Little Children: A Novel

The young suburban mothers watch their children playing together while mourning how tired they are. Each one dreads the fact that yesterday they were the children; today they are adults whose identity is defined through their relationship to their children.

Sarah once dreamed of being the super feminist, but that was when being bisexual gave her double the pleasure. Todd (yes - some of the moms are men) dreams of his teen days as a super jock, but laundry and little ones consistently intercede though not as much as his demanding workaholic spouse who wants him to practice law. Mary Ann dreams of the future of her child attending Harvard even when she has her scheduled weekly sexual appointment with her husband.

However, a predator has returned to their dreamy neighborhood. Ronnie, a convicted pedophile has just come home from prison. While Sarah and Todd try to recapture their youthful élan and idealism with each other, the preschool commanding officers rule over those enlisted with an iron hand. No hope remains for the future for those trapped in family bliss in the burbs.

LITTLE CHILDREN is a terrific satire that takes a hyperbolic psychological look at suburban supermoms whose dreams seem so ancient history though only a few years have passed since they harbored them. The story line takes no prisoners as Tom Perrotta condemns those who choose convenience over living. However what keeps this tale interesting is that the moms are sympathetic characters that many boomers will associate first hand with as reflections on our own lives. In many cases this results in shattered idealism replaced by a cyclical is that all there is?

Harriet Klausner

What I liked most about the book, besides the fact that it's VERY well written, is the way in which the author managed to depict female characters in more realistic depth than most male authors typically manage.

It was also interesting how he developed the character of a child molester - ALMOST to the point where you feel sorry for him when the town has a knee-jerk reaction to his return from prison. He and his mother are repeatedly hounded by an obsessed retired cop who stalks him and torments him throughout the entire book. Then the author reminds you that the guy is truly sick. He gives no answer to the problem - there is none, really, under current laws - but despite your revulsion toward the character, you have to admit the author handled him deftly.

The book follows a group of suburban housewives (and one househusband) through the course of Summer 2001. The main character - although the book switches from one point of view to another - is Sarah, the bisexual wife of a man who orders used panties over the Internet, and is obsessed with the woman, "[...] Kay", who provides them. Meanwhile, Sarah is obsessed with the "Prom King", a househusband she meets in the park. It isn't inspirational drama so much as a snapshot of lives, personal dreams and personal problems.

It was an easy read, completely engrossing, intelligent and slyly humorous. I highly recommend it!

After reading through a lot of reviews, it seems like this book has been misunderstood by some people. I believe that is because Perrotta allows you to fill in some blanks here and there...the meaning and message of the book are more subtle than in the movie. Further (and I suppose this happens in many instances), it seems like people project their own worldviews and beliefs onto the book. This book is about a LOT more than sex; it is about a LOT more than extramarital affairs; it is about a LOT more than suburban parenthood. All three of those subjects are of course part of the book but there is a lot more there if you look beyond the surface. Not surprisingly I found the characters more developed than in the movie, but I do have to say that Perrotta DEFINITELY improved on the ending when he helped make the movie. I would really recommend both the movie and the book---they are each different and rewarding in their own way (I am sure I will NEVER forget the performance by the sex offender in the movie...he was amazing). This book moved along quickly and was very engrossing. Recommended, with only one caveat---the tone of the book tended to change too frequently (satire, drama, soap opera, morality play...etc....)

Firstly, this is my new favorite book. Todd is 2 people who have recently impacted me, and I feel that Mr. Perotta may actually know these 2 men.

But then this is the genius. The author exposes a human condition, a malaise that exists in all of us that reside in this type of world he writes about, and we all know a Todd or Sarah, or a Larry, or we know them well.

I feel as if the author has been spying on my life.

I just finished it, and have neglected my work and studies this week, transfixed by this novel of enutia in suburbia.

One thing though: Reviews keep saying this book was funny and satirical. I thought I had a radar for underlying humor, but I didn't get that one bit from this book, rather thought it tragic and sad, although excellent. I did not have one funny moment with this book.

My beef: Unresolved ending. Sarah and Todd will both contunie to live in this community as far as we know. How on earth does it all end. The one thing that keeps this book from being a masterpiece. I feel like Mr. Perotta just gave up at the end of such a wonderful book, and couldn't think of a good ending, so he just decided not to end it.

Little Children is a satire of life in the suburbs. It involves a romantic affair between two stay-at-home parents. It also has a storyline about a pedophile who has moved into the neighborhood.

Many of the actions of the people in the book seem childish. Excluding people because of behavior on the playground is just one example of the childish behavior of some of the characters. Everyone is very self-involved. The parents don't even really think about the well-being of their children because they are so concerned with their own lives. It doesn't matter what is going on, the problems of the adults are always more important than the problems of the children.

The strongest character in this Sarah. She's the lead character. She is involved in an affair with Todd. She struggles between her past life where she was a happy woman involved in a relationship with another woman and her current life where she's married to a man she doesn't really love and involved with a man who she knows deep down will never leave his wife for her.

I think one of the best things about this book is that you don't know if you can trust the Ronnie, the pedophile, until the end. He's a very sympathetic character, which you don't expect from someone who targets young children.

The title itself brings so many different layers to a lush suburban landscape that is brushed with all the right levels of satire, sincerity, humor, and melodrama. While the subject itself isn't anything profound, it is the storytelling technique and the usage of the backstory to explain the characters' present motives that pulls the novel out of the depths of obscurity. Perrotta is skillful at getting into the minds of desperate people in desperate marriages, giving honesty to a genre that could have been filled with caricatures. Some of the comments the author makes about the circumstances of the book are breathtakingly dead-on. The story lags in the latter half of the second part, but by the time you get to the third part, Perrotta has found his niche and the reader is left with overwhelming and indescribable emotions. In a stroke of genius, parallelism from Part One is brought to the final act, bringing the narrative to a full circle - and close. Who are the little children? This ultimate question is up for debate, and is part of the true magic that Perrotta brings to the literary scene.

Another good book from Tom Perrotta. I've read all his books--- just bought his "Bad Haircut" and am looking forward to reading it now.
The cast of characters in "Little Children" are people that we all have known--- but we were not clever enough to write a book about them! Perrotta is a great observer of the human condition and depicted these have-it-all suburbanites and their lives perfectly in this satire. Every one is dissatisfied and is looking for a way out of their current situation.....they have all seemingly arrived at the current time in their lives by following the paths of least resistance or by accident, or both. They all seem to take the easy way out, as though they have no moral choice.
The characters are self-important and self-absorbed and let the reader know that they are doing the most important job in the world, bringing up children. I happen to agree that this is the most important job, but there is a right way and an obnoxious way to make this point.
Despite the way he skewers his characters, you can tell that Perrotta is really fond of them, and he manages to get the reader to take an unbiased look at even the one who deserves our consideration in the least. To do this requires a delicate balancing act, one that Perrotta seems to have mastered.

While it is easy to assign any number of thoughtful, complimentary clichés to this book, I will simply begin with the fact that this was a pure impulse buy that I was happy to have made in retrospect. Perrotta, an author I previously knew nothing about, does a spectacular job at telling a story that is reasonably complicated with a cute serving of real-life emotion.

Focused primarily on the happenstance meeting and subsequent relationship of two "stay-at-home parents" (one a mother, the other a father), this story shows the complications that accompany much of life. Romance stirs as the result of frustration rooted in complacency that invigorates the two who engage in a summer romance leading toward the leaving of their significant others - all while toting their respective 3-year-olds to and fro among the menial tasks of managing a toddler's summer itinerary.

