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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Little Children has been sitting on my shelf for a while and I finally dug into it and blew through it in a day. I usually enjoy Tom Perrotta's dark satires (I still have more to read), and overall I enjoyed this one, but I don't think it'll stick with me. It takes place in suburbia, focusing on the lives of stay at home parents and how happy (or not) they are with their current lives. Sarah circles through different playgrounds in town trying to find the right mix of other moms to spend time with, but she struggles to connect to many of them. Someone who considers herself a feminist, was in a relationship with a woman, and now finds herself married to an older man with a daughter and feels lost. One day at the playground, Todd (the other moms dub him "The Prom King") and Sarah chat and feel a connection, leading to an affair. Todd feels astray in his life- while he enjoys his time with his son, he feels disconnected from others. A rough community football league sparks in him his previous life as a popular athlete in school- something to enjoy instead of trying for the third time to pass the bar. An overlapping plot line is a resident of the town is released from jail after exposing himself to young children, which has all the parents in an uproar (I didn't find this plot particularly engaging). Much of the book is about what people do when they are unhappy with their current lives.
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i love this book. nothing is perfect in a perfect world.
This is a story of turning thirty and realizing you are a real adult and the life you imagined as an idealistic twentysomething is not the life you seem to be ending up with. With touches of light humor and irony, Perrotta draws from Madame Bovary and the genre of suburban ennui to depict characters so desperate for something more they're willing to risk stability and security chasing it. The ending is a scene that is simultaneously mundane and utterly absurd.
"Oh that's nice. So now cheating on your husband makes you a feminist?"
"No, no, no. It's not the cheating. It's the hunger - the hunger for an alternative and the refusal to accept a life of unhappiness."
This book is also one of the very few to portray a pedophile in a humanizing manner. Which honestly makes for even more uncomfortable reading than if Perrotta had written him as a one-dimensional monster, since we're forced to confront McGorvey has an actual person and not some kind of demon out of a supernatural horror novel. I can't help but wonder how hard Perrotta would've been canceled on Twitter if this was published today, though.
Unfortunately the audiobook edition is poorly edited. George K. Wilson is a great narrator but you can hear the wheeze as he breathes in, which is seriously exasperating for those of us with misophonia. I had to listen to it with the volume turned down just loud enough to hear the words.
"Oh that's nice. So now cheating on your husband makes you a feminist?"
"No, no, no. It's not the cheating. It's the hunger - the hunger for an alternative and the refusal to accept a life of unhappiness."
This book is also one of the very few to portray a pedophile in a humanizing manner. Which honestly makes for even more uncomfortable reading than if Perrotta had written him as a one-dimensional monster, since we're forced to confront McGorvey has an actual person and not some kind of demon out of a supernatural horror novel. I can't help but wonder how hard Perrotta would've been canceled on Twitter if this was published today, though.
Unfortunately the audiobook edition is poorly edited. George K. Wilson is a great narrator but you can hear the wheeze as he breathes in, which is seriously exasperating for those of us with misophonia. I had to listen to it with the volume turned down just loud enough to hear the words.
First off- i have read a few of his other books and liked them. but this? the writing style was easy to read but the story itself was vapid, as were the one dimensional characters. i imagine these people must exist- but i hope i never meet them. i kept reading it because i thought that surely something would happen. something interesting or at least redeeming. but it ended up just being sad and maudlin. i recommend skipping this one.
Contains the most Disney-esque version of sex work imaginable.
I had to read this for my American Lit class. Of the five books assigned, this was my favorite. It's ability to take real situations in the world of suburbanite parenthood and make them funny allowed me to read this book cover to cover and enjoy every second of it.
Little Children could describe the children or adults on the playground as the adults are the people giving in to their childlike desires to do as they please. this can be said for several characters in the novel. Todd, Sarah, Ronnie and Larry all can't seem to control their most basic instincts and they each act on them. Mary Ann's extreme need to control every situation could also be described as childlike bossiness.
I thought Sarah and Todd's affair would bother me. It did on a small level. I felt for Kathy as she honestly loves her husband and is only playing the part of the breadwinner because she has to. Todd is clearly unfulfilled and could find that fulfillment someplace other than Sarah's body yet he chooses not to. Sarah is the most sympathetic character. She doesn't fit in to her own life, let alone the lives of those she meets on the playground and she turns out to be less to Todd in the end.
I did like how it ended despite the sad turnout for Sarah.
Little Children could describe the children or adults on the playground as the adults are the people giving in to their childlike desires to do as they please. this can be said for several characters in the novel. Todd, Sarah, Ronnie and Larry all can't seem to control their most basic instincts and they each act on them. Mary Ann's extreme need to control every situation could also be described as childlike bossiness.
I thought Sarah and Todd's affair would bother me. It did on a small level. I felt for Kathy as she honestly loves her husband and is only playing the part of the breadwinner because she has to. Todd is clearly unfulfilled and could find that fulfillment someplace other than Sarah's body yet he chooses not to. Sarah is the most sympathetic character. She doesn't fit in to her own life, let alone the lives of those she meets on the playground and she turns out to be less to Todd in the end.
I did like how it ended despite the sad turnout for Sarah.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes