Tracy Flick wants to be President of Winwood High. She's one of those ambitious girls who finds time to do it all: edit the yearbook, star in the m...
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Apr 18, 2007
Abby
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When I first saw the movie back in the 1990s, I hadn't embraced my dark side yet. I thought it was depressing and left me with the feeling of, "Now what?"
Of course, as I grew older, I realized that not everything has a happy ending. And I learned how to make fun of the bad parts of life. So when I picked up Election in a bookstore a few years ago, I figured I'd give it a go. Very smart move on my part.
Election is an interesting spin for Perrotta--it's the only n More...
Of course, as I grew older, I realized that not everything has a happy ending. And I learned how to make fun of the bad parts of life. So when I picked up Election in a bookstore a few years ago, I figured I'd give it a go. Very smart move on my part.
Election is an interesting spin for Perrotta--it's the only n More...
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Feb 15, 2008
Karen
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I am going through my Tom Perrotta phase. I held off on this one, because I loved the movie. As much as I loved the movie, I have to admit that the book was better, as usually is the case. In defense of the movie, it's a pretty decent adaptation and where is strays from the book, only make the movie stronger.
The characters in the book are much more sympathetic, especially Tracy and Mr. M. I also preferred the ending in the book, it brought the story full circle. The ending in the mov More...
The characters in the book are much more sympathetic, especially Tracy and Mr. M. I also preferred the ending in the book, it brought the story full circle. The ending in the mov More...
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Aug 20, 2011
Tania
rated it: 
This book is definitely not bad, per se. I just didn't love as much as I expected I would. It was a quick read. Perotta is a decent writer. The action flows really well, and he does a good job of hooking the reader into the story.
The problem is that the book is superficial. It is too short to really examine the characters in depth and give the reader any real insight of value into their motivations. Tracy and Mr. M needed a great deal more depth. I didn't get invested in any of the More...
The problem is that the book is superficial. It is too short to really examine the characters in depth and give the reader any real insight of value into their motivations. Tracy and Mr. M needed a great deal more depth. I didn't get invested in any of the More...
Jul 22, 2011
Joe
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Perotta's novel is a lively and brief romp through a high school election that is "coincidentally" taking place at the same time at the 1992 Presidential race. It was made into a movie, but the book tells the story in short 1st person narratives that switch from narrator to narrator. Whether Tom intended to or not, he created a political parable. Campaigns are kind of childish. Candidates do enter the race for the wrong reason and ultimately, somewhere along the way, someone who was on
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Mar 23, 2011
Mariel
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I think that I liked the Alexander Payne adaptation of Tom Perrotta's Election a bit more than I liked the book. First things first, the movie wouldn't exist without the book. I know all of that. There were great things in the book. It gave me great joy the depiction of the pervert high school teacher and his "Sensitive middle-aged man music" (enter the Lionel Ritchie). I had a pervert teacher in high school who made us listen to Lionel Ritchie/The Commodores during class t More...
Feb 10, 2011
Brittany
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jan 31, 2010
Jim McAllister is a popular teacher at Winwood High School. He takes his job seriously and strives to "do right" by his students. Tracy Flick is an ambitious girl who seemingly does everything she should to get ahead: edit the yearbook, star in plays, serve as class president, and sleep with her English teacher and get him fired. (See how I snuck that one in there?) The very essence of Tracy annoys Mr. McAllister—plus her little affair got his friend and colleague fired. In an effort t
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Jan 09, 2010
Kieran
rated it:
nothing like some cold weather to keep your reading focused... :-) Finished this in a day (not braggin', but just a real easy read). It wasn't as good as The Abstinence Teacher or Little Children but I do see a clear pattern through Perotta's books......broken marriages! He seems to have made a literary art out of it! As usual, Perotta hits the nail on the head with the psyche of American Suburbanism. Under the layer of twee middle class is a whole revolution of disgruntled Americans, squeezing
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Jul 14, 2009
Anya
rated it:
I was reluctant to read this book, since I'd seen and loved the movie back around 1999 (Tracy Flick, the driven, Type-A student determined to win her student council election at all costs, is still possibly my favorite Reese Witherspoon role). But I got sucked into Tom Perrotta's plot whirlpool. His stories have their own gravitational pull; it's not that what happens is so surprising, but it would take an undue amount of effort to look away.
Perrotta's definitely developed as an auth More...
Perrotta's definitely developed as an auth More...
Mar 09, 2010
Grace
rated it:
Tom Perrotta's "Election" is a fast paced and quick to read novel about a high school election in a suburban New Jersey high school in 1993. This high school is still reeling from the news that a beloved teacher slept with a student and was dismissed when the student's mother found a personal note written on a returned homework assignment.