While this is not the once-in-a-lifetime Pulitzer-winning novel, it is also not the run-of-the-mill slosh that occupies a significant amount of space on the bookstore shelf. This is a fresh, engaging, cute, and "real" (as real as it can be) book. A nice book for a rainy day or a day at the beach. Give it a try!

Raising children and staying together are not easy.

Perrotta's novel, which tackles these and other difficulties, is wonderfully readable.

His prose never draws attention to itself but is always at the service of his plot and characters. There's plenty of humour in the observations, and some satirical touches. Several big scenes - notably a dinner party late in the book - are handled with great skill, but I was less convinced by the final convergence of several key characters. Generally, though, one would call this effortless mastery if it were not so difficult to achieve.

His characters are accessible, deftly drawn, and viewed sympathetically, even non-judgmentally. They are not glamorous fantasy figures, but thoroughly grounded in the ordinary reality of middle class suburban life. They form a satisfying range - the house husband former - and soon present - footballer, the home based, eclipsed feminist intellectual, the pedophile and his tragic mother, the documentary film maker ambitious for her husband's stalled law career, the obsessional former cop, the driven, hyper-structured, moralistic mother, to go no further.

Perrotta shifts the focus from one to another, without ever losing tension or reader attention. Most emphasis falls on the adulterous couple, and not all storylines are neatly resolved - but nor are they in real life, to which this novel so ably holds a mirror.

Many readers will find points of recognition, episodes or observations which directly echo personal experience. It's easy to share the ache, frustration and occasional joy of these people in their interactions because they constitute variations on universal themes.

So sings the great contemporary troubadour, Richard Thompson, whose song title rings like a commentary on Tom Perrotta's wry, angular, strangely gripping Little Children, perhaps the most peculiar thriller this side of, oh, Ian McEwan.

I say peculiar because Perrotta has assembled a compendium of male, mostly sexual, anxieties, given them names and histories, and melded them into four-fifths of a cracking good novel. And although the McEwan comparison is admittedly a stretch, long passages of Little Children induced physiological effects upon me, in my stomach, in particular, in much the same way McEwan does.

But Perrotta's palette is considerably brighter, positively Turneresque: all sunlight, radiant colors and blinding whites. Perrotta is, moreover, a satirist of effortless comic abundance. When I wasn't all knotted up, and even when I was, I smiled . . . and laughed loudly, it seemed, every third or fourth page (at one point, I confess, startling a sleeping spouse). An unusual thriller indeed.

Everyone in Perrotta's Boston suburb is afflicted with the American disease: the pursuit of happiness - an American birthright - unfulfilled. Even the toddlers are disgruntled and, as a result, disagreeably demanding. Like Mom and Dad. Because the kids aren't the novel's eponymous "little children." These, you had to have known, are the "adults"--the parents, neighbors, and even new neighbor Ronnie, a convicted and now released child molester, perhaps worse, who adds a jittery element to the local chemistry. No one here can really seem to get any satisfaction in or out of their connubial relations and would-be attachments.

Out of this Perrotta devises several paths down which his couples seek to work out their own human salvations. Perrotta has, I'm afraid, got men, their motives, and particularly male narcissism fairly well figured out. And like Nick Hornby, to whom one reviewer has compared him, Perrotta writes women with an observant and sympathetic eye. When the not-so-pretty Sarah scrutinizes every inch of herself in a mirror, wondering if she can be a suitable lover for Todd-the-Sensitive-Prom-King-Blond-Jock-God, you ache for her - and perhaps for your own homely self - in the center of your chest.

Little Children, like Perrota's other books, falls between genres. He's not literary but is unusually perceptive, and he gets respectful reviews and spots on the "notable books" lists, largely for his honest, effortlessly fluent writing, sharp dialogue, and plainly recorded insights into real men and women. He's genuinely funny and knows how to pace a tale.

The uncommonly clever patter and elements of tension almost obscure the fact that Perrotta's cast is a tad too carefully assembled from what must be a very conventional set of "character notes" - or is simply dropped in from central casting: the bombshell, the loudmouth, the tightass, the artist wannabe, the Redford, the creep. (Okay - "the creep" is very, very good, almost Rothian, a real 21st century type, "the horny websurfer," who is the protagonist of one of the book's most hilarious moments.) To Perrotta's credit, there's some overlap, and the characters pick up a measure of complexity. But we remain on familiar--albeit brightly illumined--ground here, and we sense a patness that doesn't have to be.

That said, and despite a disappointing sag as Perrotta wraps up over the final 30 pages or so - from which judgment I exclude a fine closing paragraph - I could not set this book aside. It pulled me along like a tractor beam. Thus do I very easily recommend Little Children, and his The Wishbones (a Jersey wedding band! For me, terra cognita), and Election (which many of you will know, if only for the film). Do Sarah and Todd live happily ever after? It's worth an evening to find out.

The main characters of Tom Perrotta's Little Children find themselves, in their early thirties, stuck in imperfect relationships and in life situations that are somehow less than what they had imagined for themselves. Sarah, in her college days a short-haired feminist flirting with lesbianism, is married to an older man, Richard, who failed as a father and husband in his first marriage and is repeating his mistakes in a second. Sarah, though not a bad mother to her three-year-old daughter Lucy, is not fully comfortable with, or competent at, the task of caring for a child. Todd, on the other hand, a square-jawed former athlete whom the other mothers at the playground have dubbed the Prom King, thoroughly enjoys his role as stay-at-home dad. What plagues him is his failure to pass the bar exam, his failure to want to pass it, and his wife's relentless attempts to push him into a career for which he is unsuited. Sarah and Todd meet near the swings, enact a dramatic if unlikely scene for their audience of busybody playground parents, and fall into an affair which they hope will make their lives right. The drama of their relationship and its complications is supplemented by trouble in their town, the arrival of a convicted child molester, who has moved in with his mother after a stint in jail and has his own more extreme problems forming relationships.

Perrotta's novel is about choices--the mate one selects, the children one chooses, or not, to have, the life that results from the small decisions one makes along the way. And it is about relationships, usually dysfunctional romantic relationships, unexpectedly supportive same-sex groups that play or read or pass out flyers together, ties between parents and children. The book is not always successful. The hierarchy of playground mothers, the less powerful personalities under the sway of a spandex-clad, fascistic, supermom, does not ring true. And the children's dialogue, what little there is of it, sounds to my ears more like an adult affecting childish speech than realistic three-year-old language: "Where it went? ...Where my snack?" But sometimes Perrotta gets it just right, as in his description of Todd's contentment with full-time fatherhood:

"Something had happened to him over the past couple of years, something to do with being home with Aaron, sinking into the rhythm of a kid's day. The little tasks, the small pleasures. The repetition that goes beyond boredom and becomes a kind of peace. You do it long enough, and the adult world starts to drift away. You can't catch up with it, not even if you try."

Little Children builds in suspense as Todd and Sarah's relationship consumes them and as the child molester's demons threaten to overpower him. One fears for the children of the book's title, not so much because of the threat posed by the sex offender in their midst, but because of the harm their own parents' bad decisions may cause. It is a powerful book, worthy of the read.

Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

Tom Perrotta, product of a state (New Jersey) that would more appropriately be called "The Suburbia State" than "The Garden State," has penned an engaging reflection of the suburbs that will have many readers from the 'burbs nodding and saying, "Yup, Yup." In fact, LITTLE CHILDREN is a perfect mirror for what we in America have become -- overgrown children who never want to grow up (or get old, or get wrinkled, or get sick, or get bored, or most especially get dead, etc.). In other words: Baby boomers, heal thyselves.

