nordstina 's review for:

Little Children by Tom Perrotta

3.0

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

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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.