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Dec 16, 2009

Jeremy rated it:

Tom Perrotta is usually very fun to read. I'm pretty sure I've read all his books, and I typically polish them off (meaning I read them, not eat them; you should not eat books) within the day, which for me is impressive. A dinette set could finish a marathon with time to spare well before I complete a book, but Perrotta's voice is easygoing and funny, and a master at pacing if you ask me, so I happily breeze right through.

But "Little Children", for which he has arguably More...

2 comments like (15 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2007

Leah rated it:

I honestly picked up this book becuase I'd liked the movie so much. I understand that this makes me a bad, bad woman, but I don't mind. The story the second time around was equally pleasing, and much the same, with two major, driving differences. I won't quibble about either much, but luckily it was a different enough experience to feel fresh.

The basic story is of Todd and Sarah, two stay-at-home parents who strike up a totally improbable affair on the playground one day, over s More...

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Jun 22, 2007

Jason rated it:

(Full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

For better or for worse, there are a small collection of writers out there who can be called "movie authors," for lack of a better term; those who have had multiple novels adapted into films now, because of writing screenplay-friendly books or having an amazing agent or whatever the reason. And as far as the traditional literary world, these writers can be found scattered all t More...

4 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Carol rated it:

This has got to be the first time in my entire life that I thought the movie version of something was better than the book. Yes, I saw the movie first, and perhaps that influenced me. But, man, Tom Perrotta is a crappy writer. I felt like he was just punching a clock here--so much of the writing was dull, cliched, and lifeless.

Not only that, the movie managed to create complexity in the characters where the book did not. For instance, the movie actually managed to make me feel sorry More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jul 19, 2011

Trish rated it:

Perrotta has written a caustically funny satire of thirty-something suburban American life that we laugh aloud even as we see ourselves and our faults unerringly displayed. Even with his open salvo--descriptions of the mothers at the playground discussing their children, other mothers’ children, their husbands, their sexual habits (or not)--one cannot help but think this is one author who listens and can make a joke of even the most painful circumstance. No matter how bad or boring things get, h More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jun 22, 2008

Sarah rated it:

I was disturbed by the topics raised in this book not so much because I am a prude but rather because I'm an idealist. Perhaps I am a bit naive but I'd certainly like to think that infidelity is less common place than the literary world makes it seem. Perrota definitely likes to incorporate sexuality into his writing and Little Children is no exception. Oddly, I found the characterization of the convicted child molester less unsettling than the pantie-sniffing web surfer or his wife's affair. We More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 07, 2008

sdattybride rated it:

While not every aspect of the story necessarily rings true, Perotta does a fantastic job of creating a secret world between Sarah and Todd, using the characters' own flaws to develop his story and build suspense. Personally, I don't know that the sex-offender subplot did much for the story and I could've done without it, particularly considering its overall "preachy" tone (which may be unavoidable when writing about so delicate a subject). While I can appreciate that the idea was to More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 07, 2008

Gemma rated it:

Man, I have a difficult time with this book (especially in light of recently seeing the movie). Perrotta uses his usual awkward grace in developing awkward characters, and created a novel more complete and thoughtful than any of his previous ones. He still has some of the same problems as in his earlier novels (the random addition of a secondary or tertiary character's perspective for just one brief segment, for convenience in the plot, is as annoying here as it is in Election), but I felt lik More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Abby rated it:

Oh, Tom Perrotta. How I adore you.

There is one common denominator in Perrotta books: infidelity/adultery.

I've often questioned whether this is a common denominator in Perrotta's relationships, as well, or simply a fantasty he entertains. But whatever, I digress.

Little Children is a dark satire into middle/upper-class suburbia, where moms at the playground compete with each other on who has the nicest J. Crew khakis or who remembers to bring the snacks, stay-at More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Ellen rated it:

A quick and enjoyable read, with lots to say about what marriage and love and child-rearing really mean. What they really mean, according to Perotta, is a lot of unfulfilled fantasies, disappointments, and a touch of real enjoyment. Since I generally view life in this sort of semi-cynical way, I found a lot to identify with in this book.