This engaging book shows Perrotta at the top of his game. Readers familiar with his earlier works have come of age with him, from the New Jersey kid in the lovely short story collection, BAD HAIRCUT, to the clueless undergrad at Yale in the humorous bildungsroman, JOE COLLEGE. Now Perrotta sets his sights on "adults," and he's wise enough to create a story line that appeals to both women and men alike.

Centered as it is on stay-at-home moms, LITTLE CHILDREN would seem to fall into that category known as "chick lit." But wait. We have a stay-at-home dad, the "Prom King" sort who is not only good-looking and athletic, but apparently incapable of passing his bar exam (channeling JFK Jr... JFK, Jr. to the playground, please). So now we have the men on board, and as soon as one of the moms dares to walk over to the "King" and plant a wet one on his lips, all sexual hell breaks loose (you guessed it -- the perfect antidote for the boredom we know as "suburbia" and "marriage once the initial thrill is gone").

Much as JOE COLLEGE was slightly hampered by a sub-plot involving the protagonist taking over his father's roach coach and dodging goons fighting for territory, LITTLE CHILDREN is distracted by a sub-plot involving a newly-released sex offender turned loose in a neighborhood of more-acceptable sex offenders (uh, that'd be the Prom King cheating on his wife and his mistress cheating on her husband). Perfectly-tuned satire, in its way, but the real fun is watching the affair gain steam and then begin to wobble under the weight of its own passion. If you're from upper middle class America, you will either recognize yourself or recognize what you sometimes fantasize yourself to be. The mirror may be a little more honest than you'd hope, but I promise you'll enjoy the ride.

One final note: few are the authors who can nail an ending just right. For whatever reason, it is the single most difficult task there is, often humbling even the most talented of writers. Although I obviously cannot reveal the denouement, I can say this. Perrotta nails the ending. It was one of the most honest, poignant, and dead-on finishes I'd read by a contemporary writer in a long, long time.

This book does not stay the course that it starts it with.We have a group of women who frequently get together at the park/playground so that there children can play and they can discuss the highlights and lowlights on subjects dealing mostly with there children as anybody who has kids knows that we do such as grand subjects like potty training.
There is quite a cast of characters with two from the moms group.One being Mary Ann who was the cheerleader in high school type who now has what appears as the perfect marriage,she is the one who at least in her mind can do no wrong the socalled stereotypical suv driving yuppie mother.Then you have Sara who in high school and even now is kind of an outcast(with the moms group) she also is dealing with a husband who is addicted to the internet.
Another of the main characters Is Todd who brings his son to the same playground as the moms group they have labeled him the Prom King he is the good looking jock in his college days who now is a stay at home father that is trying for the third time to pass the bar exam.
One of the paths that really develops the story is when Sara is bet 5 dollars that she cannot get the prom kings phone number.Well she gets that and alot more as what starts as kiss that shocks the moms group turns into an affair
The story takes another line with how these families and there communitiy deal with the sudden appearence of a sex offender who has been released from prison and comes to stay with his mother.
I say this story is a little twisted in the parts dealing with the affair and the sex offender i thought it would follow more with dealing with the children . This was a great book no matter what.

Anyone who's ever been bored to tears pushing their child on a swing for the umpteenth time will be amazed to discover how much drama Little Children can cull from the interaction between parents who meet regularly at their neighborhood playground. The novels gets inside the heads and explores the arrested development of more than a half dozen characters including Sarah, a formerly bisexual feminist trapped in a loveless marriage; Todd, a stay-at-home dad who is studying for the bar after two failed attempts and who is so handsome the moms at the playground call him "The Prom King"; May, the mother of a convicted child molester who's resettled into the neighborhood; Larry an ex-cop who mistakenly killed a local kid and who is now obsessed with tormenting the child molester; Richard, Sarah's husband, who's become obsessed with Internet sex; and Todd's wife Kathy, the beauty queen who needs to rescue her marriage after Sarah and Todd start an affair.
There are very funny scenes here -- Sarah walking in on her husband while he's pleasuring himself while sniffing panties he received through the mail from an Internet porn queen; Sarah getting her revenge against the neighborhood's Supermom Snob over a discussion of Madame Bovary at a ladies' book club meeting. Some of the most poignant moments come from the mundane details Perrotta can mine from the moments when people should feel transported -- Sarah smelling pool chlorine and thinking about all her pathetic previous rejections while she's ecstatic about making love to someone as handsome as the Prom King.
There's never a false note with any of the characters' interior monologues -- ranging from Sarah's angst over buying a bikini that will sufficently entice Todd to Todd's inability to understand why he's become obsessed with watching teenage skateboarders while he's avoiding studying for the bar. It's a great testimony to Perrotta's depth and range. He's often compared with Nick Hornby, but the humor here comes not so much from clever one liners, but rather the feelings of the characters. (That doesn't mean there aren't some very funny one-liners here, too. Several times I laughed out load reading the book). It all builds to an exciting climax at the very playground where the Little Children -- the kids, the parents who behave like children, and the man who's obsessed with them -- meet.

I liked this book and it was well written. However it was quite depressing. Even with so many characters it was hard to find one that's likable. I'm guessing "Little Children" equally describes both the parents of the young children and the children themselves that live in a suburban New England community in the late nineties. The story centers around a group of stay at home moms and the one stay at home dad that enter's their playground. They all seem to be drifting through lives and spouses that they chose but seem to resent. The ending is a little strange but fitting. At times I was going to give up but I'm glad I pulled through it as there were more interesting than dull parts. The depressing part is that although the characters are unlikable I cannot say they are not believable.

With some books we admire the author's ability to weave together an interesting, gripping story that keeps us turning the pages; reading the whole book in only a few sittings. Sometimes we admire an author who goes through the difficult effort of making sure his characters are believable, characters who actually seem like real, flesh and blood human beings we could actually encounter in real life. Other times we're impressed by an author's skillful way with words, his or her ability to put words together in an intelligent, clever, thoughtful yet accessible way.

Tom Perrotta's "Little Children" is a novel to be admired on all those levels. For me, though, this was a book that transcended normal parameters of "good" and "bad". This novel struck me straight in the heart as I imagine it does and will for many readers who are of an age similar to the main characters in the novel. While this novel will inevitably be reduced to the description of a "satire of suburban discontent" it seemed like so much more than that to me. This is a book that tackles one of those incredibly difficult and uncomfortable topics many people like to deny exists or throw under the rug. That is: What essential part of me got lost when I became a spouse and a parent? What dreams and aspirations now have to be given up because I am now responsible for the lives of other people?

It's easy to disapprove of some of the irresponsible and downright selfish behavior of many of the characters in this novel (hence the "Little Children" title), but Perrotta portrays these characters with such depth and sympathy that you may find yourself in disagreement with many of their choices, but understanding where the behavior is coming from.

This is the third Perrotta novel I've read and I've enjoyed them all, but for me this is easily the best.

All the characters in this engrossing book are "little children" of one sort or another, even those with whom we don't particularly identify, like the overly toned and judgmental Mary Ann; or Richard, whose internet fantasy life tempts him to join the "Slutty Kay" Fan Club; or the child-molester Ronnie, whose mother is all that stands between him and criminal relapse. Somehow Perrotta manages to make it all entertaining and enlightening, offering both a cynical and strangely innocent version of suburbia.

I have to say that this leveling, while one of the book's pleasures, is also a bit of a problem. It's hard to credit that all the complex and interweaving plots -- all the conflicting and colorful characters -- wind up in an ending with four of the most different figures in the book standing around smoking companionably.

That ending felt like a little bit of a cop-out to me, since not only did it fail to resolve or even really respond to most of the issues, even the plot lines, that the book had raised, but it also felt untrue to the fairy-tale desire for a really happy ending that Perrotta had so skillfully created. But I won't spoil the ending by being more specific.

I'm certainly not sorry to have bought this book (well, actually it was a Christmas present, but if I had bought it I would have thought the money well spent). It's an enjoyable read, and Perrotta is a talented writer, with both modesty and storytelling power, not above entertaining his readers. It's not surprising that *Little Children* was a bestseller. Perrotta's ability to create dialogue is especially impressive, and in this regard the portrayal of the actual little children is especially engaging. They sound just like real little children!

It's not a great book, however. According the to back jacket, reviewers praised its generosity and compassion. I guess that's a fair assessment if what is meant is that rewards and punishments are not meted respectively out to the virtuous and the vicious. But the book set me up to want more than was delivered.

Bob on SESAME STREET used to sing a catchy little tune "Who are the people in your neighborhood" and the barber, butcher, bus driver, teacher, and a whole host of others would sing a few lines about their lives. If SESAME STREET visited LITTLE CHILDREN, the people in the neighborhood would be ex-cops who accidentally shot a young man who happened to be a member of a minority group, a would be lawyer who has no interest in taking the bar, a restless retired teacher and her husband who has discovered the joys of being a couch potato, an ex-feminist who wonders who she ended up in suburbia married to a man who visits objectionable we sites. Such a neighborhood would not be complete without a convicted sex offender living with his aging mother.

LITTLE CHILDREN has received rave reviews and has become almost a cult classic in many circles. It's also had its critics and has been panned in some circles. While some criticisms the book has received can be justified, namely the book does not have too much of a plot or its humor is too sublime, these same criticisms could be why the book is so effective. Since the two main story lines deal with adultery and a sexual predator in the neighborhood, focusing too much on the plot could turn it into a legal thriller or a romance which would have ruined it. The book takes place in suburbia and while it is somewhat darkly comic, it's not an indictment of suburban life. Perrotta visits many houses in this neighborhood. The story behind each house visited is both straightforward and complex. We see what is happening but we also see there's more to the story than we realize. We find we are invited into the characters' heads and we see many different perspectives. We may not love them all, and we can find ourselves saying "grow up" or "get over it" as we read and interact with these people, but we'll also feel we know this people due both to Perrotta's ability to creative vivid characters and his ability to capture human nature accurately. We can laugh but we may find we' ourselves and our attitudes.

I've see movie trailers for the film. Hopefully it will be as clever and sharp as ELECTION. Whether or not it will be, we'll just have to wait and see.

Tom Perrotta's "Little Children" has been described as many things - satire, compassionate, engaging - but no one word can sum up the powerful force that is this novel. At times laugh-out-loud funny, at others disturbing, "Little Children" is a modern day tale of adults who haven't quite learned how to grow up. It is an insightful look at the fears that plague parents, and adults who have realized that life hasn't turned out quite as they expected it to.

The story focuses around its two main characters, Sarah and Todd, but also brilliantly interweaves a cast of various characters to flesh out the suburban neighborhood Perrotta describes during the course of one summer. Sarah is a lapsed feminist surprised to find herself in a boring marriage and eking out an existence as a stay-at-home-mom. Todd, nicknamed "The Prom King" by the moms at the local playground, is the former jock, a rare stay-at-home dad who has failed the bar exam twice. When Todd and Sarah meet, the electicity between them is blinding, and the two quickly begin an affair with little regard to anyone who might get hurt. Their neighborhood also gets quite a shakeup with the return of Ronnie McGorvey, a convicted child molester who may or may not have something to do with a young girl's disappearance years ago. McGorvey, unable to work because of his criminal past, finds himself living with his elderly mother and hating every minute of it, as the two of them find themselves to be the target of a hate-filled vendetta of the local committee for concerned parents.

Throughout the course of the novel, as Todd and Sarah continue their affair, Perrotta peppers his narrative with glimpses into the lives of other characters, as well as into the pasts of the main characters. The title "Little Children" is indicative of numerous things - the children these adults long to protect from a predator within their neighborhood, Mrs. McGorvey struggling to understand her only son's proclivities, and the adults who have somehow not become what they wanted to be when they grew up (if they even did grow up). As Todd and Sarah's relationship drives blindly to a climax which forces each of them to be realistic about their futures, Perrotta manages to craft an almost tender look at Ronnie McGorvey that will make readers emphathize with him in spite of their disgust at his actions. "Little Children" is a brilliant novel, with Perrotta showing flashes of Tim O'Brien in his honest depiction of human beings and their frailties and failures.

Although writing about dysfunctional families seems to be in vogue these days, Tom Perrotta does it extremely effectively in "Little Children," which is both humorous and distressing. Yes, the book covers the obligatory topics of living in the suburbs, e.g. the superficiality, boredom and despondency of its residents, but Perrotta's imagination and writing style elevate this book from the typical fare. It is remarkable, for instance, how the author can make the reader feel sympathy and revulsion for a character, sometimes simultaneously. He seems to want the reader to begin to understand a character, but not necessarily to like or accept him or her. A seemingly "normal" person will turn out to be completely bizarre.

I agree with one reviewer's comparison to the movie "American Beauty." That the suburbs may not really be accurately depicted is hardly important. Perrotta is not trying to write a guide book, but rather an interesting piece of fiction in a certain setting. I believe that he succeeds.

On the back of the hardcover edition of this book, there is a comment by Dennis Lehane, one of my favorite authors. He says that this book is an "indictment of and an elegy to that old sociological construct known as suburban America." I disagree with that. I think this book is an indictment of and elegy to these characters and the choices and decisions they made. I won't re-hash the story since that's been done in many other reviews. I will say that this was one of the most thoughtful, provocative and funny books I've read in a long time - I found it interesting (and a bit disturbing) that the only person who seemed to have found any real happiness at the end of the book was Richard.

LITTLE CHILDREN features everything you could want in a book. A great, well written story, with excellent, well-defined characters. My only (minor) complaint is that I expected a little bit more information at the end, although it was still a satisfactory ending. A five star recommendation for this one.

Started out really great! I loved the scandals and the way people looked at their lives and thought about how different things had turned out than when they would have guessed years ago.

Towards the end, I was a little disappointed at the anti-God ravings of a couple of the characters. Wasn't necessary and kind of a turn off.

Interesting read though -couldn't put it down.

Little Children starts (and ends) on a playground in the suburbs. On the very first page, we meet the bored, discontented, overeducated Sarah:

"The young mothers were telling each other how tired they were. This was one of their favorite topics, along with the eating, sleeping and defecating habits of their offspring, the merits of certain local nursery schools, and the difficulty of sticking to an exercise routine. Smiling politely to mask a familiar feeling of desperation, Sarah reminded herself to think like an anthropologist. I'm a researcher studying the behavior of boring suburban women. I'm not a boring suburban woman myself."

As soon as I read this opening paragraph, I knew I was going to love this book. After all, it is set in my world: boring suburbia where I myself am one of the boring suburban women (who tries to break out of this boring world by blogging and writing book reviews like this one). I suspect any stay-at-home mom with a small child has moments of panic and desperation like Sarah. Although you love your children and there are moments of great joy, there are many many moments of brain-numbing boredom, self-doubt and isolation. But back to the plot synopsis...

Sarah's world detours into a far more interesting (and dangerous) tangent when she impulsively kisses the Prom King (aka Todd, the attractive stay-at-home dad who is the object of lust and curiosity among the playground moms). This leads to an unexpected affair between Sarah and Todd and causes them to question everything they thought was true about themselves, their lives and their marriages.

Unfolding alongside this new and illicit love affair is the arrival of a convicted child molester, Ronnie McGorvey, who moves back home with his mother after his release from jail. Ronnie's presence doesn't sit well with the townsfolk, and he and his long-suffering mother become the target of subtle and not-so-subtle attempts to drive him away from the "safe" life that suburbia supposedly offers.

Little Children is a wonderfully rich, deeply satisfying read. It is funny, heart-breaking, suspenseful and utterly believable. Perrotta gets all the little details right, and you get inside the heads of Sarah and Todd, and I found myself simultaneously rooting for them and against them. I thought the ending was just as it should be; anything else would have felt like a cop out. My only real quibble with the book was the subplot with Sarah's husband Richard, who gets increasingly involved with an online fantasy woman called Slutty Kay. This was the only area that didn't ring true to me, and I wish Perrotta had taken Richard in another direction. Other than that, I was utterly entranced with this novel. If you want an introduction this gifted author, then I think Little Children is the perfect start and may possibly be his best book.

Excerpt from Todd: He'd told Sarah he didn't know what had gone wrong, but that wasn't precisely true. He knew, he'd just never been able to put it into words. Something had happened to him over the past couple of years, something to do with being home with Aaron, sinking into the rhythm of a kid's day. The little tasks, the small pleasures. The repetition that goes beyond boredom and becomes a kind of peace. You do it long enough, and the adult world starts to drift away. You can't catch up with it, not even if you try.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Even before Tom Perrotta's "Little Children" was published the book was the subject of controversy. The book jacket had a picture of Pepperidge Farm's snack, Goldfish on the cover. Pepperidge Farm obtained a restraining order prohibiting Perrotta's publisher, St. Martin's Press, from using a picture of their product on a book about a child molester. For that reason, you now see generic chocolate chip cookies pictured on the cover of "Little Children." Pepperidge Farm wasn't about to let Mr. Perrotta to use their trademarked Goldfish to imply that perverts use them as props to lure little children.

It's the kind of flap that Perrotta probably got a laugh from, as he often cautions his reader that the watchdogs of our morality are often ethically compromised lunatics. In the case of "Little Children", the embodiment of evil is Ronald James McGorvey, registered sexual offender who recently moved in with his mother on Blueberry Lane, after a three year prison term for exposing himself to a Girl Scout. His main antagonist is Larry, of the Concerned Citizens Group, an ex-cop on a disability because his explosive temper and lack of common sense make him a violence prone human powder keg.

There's a lot more to "Little Children" than a registered sex offender and a crazy ex-cop on disability. The main story line is an adulterous affair between the unlikely coupling of Todd (aka the "Prom King") a ex-Big Man on Campus whose career possibilities are fading because he can't pass the bar exam; and his paramour Sara ex-Andrea Dworkin type feminist who is dazzled by Todd's Grecian God beauty. Sara and Todd begin their affair with an impulsive kiss on a playground where each brings their child for daily outings.

Tom Perrotta a working class Jersey boy lucky enough to attend Yale. Perrotta old school style runs counter to the post-modernists of the David Foster Wallace school. His compact and punchy style is more of the previous generation of realists. Perrotta's literary skill is to be able to isolate a single issue and view it from multiple angles. While deconstructive in form, the style of Perrotta's prose doesn't carry the baggage of long winded philosophical digressions and allegorical imagery of his literary peers.

Perrotta's dark humor is a dangerous high wire act for a writer. Perrotta remains steadfastly neutral in judging the morality of his characters and as Nabokov does in "Lolita", Perrotta is more concerned with the cause of perversity rather than the effects. As with Nabokov's Humpert Humpert, Perrotta's sexual predator, Ronald James McGorvey is humanized while Perrotta never denies the reprehensible nature of his acts.

Examining the dark underbelly of suburbia has recently enjoyed a revival as a fictional topic, but it's origin of suburban malaise dates back to post-World War II generation of writers like Cheever and Updike. It's like to continue to be a topic as long as the American Dream is equated with the "good life" in suburbia. What Tom Perrotta brings to the table is a provacative, humorous, and unflinching perspective on the American myth of suburban nirvana.

I was at first torn between relating to these characters and being saddened by their pathetic lives. But ultimately I wondered, why does suburban life always get portrayed as boredom that can only be washed away by infidelity? Why not something else--drugs/alcohol abuse, jealousy among neighbors bordering on the absurd, the eccentricities that suburban life is rich with?

Perrotta's writing is wry and enjoyable, but this subject matter is so well-trod--think Updike, Cheever, even Roth--that it is no more interesting than Desperate Housewives. I dislike the characters of which all are flat stereotypes that didn't grow or change, thus there were no surprises, no Ahas! Unlike Joe College where the lead character does seem to struggle and grow, Sarah doesn't. I dislike her immensely by the end of the novel. Perhaps that is Perrotta's goal. Perhaps he just lacks a real talent for creating a believable female character. I think some combination of the two is probably most likely. Sarah's initial kissing of Todd at the playground breaks social mores and is not the action of a thirty-something mom, but that of an adolescent male with poor impulse control. At first this seems interesting, but when she falls back into stereotypical behavior, she and Perrotta are all washed up.

Sleek and sexy, Tom Perrotta's Little Children tells the intertwining tales of 30-something parents. Connected at first only through their children, the angsty parents begin to explore new relationships and ways to define themselves outside of their children. When the parents aren't trying to reinvent themselves, they are keeping an eye on Ronnie, the neighborhood pedophile.

I picked this novel up on a complete whim, and I am glad that I did. Don't open this novel expecting a surprise ending, or even a happy ending. Perrotta's main goal is to explore the relationship between parent and child. Does having a child fundamentally change who you are? Does it make you do, think, feel things you never would have before? Don't expect to be bored by this novel, either. Perrotta's writing style is infectious. I had a hard time putting this novel down.

This is a very well-written novel about regular life the way most of us experience it. Children and their monumental effect on the lives of their parents is the theme of this novel--once adults marry and have kids; finding oneself, changing careers, adopting/forsaking religion, etc. become more necessary but infinitely harder to accomplish.

The storyline had a very strange element of the child molester. I still can't figure out why that was included, except as a means to explore a mother's profound disappointment in her son and her willingness to do virtually anything at any time in her life to help her son.

Children keep us from doing many foolish things, but they also impede us in our ability to change for the better. Perrotta is an excellent writer, and he has the reader quickly wrapped up in the lives of Sarah and Todd from the first chapter. I was unhappy with the ending and wish it could've ended more happily, but the final paragraph was so poignant and bittersweet that it almost erased the sadness. I will definitely consider reading more of Perrotta's work, if this novel is anything by which to judge his skill.

Tom Perrotta's undisclosed East Coast suburb is a digression of the more traditional idyllic visions of suburbia complete of happy, contented families residing in spacious homes with freshly cut green grass. The protagonists in LITTLE CHILDREN are faced with the rude awakening that their lives are not what they had expected. Meanwhile, word has spread that a registered sex offender has moved into their community that sets off waves of anger and distrust. There is little doubt that their neighborhood is unraveling at the seams.

What really impressed me was how Perrotta was able to effectively get into the heads of his characters and displayed the subtleties of their internal feelings and motivations. This resulted in the creation of realistic characters. Packed within these pages is an abundant of social insights and commentaries on the fate of stay-at-home parents and, of course, the plight of convicted sex offenders who try to reintegrate into society.

My one disappointment was how Perrotta resorted to the cliché sex offender (male, white, overweight, balding wearing thick spectacles.) It would have been much more interesting to reach beyond these stereotypes. Heck, in suburban Chicago a woman was recently arrested for molesting children along with her husband. Now that would have been interesting to include in this book!

I was disappointed in Tom Perrotta's writing. Purportedly a fictional expose of our crass American suburban culture, "Little Children" turns out to be little more than a 350 page soap opera. It begins in the hotbed of suburbia, at a playground with a handful of yuppie mothers, and so the book holds great promise. Perrotta introduces us to some characters we all can recognize instantly. Frat boy Todd, spandex-clad Mary Ann, practical careerist Kathy, newly retired and bored-at-home Jean, and intellectually under-challenged Sarah cope with various problems and uncooperative spouses. Then there are the characters that add color to the gray suburban landscape: Ronnie the child-molester, Larry the ex-cop on a vendetta, and Richard the web fantasy surfer.
Unfortunately the book drags these characters through a much too lengthy and predictable melodrama. Larry harasses Ronnie, Sarah makes a move on Todd, Kathy tries to save her marriage...the novel turns away from what could have been a good satire about suburbia and instead drones on like a dime-store romance. Who will end up with whom in the end? Who cares?
This book would have been much better had Perrotta concentrated on his characters more intently. They hold such promise. Instead they end up flat, shallow stereotypes who move through a lame plot.

Tom Perotta's "Little Children" depicts Suburbia, U.S.A as a dangerous place, where wayward cops, child molesters, and cheating spouses threaten to disrupt the peaceful ebb and flow of family life. Yet this novel dispenses its satire in a way that isn't mean-spirited or lacking in believability. That's because Mr. Perrotta has taken care to craft real, multi-dimensional characters who are flawed in ways that make them as child-like as the little children they are trying to raise, evoking understanding and surprising degrees of sympathy. And rather than forcing his characters into an artificial plot structure, he seems simply to wind them up and set them on a natural collision course, letting them fall prey to their tragic flaws

This is a disturbing tale, much as the movie "American Beauty" was disturbing. Yet this caustic brew is impossible to turn away from, as Perotta chases down its bitterness with a soothing writing style that's elegant in its simplicity.

So for me, Sarah succeeds as a contemporary Emma Bovary, and this modern twist on Flaubert's tragedy qualifies as an instant classic.

-Kevin Joseph, author of "The Champion Maker"

When you read Tom Perrotta's novel Little Children you enter an unexpectedly gritty suburbia, where the pecking order of housewives (and househusbands) is revealed, where broken-hearted ex-jocks pummel each other on a football field, where you fall in love with someone utterly unexpected (a former feminist lesbian with a beautiful jock--an underwear-sniffing business man with an online purveyor of porn), and where your next door neighbor might just happen to be a convicted sex offender.

Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Who are the adults and who are the children? All is remarkably unclear, as the lines between the good/bad and adult/child are blurred and merged and eventually end with a big group hug and the knowledge that the world is not so black and white, and there aren't many love stories that end happily:

"After all, what was adult life but one moment of weakness piled on top of another? Most people just fell in line like obedient little children, doing exactly what society expected of them at any given moment, all the while pretending that they'd actually made some sort of choice."

I’ve kind of been avoiding writing this review for about three weeks now because although I liked Little Children enough to give it a four star rating (usually an indicator of a book I’d willfully reread at sometime in the future), it definitely did not completely meet my expectations that I had for it based on my reading experience with The Leftovers.

I believe the problem with Little Children was a personal one, while The Leftovers had it’s share of “moral dilemmas”, none of them struck that close to home with me. The book was very hypothetical and so it was easy not to get too wrapped up in wondering what was right and what was wrong…it was an entirely different scenario and there was no reference of what was right or what was wrong when the world was changed so dramatically. With Little Children however, the entire book was a moral dilemma and when I got to the end…I kind of felt mad with myself for feeling so much sympathy for the characters…as in real life, I would not be able to support their actions at all.

But although the book made me feel mad at myself…at the same time, I liked it for that same reason. I liked reading and liking characters so unlike myself…I even felt for a character that in all other circumstances I’d find deplorable.

I loved Little Children, because it used sparing descriptions, got to the inner life of many characters with few words...and took you to a real inner life of all its characters. None of them were one dimensional. The story is plausible. I loved the beginning of the book the best, from that point on I couldn't stop reading:

Sarah feeling so awful with a group of mommies (empty-airy types)...that was something that happened to me eons ago, when I was young very young and a mother of twins...what a waste to waste your mind as a person, regardless of your obligations...Tom you showed this in your book... Little Children is a must read for women who felt at odds with their lives in the 60s, 70s, and now this backlash of the 90s, etc...It is a timeless piece... and I recommend it wholeheartedly...honest, got twists and down to earth writing, what more can you expect of a book... Hope to find many more like it!

Little Children is the perfect follow-up to Election and Joe College. Tom Perrotta captures beautifully people falling into parenthood and a house in the suburbs and the ways in which they all deal with the shock of discovery that it has happened to them. The story is moved forward by the two leads, Todd and Sarah, having a kiss in the playground that develops into an affair and a child molester moving into the neighbourhood. The book is quite funny in the beginning as it gets the narrative smoothly flowing. It is a generous book to all of its secondary characters, even the ones the reader is not supposed to like. The author also nicely skirts around the melodrama inherent in the situation. A very satisfying read that captures perfectly how people with children actually behave.

This was...okay. The everyday moments in the life of a stay-at-home parent and the retrospections were way on target, in my opinion. I enjoyed the way(s) in which McGorvey's (Did I get that right? This is from memory.) character was revealed. I sympathized with characters that I would never expect to sympathize with. But when I got to the end, I felt a little disenchanted, which is silly because I found the ending to be fairly realistic. Maybe I just wanted some sort of grand revelation, but I ended up wondering, "Is that all there is?" Maybe that was Perrotta's commentary about suburban life...

"Little Children" is not high-minded or particularly edifying, and for that I can only award it three stars. However, Mr. Perotta writes very well and has a good insight into the characters of BOTH sexes; no mean feat. The story involves several couples, most of them thirty-somethings, suffering from poor impulse control; hence the plot revolves around the consequences of that flaw. Inasmuch as these people remind the reader of others one knows or has known, the book is amusing and entertaining. I especially enjoyed scenes such as the meeting of the "Bellington Ladies' Belletristic Society", where the members attempted to discuss the book "Madame Bovary". I would have enjoyed more of that kind of incidental-to-the-plot material. As for the story itself, I didn't care enough about the characters to be concerned about what happens to them. Basically, I just picked up this book because every now and then I like to remind myself why I left suburban life many years ago. Yet if the author produces a "sequel", I would read it. Maybe the two lovebirds will be reunited when they're both forced to take jobs at the 7-11. In the meantime, maybe I'll try "Madame Bovary".

