Synopses & Reviews
Perrotta is that rare combination: a satirist with heart
.Those who havent curled up on the couch with this writers books are missing a very great pleasure.”Seattle Times
Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise children: its got good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market. Parents in the town are involved in their childrens lives, and often in other childrens lives, toocoaching sports, driving carpool, focusing on enriching experiences. Ruth Ramsey is the high school human sexuality teacher whose openness is not appreciated by all her studentsor their parents. Her daughters soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tims introduction of Christianity on the playing field horrifies Ruth, while his evangelical church sees a useful target in the loose-lipped sex ed teacher. But when these two adversaries in a small-town culture war actually talk to each other, a surprising friendship begins to develop.
Nobody renders the world of soccer moms and sprinklers and SUVs like Perrotta. Hes the Steinbeck of suburbia.”Time
Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America.”The New York Times Book Review (in a front-page review)
The Abstinence Teacher illuminates the powerful emotions that run beneath the placid surface of modern American family life, and explores the complicated spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people. It is elegantly and simply written, characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that has become Perrottas trademark. Tom Perrotta is the author of five previous works of fiction: Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, Election, and the New York Times bestsellers Joe College and Little Children. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise kids. Its got the proverbial good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market. Its the kind of place where parents are involved in their childrens lives, where no opportunity for enrichment goes unexplored.
Ruth Ramsey is the human sexuality teacher at the local high school. She believes that pleasure is good, shame is bad, and knowledge is power.” Ruths younger daughters soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tim belongs to The Tabernacle, an evangelical Christian church that doesnt approve of Ruths style of teaching. And Ruth in turn doesnt applaud The Tabernacles mission to take its message outside its doors. Adversaries in a small-town culture war, Ruth and Tim instinctively mistrust each other. But when a controversy on the soccer field pushes the two of them to actually talk to each other, they are forced to take each other at something other than face value.
The Abstinence Teacher exposes the powerful emotions that run beneath the surface of modern American family life and explores the complex spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people. Elegantly written, it is characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that have animated Perrottas previous novels. The Abstinence Teacher is also available on CD as an unabridged audio book. Please email [email protected] for more information. "As formulaic as this plot might sound, Mr. Perrotta uses it not to construct a conventional screwball romance but to create a sad-funny-touching story that looks at the frustrations and perils of life in suburbia through darkly tinted, not rose-colored glasses."Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "As formulaic as this plot might sound, Mr. Perrotta uses it not to construct a conventional screwball romance but to create a sad-funny-touching story that looks at the frustrations and perils of life in suburbia through darkly tinted, not rose-colored glasses."Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America . . . Perrottas unmassaged realism runs through all of his writing [and] he gives space and speeches to proselytizers and scoffers alike, letting readers form their own conclusions.”Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times Book Review
With abstinence programs and disputes over what can be taught in schools regularly making the front page, The Abstinence Teacher hits on prominent social fault lines. This has become something of a hallmark for Mr. Perrotta, who has developed a knack for combining hot-button cultural themes with flawed and complicated characters . . . While his stories bear the sheen of satire, they are actually sharp though compassionate investigations of human relationships. They can also be very funny.”Motoka Rich, The New York Times
Abstinence is really a gateway for Mr. Perrotta to tell a much bigger and more complex story about religious identity in America . . . [A] deeply moving story of a man and a woman who see each other on opposite sides of a religious divide.”The Wall Street Journal
The Abstinence Teacher is certainly Perrottas most sensitive novel . . . tender, witty, and wise.”The Washington Post Book World
Perrottas balance of humor and pathos has no equal; hes naughty and nice . . . he brings this world to life with a few strokes. He never condescends to modern suburbiainstead he mucks around its corners, opens closets, and reveals oddball secrets.”Los Angeles Times