What kind of student would sleep with a 30 something teacher with a pregnant wife at home? Tracy Flick. She's running for student body p More...
What kind of student would sleep with a 30 something teacher with a pregnant wife at home? Tracy Flick. She's running for student body p More...
Nov 07, 2009
Abraham
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Jan 08, 2012
Lauren
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Very funny yet also sad novel perfectly capturing high school life most realistically without any of the teen movie romanticism we'd typically get. The characters in this book - from the over-achieving Tracy Flick to the delightfully dumb Paul Warren - are so well-written and so real. Not one is over the top or a caricature, despite each having major flaws that inevitably lead to very funny moments...Tracy's overeager attitude shown in Mr M's glimpse of her jumping for joy through the classroom
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Oct 14, 2009
Sarah
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Tom Perrotta
Election
New York; G.P. Putnam's Sons,1998
200 pp.$13.95
0425167283
Tom Perrotta's outlook on New Jerseys Winwood High School will have you laughing out loud in this dark comic novel!Tom Perrottas outlook on New Jerseys Winwood High School will have you laughing out loud in this dark comic novel!Election is a perfect example of a short, sweet and to the point story about the classic school election for president. It has nail biting conflicts and jaw dr More...
Election
New York; G.P. Putnam's Sons,1998
200 pp.$13.95
0425167283
Tom Perrotta's outlook on New Jerseys Winwood High School will have you laughing out loud in this dark comic novel!Tom Perrottas outlook on New Jerseys Winwood High School will have you laughing out loud in this dark comic novel!Election is a perfect example of a short, sweet and to the point story about the classic school election for president. It has nail biting conflicts and jaw dr More...
Dec 16, 2009
Sarah
rated it:
I'm sensing a theme with Tom Perrotta books. They take place in a "sleepy" town where some mild or epic drama occurred a while ago and discuss the lives of middle-aged adults (AND teenagers in this book) who are bored with their lives but don't know what to do about it. Chaos follows where we explore a range of emotions from all the different characters and then we reach a conclusion where no one is still that happy but at least they've grown up a little along the way.
All that b More...
All that b More...
Feb 08, 2012
Richard
rated it:
The author Tom Perrotta was mentioned in Donald Maass' "The Fire in Fiction", a book on writing fiction, as an illustration of how to add humor to a story. I picked up this novel as part of a project I have started, using the examples in Donald Maass' book as a reading list.
I am always intrigued with short novels that create a microcosm of events and bring the entire story to a relatively quick conclusion. Perrotta tells the story through the perspectives of nearly every More...
I am always intrigued with short novels that create a microcosm of events and bring the entire story to a relatively quick conclusion. Perrotta tells the story through the perspectives of nearly every More...
Sep 07, 2010
Peter
rated it:
This book was a very fast read. The pacing is breakneck and before I knew it I was finished with the book. The story is told from multiple narrators, sometimes with a narrator finishing the previous narrator's sentence in a different scene (think scene changes in Buffy the Vampire Slayer). It felt very contemporary but I found the whole story to be a bit sensational. High School was nothing like this for me or for anyone I knew. This was the kind of high school that television teen dramas showe
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Oct 11, 2008
Cynthia
rated it:
I really enjoy this film, so when I saw the book, grabbed it and liked it. Goes more in-depth about certain characters than the film does (of course.) I now know that all of the players in the film were perfectly cast.
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Aug 03, 2011
David
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Wow, this one sure zips along at a breakneck pace. Read it in one sitting. The movie has probably become more iconic than the novel, but the latter's style and subject matter is right up my alley. It doesn't feature the deepest exploration of character or the most literary writing, but when you're chuckling this much throughout and so into it all, how much does that matter?
Can't wait for the release of The Leftovers later this month. More...
Can't wait for the release of The Leftovers later this month. More...