Another aspect of the book that I liked was the way Perotta dealt with the arrival of a convicted sex offender in the sleepy suburban neighborhood More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Apr 07, 2009

Barbara rated it:

Tom Perrotta's novel, "Little Children", might well be entitled, "Parents", for it focuses on the lives of several married couples living the suburban lifestyle. The title could very well refer to the immature actions and decisons of these people and the tenuous bonds which they have formed in their marriages.Indeed, the children are loved, but the story that unfolds tells of adultery, pornography, and often many failures to acheive any realistic goals in thier lives. To comp More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 17, 2008

Heather rated it:

I really liked this novel--intelligently constructed, defined characters, realistic resolution. I did not, however, enjoy the story. I think there was too much going on--the sex offender, while definitely a part of the story, was more an afterthought. The same could be said for Larry Moon--his existence is so tertiary, you have to wonder if he wasn't created solely to torment Ronnie McGorvey.

The true meat of this tale is the love affair between Sarah and Todd, with less emphasis on t More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2008

JoAnn/QuAppelle rated it:

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 thei More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 11, 2008

Izlinda rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 08, 2008

Julia rated it:

I'm beginning to notice a pattern: I started reading The Abstinence Teacher on a flight, and was so absorbed that I spent the entire next day at home, finishing the bulk of it in one day - which is SO unusual for me (I usually take weeks to finish even the easiest books). About the same thing happened with this one - covering about 80 pages on slow subways, I finished it on the following day home sick from work - staying up late to get through the last, terrifyingly suspenseful pages. No wonde More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Apr 01, 2008

Alix Méav rated it:

I read Little Children after a friend recommended it to me and after I read the actual novel that inspired the movie Election.

Little Children is a fantastic book to read when you're in your mid-to-late 20's-early 30's. There was something about the book to me that made me very uncomfortable in some parts because I could recognise my own fears of getting older, being a graduate student, and the possibility that so many years of schooling could amount to absolutely zero.

Pe More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 08, 2008

Adrienne rated it:

a laugh-out-loud tale from a new jersey author. (lines like the one about the patron saint of the failed bar exam are priceless.) was like reading a version of "desperate housewives" that could inspire intellectual conversations about psychology, as the characters seemed more like exaggerations than actual people to me, and they spend most of their time in the vacuum that is their suburb.

i think this book struck a chord with me b/c i am a few years younger than some of the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 15, 2008

Mark R. rated it:

So far this year, I've been doing a great job of picking out books exactly in line with my tastes. This Tom Perrotta book was an enjoyable quick read, an appropriate change of pace after "The Denial of Death," which was the last thing I read--and a book I had a hard time getting my mind off of, days afterwards. Perrotta writes in a relatively straight-forward manner, with lots of dialogue. Lots of really fucking GREAT dialogue.

The story is about a few early-thirties-aged More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 27, 2008

Patrick rated it:

I really enjoyed the film adaptation of Tom Perrotta’s novel Little Children, which was smart, well executed without relying on stereotypes and clichés while taking a look at suburban America. The same can be said of his novel. I guess I was first interested in reading one of his novels, when I read that he wrote both Little Children and Election-from which two excellent films were made. His latest, The Abstinence Teacher also sounds quite intriguing. I have to say that the adaptation was pretty More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 14, 2007

Brian rated it:

I don't remember where I heard about this book, but I do remember that I put it on my reading list because it was essentially about the "secret" lives of stay-at-home parents who visit the local playground with their kids. Tom Perrotta does a great job showing us the needs and desires of these parents, as they search for meaning (and love) in their lives. The characters are lots of fun too: Sarah, the former feminist who swore she wouldn't be the SAHM and ends up marrying an internet More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 08, 2008

Carolynn rated it:

To be brief, this is a very well written piece, something I would call a dark comic drama. Not too unlike American Beauty (the movie). It deeply criticizes the suburban family in a way that is never excessive, just smart. The best asset of this tale is that it's satire is delivered through complex and unforgettable characters. Ones who get addicted to anti-child-molester comittees, parkbench gossip, and even panty-sniffing.