Eloquently written, Perrotta hits a chord by giving readers a riveting look at the angst and sexual tension that can polarize people as they struggle to weigh their personal wants with societal standards . . . Perrotta weaves a masterful satire that is sure to make readers stop and think.”Chicago Sun-Times
Undeniable power . . . Perrottalike satirists since ancient Romeattacks excess, hypocrisy, and intolerance wherever he finds them . . . His two souls, lost in confusion, reach out in the darkness. What they find surprises them both.”The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
Perrotta spins another perceptive take on modern life with this strong novel . . . Perrottas observations are at all times unsparing.”Seattle Post-Intelligencer
What keeps the book from getting too heavy-handed, besides the sharply written humor, is the fact that Perrotta makes his evangelical Christian protagonist less of a zealot than the atheist . . . his characters are older and have had the shine rubbed off them. As a result, theyre ultimately more satisfying to be around.”The Christian Science Monitor
Fifty years after John Cheever turned a comic eye toward New Englands Wapshot Clan, Tom Perrotta reigns as a mischievous bard of the burbs for the twenty-first century . . . Perrotta is an acute observer of social mores among the affluent middle class.”USA Today
In his timely suburban satire, Tom Perrotta implores: Lets talk about sex . . . education. He resists giving firm answers to the thorny moral questions lurking in his material.”Entertainment Weekly
For Tom Perrotta, suburbia is a place in which the rift between red and blue states is enacted on a single verdant, erotically charged battlefield . . . Perrotta finds entertainingly scabrous material in this setup.”Vogue
The comic tone is there in numerous laugh-out-loud moments, but Perrottas writing displays wisdom, too . . . His books combine profound ideas and readability in a way not often seen.”The Vancouver Sun
Over the course of five novels and a collection of short stories, Tom Perrotta has laid claim to the prime real estate of upwardly mobile suburbia, hilariously probing its leafy, soccer-obsessed, McMansion-lined streets . . . [G]enerous, amusing, shocking, thought provoking, and more than a little familiar.”The Miami Herald
A startlingly relevant and stunningly perceptive examination of the evangelical takeover of American exurbia . . . a hilarious and tender story about faith, divorce, and parenthood that also manages to contain our panoramic drama in miniature.”Mens Vogue
Perrotta, as always, is deft and sure with his satire . . . [he] still manages the incipient romance with charm and humor.”Daily News
The novel is wicked and witty yet infused with compassion for the characters.”The Columbus Dispatch
Perrotta, who proved himself adept at reconciling dichotomies in the smart novel Election and Little Children, its deeper, darker successor, gets this unlikely couple together with maximum intelligence, minimum melodrama, and a sharp, funny sense of irony . . . Its also very tartly written.”The Denver Post
"Perrotta is that rare combination: a satirist with heart."The Seattle Times
"Nobody renders the world of soccer moms and sprinklers and SUVs like Perrotta. He's the Steinbeck of Suburbia."Time
"Sex education, soccer and Christian fundamentalism make strange bedfellows in Perrotta's shrewd yet compassionate fifth novel. Neither as dark as Little Children nor as scathingly funny as Election, like them it displays the author's wide-ranging empathy. Readers will certainly sympathize with Ruth Ramsey, the high-school teacher whose unwary response to a provocative classroom question about oral sex leads to her being saddled with a not-so-covertly Christian sex-ed curriculum. But Perrotta encourages us to respect all his characters, including the ones who belong to the Tabernacle of the Gospel Truth, source of the threatened lawsuit that's forced Ruth to tout the joys of abstinence. Among the believers is Tim Mason, a former rock musician and substance abuser who cleaned up with the help of the Tabernacle's Pastor Dennis, both a warm, nurturing shepherd to his flock and an unforgiving purveyor of hard-line doctrine. Ruth's older daughter Maggie plays on the soccer team Tim coaches, and she's outraged when he spontaneously leads them in a prayer after a hard-fought victory. That's about all the plot there is, as Ruth attempts to recruit other parents for a letter of protest and discovers that even in the affluent Northeastern suburb of Stonewood Heights the Christian right is a force to be reckoned with. Tim is beginning to have his doubts about his faith and especially about his marriage to Carrie, a sweet, much-younger woman who can't eradicate either his lustful memories of his ex-wife or his burgeoning attraction to Ruth. Perrotta makes gentle fun of Carrie dutifully leafing through a copy of Hot Christian Sex: The Godly Way to Spice Up Your Marriage, but also of Ruth's gay pal Gregory making elaborate dioramas of Parisian cafes featuring French Resistance Fighter G.I. Joes clad in black turtlenecks and berets. Confusion and regret are as much the subjects here as religious controversy. Ruefully humorous and tenderly understanding of human folly: the most mature, accomplished work yet from this deservedly bestselling author."Kirkus Reviews