Little Children marked a sort of break through for Tom Perrotta. It garnered him the best reviews of his career and centered on more adult themes and characterizations than his previous adolescent-centered books (Bad Haircut, Election, Joe College). What's missing though is Perrotta's keen sense of observation and humor.

The plot focuses on a group of young married couples who raise pre-school children in a suburban setting. Complexing things is the arrival of suspected child molestor, who returns home to live with his mother.

The novel is a quick read, and the various stories interwine smoothly, but by the end of the book, I didn't find myself really caring about what happened to the characters. Towards the end of the book, one of the characters calls his plight in the book a meaningless diversion. In many ways, that's what the book feels like.

Okay and occassionally humorous, but I recommend starting with Perrotta's other (better) books Bad Haircut and Election.

Little Children was my favorite movie of 2006, and also my sister's favorite. So someone gave my sister a copy of the book it was based on. After she finished it, she gave it to me. It is a lot like the movie, only longer, since it doesn't have a two hour time limit. There are many extra scenes here that didn't make it into the movie. Much more background into the characters' past. One main difference between the book and the movie is that the actors in the movie don't match the descriptions of the characters in the book (not that they have to). The main difference plotwise is that the character of Ronnie meets a different fate in the book and the movie. Anyway, this is a great book which I enjoyed very much.

Little Children

Yet another novel that drives home the point we all seem to have such a hard time truly understanding (read: accepting as a fact) and that Dostoyevsky blatantly declared over a century ago: to live is to suffer.

Marriage is mundane. It creates a desire for more (something outside the mundane), for another life-- a new beginning. Yet that new beginning, that `new' life will have its own banalities, it's own share of boredom and misdirection. And what then?

As Todd learns, only after he's destroyed his marriage and family, is that an affair is only fun for a season. The striking pleasure from the illicit is only striking and it is only pleasurable when it's illicit. Yet nothing that continues for any substantial duration will one day sooner than later fail to be illicit. Hence, Man finds himself where he was in the beginning: looking for another diversion, another striking pleasure. And when that pleasure looses its sweetness, what then? Another illicit pleasure to fill the void? And so on.

My only significant complaint with the novel is that the author glosses the intense pain and destruction that the various characters' actions do produce. Perrotta's world is one where adults prevaricate, betray, and abscond, only to find their worlds, and even those around them, relatively unchanged. They all seem to simply `learn' and then move on. For example, Todd's wife, Kathy, takes the knowledge of Todd's affair as if she had merely learned that he had been cheating on his taxes. Sarah's husband is off adulterating on his own to even be interested in Sarah's affair with Todd. Unfortunately, in my mind, this is all too convenient.

And then there are the children. Young children. It is true that they will not necessarily be affected by their parent's affairs at those tender ages. But later the consequences will surely be, as Perrotta does point out, "the source for plenty of counseling sessions if they can find the money to afford counseling".

Perrotta's effortless writing makes for a very readable and enjoyable novel. Some might say that it's simplicity is a lack of `showing off' as an author. I will choose to let that stand, but for perhaps different reasons. These truths that Perrotta points out are already keenly portrayed in Dostoyevsky, Dickens, and more contemporarily in Coupland that it is not his place to try and displace them.

I really enjoyed this book. I read it almost entirely in one evening. I've read other novels about floundering suburbanites, such as "The Ice Storm" or "Rabbit, Run", but what made "Little Children" different is how much effort Tom Perrotta put into really fleshing out the characters and making them seem like real, flawed, funny, sad, interesting people. As the book goes on, even when the characters are behaving in ways that, on the surface, might seem selfish or ridiculous, you find it hard to judge them for it. Although much of the novel is darkly comic, the overriding empathy the author seems to feel for his characters always seems to shine through. I saw this book as less of a satire or critique of suburbia and more of a story about how growing up is a continuous process. The characters in "Little Children", 30ish and up, are still in the process of coming to terms with who they are and the world around them.

I actually sought this book out after watching the sleeper movie adaptation of it (co-written by the author) that's been playing on cable. The movie stayed very close to the book, though some of the secondary characters' detail was either cut from the final or not fleshed out. But there's so much going on in the book that relates to the desires of adults not wanting to embrace their responsibilities both as parents and partners. Perrotta's sparse writing style packs a wallop though. You feel like you're in the room, whether it's during the intimacy of a sexual tryst between the characters or during the discomfort they feel at a dinner party with their spouses. There's a lot to like and learn from here, while the tale weaves in and out of dark humor and ironic passages. Check this book out. I look forward to now reading Election (which became the brilliant Reese Witherspoon/Matthew Broderick film) and Joe College.

Based on the reviews on the cover, I was expecting something along the lines of a book by Marian Keyes - a funny, feel-good, beach read, but boy, this isn't it! It starts off light and then sucks you in to its characters' dark, self-deceiving lives. I think that's the point; it does that really well, and I think I'm glad I read it but after finishing the book I sure did feel blue.
I think the movie trailer (with its toy train crash theme) captures the mood of this book perfectly. If you want to dive into something that dark, then I highly recommend this book! But - I wish the book cover had done a bit better job of representing what lay between its covers.

Tom Perrotta's LITTLE CHILDREN is a disturbingly accurate portrayal of modern day suburbia. While some might scoff at the stereotyping done (the Type A "mommy" who schedules once a week love making with her husband while prepping her 4 year old for Harvard, the Gen-X/frat boy slacker ill prepared for the work world, the sullen hubby who spends *too* much time at the computer) by Perrotta, stop and think about how many people you know or hear about from friends who fit at least a large portion of the cliche (the "date night" parents who slog away all week long for those precious 2 hours on a Friday night when they can stare at each other across the table at the local Olive Garden, the middle aged guys who swap video clips of adult images, the 30 somethings who buy Play Stations, etc.). Walk into any maxi mart on a weekday and thrill at the stay at homes with a cell phone glued to their ear and a sippy cup attached to Jordan, Morgan or whatever flavor of the month named child they are barely attending to. IT RINGS TRUE.

Perrotta clearly takes a dim view of the suburban existence, and it is a rich target for any satirist. While the first few chapters might lead you to believe Perrotta will do nothing more than mimic the mundanaties of suburban life, the book lifts off at the first meeting of the Prom King and Sarah. What makes this book soar above the stereotypes is the rich portrayal and painfully accurate examination he makes of the emotional tsunami infidelity creates for both of these characters and the people in their lives. Perrotta does a great job of walking the reader through the decisions and trade offs, both great and small these two characters make in the throes of their affair. Most rewarding is that instead of taking the stock (and predictable) ending, Perrotta forces the reader to examine the choices the characters make, hewing far closer to the reality of life than the fairy tale usually portrayed in Hollywood or TV. I found myself reading the last 10 pages of the book several times to reconcile the decisions the characters make with the rest of the book.

This is a fast read with memorable characters whose moral shortcomings allow their humanity to shine without cheating the reader of an honest and believable ending. Like the 1996 movie "Swingers" that perfectly captured a very narrow segment of society at a perfect point in time, LITTLE CHILDREN captures the essence of suburban life circa today.

I had read the great reviews of Little Children by Tom Perrotta when it first came out, so it was on my radar. However, I hadn't read any of his previous works, and the subject--the mindlessness of suburban parenting, infidelity, fear of child molestors--sounded kind of depressing. But with the movie (and its stellar cast) on the horizon, my curiosity was piqued and when a copy fell into my hands, I gave it a go.