Truly a great read which most people I know on here will tota More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 29, 2007

Spring rated it:

It's a depressing book about the empty, selfish lives of people in the 'burbs. People looking for someone to save them from the reality of ordinary lives.

Quotes from the book:

"It wasn't that easy to tell one weekday from the next anymore; they all just melted together like a bag of crayons left out in the sun."

"I am a painfully ordinary person ... destined to live a painfully ordinary life."

"If there was one thing life had More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 15, 2007

Guillermo rated it:

I normally don't pick up books like this--something that may sooner or later be found in the bins of genre fiction that no one in a hundred years will look back and say, "That book really did shape different thoughts--" but I gave Little Children the benefit of the doubt. From the get go, I was discouraged because of the Reading Group Guide at the back of the book. I could only picture housewives and forced husbands sitting around in a circle chatting up a storm, dissecting the book in More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 24, 2007

Bernie rated it:

If possible, read this book before seeing the movie...although i think the movie did a very respectable job of capturing the main issues of the book.

How refreshing to have a writer who questions the "PC-ness" of American society, the direction this country is heading further into. It's interesting to examine the mores of a suburban community - the self-righteousness of new mothers, the husbands who blindly follow their wives' rage in order not to rock the boat, the people More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 24, 2008

Don rated it:

This book was an extremely quick read and I enjoyed it though I’m still not entirely sure if the title is referring to the children in the book or the compromisingly inappropriate behavior of their parents. Tom Perrotta is no Alice Seybold in that his character’s flaws seem pretty obvious and easily dismissed by a first year psychology student as perpetually adolescent. In spite of what I fled were small literary shortcomings, he spins an interesting yarn.

I found the ending a bit More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 05, 2007

Jake rated it:

This book was incredible, and I was inspired to read it after I saw the movie adaptation back in December. I finally got around to it after the Oscars and I'm really glad I did. However, this is one of those rare books where I actually think the movie may be better. I loved that the book fleshed out some of the characters more, and gave a better backdrop to the plot than what you knew simply from watching the film. However, certain differences in plot resulted in a markingly disparate reacti More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 15, 2008

Woodge rated it:

I discovered this book in the pages of The New York Times Book Review, and after reading the review it went to the top of my "To Read Next" list. Little Children is a suburban drama about a bunch of couples with children who have various kinds of troubled marriages. And when a convicted child molester moves into town, their troubles get a little more complicated and scary. Many of the characters are likable sorts even when you watch them make some dumb choices with their lives. I More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 10, 2008

Jansen rated it:

This is the first book that i read which covers a lot of serious topics (suburbia life, adultery, perversion) which simply are not like the pop fiction novels I've been used to reading (romance, inspirational, adventure).

I've seen the movie first so it made reading this book a lot easier to engage with yet it still made me feel excited about what would happen in the next pages. There are many differences between the novel and its movie adaptation. Definitely, the characters have mor More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 28, 2009

Teddy rated it:

I read this with Essencia Island Book Club. Here's my review from Amazon.ca:

Often if I see a movie I really like I’ll read the book, which is what happened with Little Children. The movie sticks quite closely to the book except for the ending, which I won’t give away here. Tom Perrotta was really able to get into the heads of his characters, even the females. In fact, if you didn’t know who wrote the book, you may think a woman wrote it. I found this very refreshing. Perrotta was ab More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Apr 05, 2009

Monica rated it:

Read this for the second time around for Genre X this month. I still like the very straightforward style and story, but I feel like there is nothing else for me this time. Even though I read Little Children way back in 2004, I feel like I remember every plot point and turn and this re-read is unexpectedly boring. I do find myself identifying more with Kathy than with Sarah which wasn't the case five years ago.

I still think this is a fun read but I'm not sure this would be making More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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