"Evangelical Christians and proponents of sex education (other than abstinence) usually don't see eye to eye, which certainly holds true in this novel . . . Ruth Ramsey is a tenured teacher who happily and quite successfully teaches sex ed to students at the Stonewood Heights high school. She firmly believes in providing kids with frank yet solid information so that they can make good choices. Ruth is also the divorced parent of two daughters, one a talented and avid soccer player. It is at a Saturday game that Ruth meets Tim Mason, a member of the Tabernacle, a local evangelical Christian church. This particular congregation has already had some run-ins with Ruth over her teaching methods, and Ruth is concerned when she discovers Tim leading the girls in prayer after a particularly exhilarating game. Perrotta deals with these timely issues by having characters from the different camps forced to confront one another. What results from these civilized exchanges, which feel so human in their complexity and confusion, is a more personal, inside view of how such tensions play out. Recommended for most collections and especially for Perrotta fans."Robin Nesbitt, Library Journal
Tom Perrotta knows his suburbia, and in The Abstinence Teacher he carves out an even larger chunk of his distinct terrain. Set in the northeastern suburb of Stonewood Heights, Perrotta's sixth book takes on the war between the liberals and the evangelists. When single mother Ruth Ramsay, the sex ed teacher at the local high school, tells her class that oral sex can be enjoyable, the Tabernacle of the Gospel Truth church begins its crusade. Believable or not, the school agrees to an abstinence curriculum and in marches JoAnn Marlowe with her blonde hair and pumps to instill in Ruth the tenets of the new program. Gone are the days of rolling a condom over a cucumber; now Ruth is required to promote restraint, which she does wearily and halfheartedly. These are heady days, when students rat out their teachers and the local soccer coachRuth's daughter is on his teamis a divorced ex-druggie and active Tabernacle member. When Tim leads the team in prayer, Ruth wrenches her daughter from the circle and the hostility between the opposing camps grows. Who is bad and who is good? Ruth's youthful promiscuity rises slowly to the surface, while Tim's struggle to stay sober makes him constantly confront his past. He's lost his wife and daughteralso on the soccer teamto his addictions, but now he's clean and married to a Tabernacle girl. His Jesus-loving ways, however, are in direct conflict with his desires, rendering him the most complex and likable character. When he loses his own battle with abstinence at a poker party, the finest scene in the novel culminates with his keying Jesus across the hood of an SUV parked in the drive . . . The book is rife with Perrotta's subtle and satiric humor . . . Issues of sex and religion that have shaken the town become, in the end, the story of what Ruth and Tim's newly forged relationship will soon become.”Publishers Weekly
Review
"[S]hrewd yet compassionate....Ruefully humorous and tenderly understanding of human folly: the most mature, accomplished work yet from this deservedly bestselling author." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
"Perotta focuses on the small, personal motives behind life's big shake-ups. A finely wrought novel that will be in demand." Booklist
Review
"[A] genial new suburban satire....[Perrotta] resists giving firm answers to the thorny moral questions lurking in his material which is a relief. (Grade: B+)" Entertainment Weekly
Review
"As formulaic as this plot might sound, Mr. Perrotta uses it not to construct a conventional screwball romance but to create a sad-funny-touching story that looks at the frustrations and perils of life in suburbia through darkly tinted, not rose-colored glasses..." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Review
"Perrotta deals with these timely issues by having characters from the different camps forced to confront one another. What results from these civilized exchanges, which feel so human in their complexity and confusion, is a more personal, inside view of how such tensions play out. Recommended." Library Journal
Review
"Perrotta is that rare combination: a satirist with heart....Those who haven't curled up on the couch with this writer's books are missing a very great pleasure." Seattle Times
Review
"Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"[I]nsightful, deliciously satirical and ultimately thought-provoking....As the abstinence debate rages on in classrooms across the nation, Mr. Perrotta's book, albeit fiction, does the topic justice." Dallas Morning News
Review
"Perrotta is a master of unveiling the turmoil that lurks under the placidity of suburban towns. In The Abstinence Teacher he's taken a national issue and shrunk it down to a deeply personal and relevant level." Providence Journal
Synopsis
Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise children: it's got good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market. Parents in the town are involved in their children's lives, and often in other children's lives, too coaching sports, driving carpool, focusing on enriching experiences.
