least for me, that is. I absolutely burn through his books. As I did this one.
The Abstinence Teacher centers around Ruth, a sex ed high school teacher, who makes the grievous error of casually mentioning that some people enjoy oral sex. This becomes a grievous error because a local fundamentalist Christian organization catches wind of this and of course you can imagine the fuss that ensues.
Adding to the situation is that Ruth's daughter's beloved soccer coach Tim is a member of this church.
Tom Perrotta does a brilliant job of portraying each side of this controversy. While the religious far-right can be commonly discounted as intolerant wingnuts (Yo), we get a deep understanding of where Tim has been in his life, how he became part of this church, and his personal struggles to just do the right thing.
I haven't spoiled anything, but I have divulged a lot more about a story than I usually do. It's pretty much impossible to explain why I liked it so much without doing so. But I'll stop now.
If there was anything negative I thought about the book, it may be in the middle where there was just a little too much backstory for a character that I didn't care that much about. But it wasn't really a whole lot of reading compared to the rest of the book so I'll let it go. At that point, I was pretty certain this was going to be a four star rating. However, after finishing the book this morning and thinking about it, I'm so impressed with the portrayal of Tim that I don't think I can go less than five stars.
Tom Perrotta is a slam-dunk must-read for me and I will read everything by him. It continues to mystify me why his novels have lukewarm average ratings here because he just does it for me every time.
And, as is always the case with ordinary people who have normal drives of all sorts, there is a healthy helping of sexual themes throughout.
These normal everyday themes and good plotlines make for excellent, addictive reads. At least for me, that is. I absolutely burn through his books. As I did this one.
The Abstinence Teacher centers around Ruth, a sex ed high school teacher, who makes the grievous error of casually mentioning that some people enjoy oral sex. This becomes a grievous error because a local fundamentalist Christian organization catches wind of this and of course you can imagine the fuss that ensues.
Adding to the situation is that Ruth's daughter's beloved soccer coach Tim is a member of this church.
Tom Perrotta does a brilliant job of portraying each side of this controversy. While the religious far-right can be commonly discounted as intolerant wingnuts (Yo), we get a deep understanding of where Tim has been in his life, how he became part of this church, and his personal struggles to just do the right thing.
I haven't spoiled anything, but I have divulged a lot more about a story than I usually do. It's pretty much impossible to explain why I liked it so much without doing so. But I'll stop now.
If there was anything negative I thought about the book, it may be in the middle where there was just a little too much backstory for a character that I didn't care that much about. But it wasn't really a whole lot of reading compared to the rest of the book so I'll let it go. At that point, I was pretty certain this was going to be a four star rating. However, after finishing the book this morning and thinking about it, I'm so impressed with the portrayal of Tim that I don't think I can go less than five stars.
Tom Perrotta is a slam-dunk must-read for me and I will read everything by him. It continues to mystify me why his novels have lukewarm average ratings here because he just does it for me every time.
laila4343's review against another edition
3.0
In spite of my political leanings, I liked the character of Tim better than Ruth. Not a bad book. Got much much better after about page 70 or so -I almost quit reading it at that point. But then it started surprising me.
debandleo's review against another edition
4.0
I was pretty impressed with this book. I thought the writing was phenomenal. I would read anything by this author. Although I already saw the move Little Children, I might go and read it anyway (this normally goes against my principles). I believed that Ruth and Tim were real people meandering through life. It was neat to kind of see into the world of bible thumpers through the character of Tim. And it was an interesting study of the whole issue of what schools should teach during health class. I cringed when Ruth had to go to the troublemakers class. I felt like I was really there. I thought the author did a good job of presenting both sides of the issue.