Jan 25, 2010
Robert
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The 1999 film adaptation of this novel by Tom Perrotta is one of the very best comedies of the 90s and a real favorite of mine in general. Having enjoyed his 2004 book Little Children (and its fine film adaptation) very much, I thought I'd see how this earlier effort fared. It's certainly very entertaining, cleverly satiric, and quite the quick read (I plowed through it in just slightly over 2 hours) - perhaps too quick. The story just isn't fleshed out as well as it could be, and I think woul
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Jun 07, 2010
rachel
rated it:
Since early high school, I've read this book four times: twice in high school itself, once in early college, and again this year. While I don't want to sell young me short, I'm pretty sure a lot of the reason I loved it in high school was the scandal (a lesbian relationship AND a teacher/student relationship!) and perhaps even more, Perrotta's black humor. I still like both of those things about it today, but I also recognize how bleakly human it is. Like a grotesque circus. Or just a regula
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Nov 18, 2008
Allison
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In spite of having read the insubstantial description on the back, I expected more out of this novel. Why? Because of the author. The funny part is that the subject matter ended up being about the same as it was in the last two books I read and loved by him, Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher: loyalty, marriage, friendship between sexes, competition, selfhood. However, Election belongs on the Young Adult shelves of the local library, not in the general fiction section alongside his o
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Aug 24, 2008
Heather
rated it:
When Tropical Storm Faye cut my power off last night, I had little else to do but read by candlelight. My copy of Isabel Allende's Ines of My Soul was in my truck, and walking out in the rain to fetch it didn't seem plausible, and while reading Linda Grey Sexton's memior about her mother, Ann Sexton, is as enjoyable as reading a memoior of a woman who was physcally, emotionally and sexually abused by her mother can be, Searching For Mercy Street didn't seem like the kind of book I read when a tr
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May 07, 2007
sarah
rated it:
election.
i saw the movie years ago and loved it.
so, when i saw the book at a book sale, i was completely psyched.
told through multiple narratives, election follows the student government process at a middle american high school. tracy flick, an overacheiver, is assured of victory for student body president, until a meddling teacher (mr m.) convinces the BMOC (football star paul warren) to run against her, inciting mayhem and treachery.
for me, this was one of those rare More...
i saw the movie years ago and loved it.
so, when i saw the book at a book sale, i was completely psyched.
told through multiple narratives, election follows the student government process at a middle american high school. tracy flick, an overacheiver, is assured of victory for student body president, until a meddling teacher (mr m.) convinces the BMOC (football star paul warren) to run against her, inciting mayhem and treachery.
for me, this was one of those rare More...
Oct 22, 2011
Ken
rated it:
A wry tale set in a contemporary suburban high school which focuses on a student election. Supremely ambitious, Tracy Flick, seeks to annihilate popular jock, Paul Warren, in her bid for president of the student body. Along the way, Perrotta examines the dreams, aspirations, and sexual relationships of the students and the staff.
Tom Perrotta is a very perceptive writer, and each character is well developed and multi-faceted. The novel occurs in 1992, and several of the political refer More...
Tom Perrotta is a very perceptive writer, and each character is well developed and multi-faceted. The novel occurs in 1992, and several of the political refer More...
Aug 07, 2011
Katy
rated it:
I saw and loved the movie years ago (and multiple times) and when I picked up the book (it was around the house...) at first I thought, "Wow, this is basically just the screenplay." However! There are some differences and although I do enjoy the movie, I found that the character development was better in this - you definitely like Tracy more (and Paul...and Tammy...) I don't think you understand Mr. M. as well, oddly enough, even though he's the main character. But I enjoyed it...
Sep 16, 2011
Eric
rated it:
This was, y'know, nice. A nice book. The kind of book that one could be tempted to damn with faint praise. Like a decent made-for-TV movie, only in print form. It's a relic of the late 1990s: it reminded me of other fiction and films from that era, like American Beauty (and not just because of the book's subplot about a teacher who has an affair with a student)--before the dot com and Enron and real estate bubbles burst, before 9/11 and USA PATRIOT Act and Afghanistan and Iraq. Before anything c
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Feb 19, 2011
Beth
rated it:
Yet another reason to be so glad to be long done with high school. But seriously, this is a quick read that grabbed me and was as excellent as I'd hoped. Read Perrotta's The Abstinence Teacher a few years ago and was thrilled to find this novel to be just as intriguing. Interesting characters and a deceptively simple plot combine to create the slightly uncomfortable feeling that just maybe you recognize too many of the character's personality traits...
Mar 27, 2011
Kristie
rated it:
I wish we could choose half stars because this one is a 3.5 star book for me.
The story of this high school election is your usual, witty Tom Perrotta humor. The cast of characters in this high school novel were probably characters from Anytown Public High School so they are easy to imagine. This is a fun, light read that makes you wish you could go back to high school for just one day so you can appreciate how far you have come!
The story of this high school election is your usual, witty Tom Perrotta humor. The cast of characters in this high school novel were probably characters from Anytown Public High School so they are easy to imagine. This is a fun, light read that makes you wish you could go back to high school for just one day so you can appreciate how far you have come!
Jan 05, 2010
Elaine
rated it:
There was one summer I went through a phase of reading books AFTER I had seen the movies made of them. Perhaps it was because I saw the movie first, but I liked it more than the book (but the book was still very entertaining and well written). The book changed points of views between characters, which is a tactic that almost always appeals to me, and even included an additional character's point of view who wasn't included in the movie.