Ruth Ramsey is the high school human sexuality teacher whose openness is not appreciated by all her students or their parents. Her daughter's soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tim's introduction of Christianity on the playing field horrifies Ruth, while his evangelical church sees a useful target in the loose-lipped sex ed teacher. But when these two adversaries in a small-town culture war actually talk to each other, a surprising friendship begins to develop.
The Abstinence Teacher illuminates the powerful emotions that run beneath the placid surface of modern American family life, and explores the complicated spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people. It is elegantly and simply written, characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that has become Perrotta's trademark.
Synopsis
Elegantly and simply written, The Abstinence Teacher illuminates the powerful emotions that run beneath the placid surface of modern family life, and explores the complicated spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people.
Synopsis
Perrotta is that rare combination: a satirist with heart....Those who haven't curled up on the couch with this writer's books are missing a very great pleasure.--Seattle Times
Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise children: it's got good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market. Parents in the town are involved in their children's lives, and often in other children's lives, too--coaching sports, driving carpool, focusing on enriching experiences. Ruth Ramsey is the high school human sexuality teacher whose openness is not appreciated by all her students--or their parents. Her daughter's soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tim's introduction of Christianity on the playing field horrifies Ruth, while his evangelical church sees a useful target in the loose-lipped sex ed teacher. But when these two adversaries in a small-town culture war actually talk to each other, a surprising friendship begins to develop.
Nobody renders the world of soccer moms and sprinklers and SUVs like Perrotta. He's the Steinbeck of suburbia.--Time
Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America.--The New York Times Book Review (in a front-page review)
The Abstinence Teacher illuminates the powerful emotions that run beneath the placid surface of modern American family life, and explores the complicated spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people. It is elegantly and simply written, characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that has become Perrotta's trademark. Tom Perrotta is the author of five previous works of fiction: Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, Election, and the New York Times bestsellers Joe College and Little Children. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise kids. It's got the proverbial good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market. It's the kind of place where parents are involved in their children's lives, where no opportunity for enrichment goes unexplored.
Ruth Ramsey is the human sexuality teacher at the local high school. She believes that pleasure is good, shame is bad, and knowledge is power. Ruth's younger daughter's soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tim belongs to The Tabernacle, an evangelical Christian church that doesn't approve of Ruth's style of teaching. And Ruth in turn doesn't applaud The Tabernacle's mission to take its message outside its doors. Adversaries in a small-town culture war, Ruth and Tim instinctively mistrust each other. But when a controversy on the soccer field pushes the two of them to actually talk to each other, they are forced to take each other at something other than face value.
The Abstinence Teacher exposes the powerful emotions that run beneath the surface of modern American family life and explores the complex spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people. Elegantly written, it is characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that have animated Perrotta's previous novels. The Abstinence Teacher is also available on CD as an unabridged audio book. Please email [email protected] for more information. As formulaic as this plot might sound, Mr. Perrotta uses it not to construct a conventional screwball romance but to create a sad-funny-touching story that looks at the frustrations and perils of life in suburbia through darkly tinted, not rose-colored glasses.--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times As formulaic as this plot might sound, Mr. Perrotta uses it not to construct a conventional screwball romance but to create a sad-funny-touching story that looks at the frustrations and perils of life in suburbia through darkly tinted, not rose-colored glasses.--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America . . . Perrotta's unmassaged realism runs through all of his writing and] he gives space and speeches to proselytizers and scoffers alike, letting readers form their own conclusions.--Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times Book Review
With abstinence programs and disputes over what can be taught in schools regularly making the front page, The Abstinence Teacher hits on prominent social fault lines. This has become something of a hallmark for Mr. Perrotta, who has developed a knack for combining hot-button cultural themes with flawed and complicated characters . . . While his stories bear the sheen of satire, they are actually sharp though compassionate investigations of human relationships. They can also be very funny.--Motoka Rich, The New York Times
Abstinence is really a gateway for Mr. Perrotta to tell a much bigger and more complex story about religious identity in America . . . A] deeply moving story of a man and a woman who see each other on opposite sides of a religious divide.--The Wall Street Journal
The Abstinence Teacher is certainly Perrotta's most sensitive novel . . . tender, witty, and wise.--The Washington Post Book World
Perrotta's balance of humor and pathos has no equal; he's naughty and nice . . . he brings this world to life with a few strokes. He never condescends to modern suburbia--instead he mucks around its corners, opens closets, and reveals oddball secrets.--Los Angeles Times
Eloquently written, Perrotta hits a chord by giving readers a riveting look at the angst and sexual tension that can polarize people as they struggle to weigh their personal wants with societal standards . . . Perrotta weaves a masterful satire that is sure to make readers stop and think.--Chicago Sun-Times
Undeniable power . . . Perrotta--like satirists since ancient Rome--attacks excess, hypocrisy, and intolerance wherever he finds them . . . His two souls, lost in confusion, reach out in the darkness. What they find surprises them both.--The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
Perrotta spins another perceptive take on modern life with this strong novel . . . Perrotta's observations are at all times unsparing.--Seattle Post-Intelligencer
What keeps the book from getting too heavy-handed, besides the sharply written humor, is the fact that Perrotta makes his evangelical Christian protagonist less of a zealot than the atheist . . . his characters are older and have had the shine rubbed off them. As a result, they're ultimately more satisfying to be around.--The Christian Science Monitor
Fifty years after John Cheever turned a comic eye toward New England's Wapshot Clan, Tom Perrotta reigns as a mischievous bard of the 'burbs for the twenty-first century . . . Perrotta is an acute observer of social mores among the affluent middle class.--USA Today
In his timely suburban satire, Tom Perrotta implores: Let's talk about sex . . . education. He resists giving firm answers to the thorny moral questions lurking in his material.--Entertainment Weekly
For Tom Perrotta, suburbia is a place in which the rift between red and blue states is enacted on a single verdant, erotically charged battlefield . . . Perrotta finds entertainingly scabrous material in this setup.--Vogue
The comic tone is there in numerous laugh-out-loud moments, but Perrotta's writing displays wisdom, too . . . His books combine profound ideas and readability in a way not often seen.--The Vancouver Sun
Over the course of five novels and a collection of short stories, Tom Perrotta has laid claim to the prime real estate of upwardly mobile suburbia, hilariously probing its leafy, soccer-obsessed, McMansion-lined streets . . . G]enerous, amusing, shocking, thought provoking, and more than a little familiar.--The Miami Herald
A startlingly relevant and stunningly perceptive examination of the evangelical takeover of American exurbia . . . a hilarious and tender story about faith, divorce, and parenthood that also manages to contain our panoramic drama in miniature.--Men's Vogue
Perrotta, as always, is deft and sure with his satire . . . he] still manages the incipient romance with charm and humor.--Daily News
The novel is wicked and witty yet infused with compassion for the characters.--The Columbus Dispatch
Perrotta, who proved himself adept at reconciling dichotomies in the smart novel Election and Little Children, its deeper, darker successor, gets this unlikely couple together with maximum intelligence, minimum melodrama, and a sharp, funny sense of irony . . . It's also very tartly written.--The Denver Post
Perrotta is that rare combination: a satirist with heart.--The Seattle Times
Nobody renders the world of soccer moms and sprinklers and SUVs like Perrotta. He's the Steinbeck of Suburbia.--Time
Sex education, soccer and Christian fundamentalism make strange bedfellows in Perrotta's shrewd yet compassionate fifth novel. Neither as dark as Little Children nor as scathingly funny as Election, like them it displays the author's wide-ranging empathy. Readers will certainly sympathize with Ruth Ramsey, the high-school teacher whose unwary response to a provocative classroom question about oral sex leads to her being saddled with a not-so-covertly Christian sex-ed curriculum. But Perrotta encourages us to respect all his characters, including the ones who belong to the Tabernacle of the Gospel Truth, source of the threatened lawsuit that's forced Ruth to tout the joys of abstinence. Among the believers is Tim Mason, a former rock musician and substance abuser who cleaned up with the help of the Tabernacle's Pastor Dennis, both a warm, nurturing shepherd to his flock and an unforgiving purveyor of hard-line doctrine. Ruth's older daughter Maggie plays on the soccer team Tim coac
Synopsis
Perrotta is that rare combination: a satirist with heart....Those who haven't curled up on the couch with this writer's books are missing a very great pleasure.--Seattle Times
Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise children: it's got good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market. Parents in the town are involved in their children's lives, and often in other children's lives, too--coaching sports, driving carpool, focusing on enriching experiences. Ruth Ramsey is the high school human sexuality teacher whose openness is not appreciated by all her students--or their parents. Her daughter's soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tim's introduction of Christianity on the playing field horrifies Ruth, while his evangelical church sees a useful target in the loose-lipped sex ed teacher. But when these two adversaries in a small-town culture war actually talk to each other, a surprising friendship begins to develop.
Nobody renders the world of soccer moms and sprinklers and SUVs like Perrotta. He's the Steinbeck of suburbia.--Time
Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America.--The New York Times Book Review (in a front-page review)
The Abstinence Teacher illuminates the powerful emotions that run beneath the placid surface of modern American family life, and explores the complicated spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people. It is elegantly and simply written, characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that has become Perrotta's trademark. Tom Perrotta is the author of five previous works of fiction: Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, Election, and the New York Times bestsellers Joe College and Little Children. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise kids. It's got the proverbial good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market. It's the kind of place where parents are involved in their children's lives, where no opportunity for enrichment goes unexplored.
Ruth Ramsey is the human sexuality teacher at the local high school. She believes that pleasure is good, shame is bad, and knowledge is power. Ruth's younger daughter's soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tim belongs to The Tabernacle, an evangelical Christian church that doesn't approve of Ruth's style of teaching. And Ruth in turn doesn't applaud The Tabernacle's mission to take its message outside its doors. Adversaries in a small-town culture war, Ruth and Tim instinctively mistrust each other. But when a controversy on the soccer field pushes the two of them to actually talk to each other, they are forced to take each other at something other than face value.
The Abstinence Teacher exposes the powerful emotions that run beneath the surface of modern American family life and explores the complex spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people. Elegantly written, it is characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that have animated Perrotta's previous novels. The Abstinence Teacher is also available on CD as an unabridged audio book. Please email [email protected] for more information. As formulaic as this plot might sound, Mr. Perrotta uses it not to construct a conventional screwball romance but to create a sad-funny-touching story that looks at the frustrations and perils of life in suburbia through darkly tinted, not rose-colored glasses.--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times As formulaic as this plot might sound, Mr. Perrotta uses it not to construct a conventional screwball romance but to create a sad-funny-touching story that looks at the frustrations and perils of life in suburbia through darkly tinted, not rose-colored glasses.--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America . . . Perrotta's unmassaged realism runs through all of his writing and] he gives space and speeches to proselytizers and scoffers alike, letting readers form their own conclusions.--Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times Book Review
With abstinence programs and disputes over what can be taught in schools regularly making the front page, The Abstinence Teacher hits on prominent social fault lines. This has become something of a hallmark for Mr. Perrotta, who has developed a knack for combining hot-button cultural themes with flawed and complicated characters . . . While his stories bear the sheen of satire, they are actually sharp though compassionate investigations of human relationships. They can also be very funny.--Motoka Rich, The New York Times
Abstinence is really a gateway for Mr. Perrotta to tell a much bigger and more complex story about religious identity in America . . . A] deeply moving story of a man and a woman who see each other on opposite sides of a religious divide.--The Wall Street Journal
The Abstinence Teacher is certainly Perrotta's most sensitive novel . . . tender, witty, and wise.--The Washington Post Book World
Perrotta's balance of humor and pathos has no equal; he's naughty and nice . . . he brings this world to life with a few strokes. He never condescends to modern suburbia--instead he mucks around its corners, opens closets, and reveals oddball secrets.--Los Angeles Times
Eloquently written, Perrotta hits a chord by giving readers a riveting look at the angst and sexual tension that can polarize people as they struggle to weigh their personal wants with societal standards . . . Perrotta weaves a masterful satire that is sure to make readers stop and think.--Chicago Sun-Times
Undeniable power . . . Perrotta--like satirists since ancient Rome--attacks excess, hypocrisy, and intolerance
Synopsis
“Perrotta is that rare combination: a satirist with heart….Those who havent curled up on the couch with this writers books are missing a very great pleasure.”—Seattle Times
Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise children: its got good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market. Parents in the town are involved in their childrens lives, and often in other childrens lives, too—coaching sports, driving carpool, focusing on enriching experiences. Ruth Ramsey is the high school human sexuality teacher whose openness is not appreciated by all her students—or their parents. Her daughters soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tims introduction of Christianity on the playing field horrifies Ruth, while his evangelical church sees a useful target in the loose-lipped sex ed teacher. But when these two adversaries in a small-town culture war actually talk to each other, a surprising friendship begins to develop.