And the book sucked me right in. I expected it to be well-written with strong characters--those are the hallmarks of literary fiction. What I didn't expect was the level of suspense and wanting to know what happens next that the story had. Others have noted the satirical edge to the book and it's definitely there; certain scenes were absurdly delightful. And Perotta accomplishes the difficult task of making me sympathize with the various characters even as I thoroughly disliked their actions and feared for the consequences.

I enjoyed this book, read it quickly, and am looking forward to the movie even more now! I had always meant to check out the book and movie Election (also by Perrotta)--now I will make a point of it.

Although I've never lived in suburban America, this story is I think a good reflection of certain people and relationships in American suburbia today, whether we're talking about flawed Sarah, the over-educated feminist yet stay-at-home mom who has a secret affair with a stay-at-home dad named Todd... who is not her husband of course; or whether we're talking about the perfect over-achieving mom Mary Ann who has things strictly planned out, even exactly what time she'll have sex with her hubby!; or whether we're talking about Larry the over-zealous ex-cop. All these people have kids and all their lives take a turn when a child molester moves into their neighborhood. I didn't like the characters in the book, but I suspect I'm not supposed to anyway. I did like the book.

How many novels are really written about those who live in the suburbs? Not many. I, myself, have longed to write about that which I know: life in the suburbs -- but where are the conflicts?

Enter Tom Perrotta and "Little Children." Conflict arrives in the form of a recently released child molester. Interestingly enough, the child molester has a relatively small part in this story -- but brings the conflict around which a story can be written. The story, to me, was really much more about the secret lives of suburban comfort -- and disenchantment.

I enjoyed this novel, not just for its novelty, but for the sensitive and interesting treatment of my world. Enjoy!

From the moment I started reading Little Children by Tom Perrotta, I was hooked. While I could not find myself easily relating to any of the characters, I thought the book overall accurately portrayed the downfall of marriage due to infidelity and secrets. Sarah and Todd's blossoming relationship kept me interested, and I was anxious to see where they would end up, but I felt as though the ending came up short, in that regard. It was obvious where Sarah's life was headed, as well as what the fate was for her and Todd's relationship, but what about Todd's marriage to Kathy?

Little Children was very well written with an interesting plot that drew me in from the first page. Tom Perrotta's writing style is one that I admire, and I'm very interested in reading more of his work. Unfortunately, I have to give this book a 3-star rating because the ending left so much to be desired.

"Something had happened to him over the past couple of years, something to do with being home with Aaron, sinking into the rhythm of a kid's day. The little tasks, the small pleasures. The repetition that goes beyond boredom and becomes a kind of peace. You do it long enough, and the adult world starts to drift away. You can't catch up with it, not even if you try." - page 220

Having just returned from several kid-centered day-trips (Crayola Factory Tour in Easton, PA and Sesame Place in Buck's County), I can relate to the previous observation made by one of the protagonists (Todd) in "Little Children". Additionally, my entire family stayed in a single hotel room for two nights during the expedition providing my own little children with constant access to me. Unfortunately, many people attempt to catch up with the adult life they abandon once children enter the picture. Occasionally, I too get in a similar rut, but soon realize the other part of Todd's reflections relating to repetition beyond boredom that transforms into peace. "Little Children" focuses on typical but potent characters as several families with small children start a run of the mill summer in their conventional suburban neighborhood. Sure things are amiss, especially when an ex-child molester moves into the locale, but the majority of the problems lie with the discontent prevalent when mundane lives seek exhilarating and stimulating experiences. Don't tell me you don't encounter at least a few people who gripe about how life would be better if they had a different spouse, a better career, better friends, a larger house, a better church, more children, no children, etc. Well this novel explores a few of those people under a microscope and paints an often foolhardy, occasionally humorous and sometimes tragic picture of their interactions especially those that occur under the guise of seeking a more invigorating adult life.

Todd is a stay-at-home Dad raising his 3-year-old son Aaron while his pretty wife Kathy works making documentary films. Similarly, Sarah stays at home with her 3-year-old daughter Lucy while her husband Richard works full-time. Sarah and Todd meet at the playground and quickly find the missing component of their mundane lives in each other. It doesn't take long for Sarah and Todd to establish an illicit bond. Soon the adulterers begin to imagine what life would be like if they split from their spouses and formed a new, more exciting, more fulfilled union. The story has several unique plot twists and is laced with humor. However, the story ends on a suspenseful note as the child molester enters an already complicated story during the intense finale.

Perrotta was the brilliant writer behind one of my favorite movies, "Election" with Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick. For those of you unfamiliar with the flick, it contained an enticing plot-driven story, littered with humorous situations yet ultimately tragic in nature. "Election" portrayed how poor moral decisions led to the demise of careers, marriages and spiritual welfare. I also felt that Reese should have received an Academy Award for her performance in the flick. Similarly, "Little Children" has the potential to be a blockbuster motion picture and it too could garner Academy Awards for its properly chosen cast. Perrotta has successfully woven a tale of normal people caught up by the complexities of unsound choices. Obviously, all people are flawed and possess the ability to plunge into the abyss of an ethical faux pas. Nevertheless, because Perrotta adequately portrayed the outcomes of such mistakes, perhaps some moral lessons might be learned from his well-written yet deficient characters and the aftermath of their poorly conceived decisions.

On a final note, I found an observation from Sarah regarding teaching quite stimulating. Sarah's comments explaining why she would never teach really touched a nerve with me because I have been somewhat perplexed why a few so-called educators haven't realized that they may be in the wrong profession. I'm not saying I'm an expert teacher, but I have observed the traits described by Sarah (below) in several people during the past few years, and I have wished that these folks would get other jobs and spare kids from daily torture:

"What did her in was the teaching. Some people loved it, of course, loved the sound of their own voices, the chance to display their cleverness to a captive audience. And then there were the instructors like herself, who simply couldn't communicate in a classroom setting. They made one point over and over with mind-numbing insistence, or else they circled around a dozen half-articulated ideas without landing on a single one. They read woodenly from prepared notes, or got lost in their muddled syntax while attempting to speak off the cuff. God help them if they attempted a joke. The faces looking back at them might be bored or confused or hostile, but mostly they were just full of pity."

***** page 12 *****

Overall, "Little Children" is an ideal summer novel for the beach, or any isolated location as long as you can escape the constant hounding of your own wonderful little children for a brief period of time.

Jay's Grade: A-

June 13, 2004

You would think a book filled with adultery, pornography, and pedophilia would be compelling or at least disturbing-- anything but boring. Sadly, boring, more than anything, is what it is. The book's characters are flat and almost uniformly unsympathetic. Almost nothing, from the dialogue to the adult "children" of the title, to the actual children, to the situations, from the most mundane to the most bizarre, rang true. The ending, which I won't reveal, was both anticlimactic and totally bizarre, which is quite a feat, I suppose. It's not a terrible book, and, unlike some reviewers, I didn't find it offensive, but I definitely won't be reading it again.

A copy of this book should be included with every sale of a beach bag or sunscreen! Dive in and be enveloped in its cool depths with regret only that autumn and the end of the story will arrive too soon.
This is not to categorize the book as a "beach book", shallow and slight. The insights into the inner landscapes of the characters are profound and amusing, poignant and tart.
I did not think I could enjoy a Perrotta book more than "The Wishbones" but here it is.
Yes, Massachusetts has Capes Cod and Ann and the Berkshires, but our finest human resources are Tom Perrotta and Elinor Lipman, masters of modern fiction.