“Nobody renders the world of soccer moms and sprinklers and SUVs like Perrotta. Hes the Steinbeck of suburbia.”—Time
“Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America.”—The New York Times Book Review (in a front-page review)
The Abstinence Teacher illuminates the powerful emotions that run beneath the placid surface of modern American family life, and explores the complicated spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people. It is elegantly and simply written, characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that has become Perrottas trademark.
About the Author
Tom Perrotta is the author of five previous works of fiction: Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, Election, and the New York Times bestsellers Joe College and Little Children. Election was made into the acclaimed movie directed by Alexander Payne and starring Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick. Perrotta was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay for the movie version of Little Children, which was directed by Todd Field and starred Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connelly. Perrotta lives with his family outside Boston, Massachusetts.
Reading Group Guide
1.) There are numerous references to Ruth and Tims past sexual experiences scattered throughout the novel. How do these anecdotes color the debate about sex education at the center of the narrative?
2.) Is Ruth the victim of a witch hunt, or a teacher who went too far and deserved to be reined in by her community?
3.) Is Tim Masons faith genuine? Or is it, as his mother suggests, a crutch, something temporary that he needed to fight his addictions? What remains of his faith at the end of the novel?
4.) Is Ruth right to be upset when Tim asks the girls to pray after the soccer game? How is this different from Ruth teaching sexuality in a way that some Christian parents might find offensive?
5.) In order to keep her job, Ruth is forced to teach a curriculum she does not believe in. Discuss a time when you felt you had to sacrifice your beliefs or principles.
6.) Ruth doesnt challenge her daughter Eliza or hold back her permission when she wants to go to church with her friend from school. Can you think of other examples in The Abstinence Teacher when a character restrains him or herself from something they are very tempted to do?
7.) Can you think of something Ruths daughters might want to do that would horrify Ruth even more than organized church-going?
8.) What do you make of the Abstinence Refresher course taught by JoAnn? Do stories of sexual regret reinforce the idea that young people should refrain from sex until marriage? Or do they simply remind us that making mistakes—both sexual and otherwise—is an essential part of growing up?
9.) Both Ruth and Tim struggle with inner conflicts that make it difficult for them to fulfill their public roles. How does this influence their encounters? Do you think theres any future for them as a couple?
10.) If Ruth, Tim and their families lived in a 1950s version of Stonewood Heights, how would their stories play out differently? What about a 1970s version?
11.) How do you think private beliefs can best be balanced with public interests like education? Who should have a say in how a communitys children are taught? What happens when the community is bitterly divided?
12.) Did you feel differently about Evangelical Christianity after reading The Abstinence Teacher? Why?
14.) Despite some studies questioning their effectiveness, abstinence programs continue to be implemented. Why do you think that is?
15.) Ruth Ramsey is both a parent and a teacher in the public school system of Stonewood Heights. Do you think her own experience as a parent makes her a better human sexuality teacher?
16.) In her review of The Abstinence Teacher, critic Liesl Schillinger praises the books objective stance toward evangelicals: “What does the author think of Pastor Dennis and his flock? Without explicitly taking sides, Perrotta does not spell it out. Instead, he gives space and speeches to proselytizers and scoffers alike, letting readers form their own conclusions.” But religious scholar Stephen Prothero detects a strong bias against the Tabernacle: “Most of the evangelical characters in this book do little to upend the stereotypes that New York City writers and readers harbor about them.” How do you account for this discrepancy in the views of the two critics? Which do you think is more persuasive?