The Abstinence Teacher
by Tom Perrotta
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of The Abstinence Teacher.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2608)
Read in February, 2008
(My entire review of this book is much longer than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)
As I've mentioned here a couple of times before, I've recently become a fairly big fan of movie-friendly author Tom Perrotta; for example, I found his breakthrough 2006 novel Little Children to be a surprisingly complex and subtle look at just what a horrific place the suburbs can be to some people, a stifli...more
As I've mentioned here a couple of times before, I've recently become a fairly big fan of movie-friendly author Tom Perrotta; for example, I found his breakthrough 2006 novel Little Children to be a surprisingly complex and subtle look at just what a horrific place the suburbs can be to some people, a stifli...more
Like this review?
yes
(2 people liked it)
1 comments
Read in November, 2007
Perrotta picks up right where he left off with Little Children, which is suburban New Jersey in the midst of a culture war. Ruth Rasmey is a health teacher who becomes embroiled in controversey for some offhand comments in class. Her policy is that pleasure is good, shame is bad, and knowledge is power — but a new local church seems to disagree on all three points. The threat of a lawsuit over Ruth’s comments gives the church the leverage to rewrite the curriculum around abstinence. The head...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in November, 2007
Well.
I'm rather Tom Perrotta-obsessed. I've been known to babble on about him...over and over and over again.
I was really excited for this book to come out. I loved the concept of Ruth, a Human Sexuality teacher, being called into question for something innocent, a casual remark, and how the hyper-Christian population attacked her like she had horns and had the middle name Lucifer. And the connection between Tim, her daughter's born-again soccer coach, and Ruth are great. The scene where...more
I'm rather Tom Perrotta-obsessed. I've been known to babble on about him...over and over and over again.
I was really excited for this book to come out. I loved the concept of Ruth, a Human Sexuality teacher, being called into question for something innocent, a casual remark, and how the hyper-Christian population attacked her like she had horns and had the middle name Lucifer. And the connection between Tim, her daughter's born-again soccer coach, and Ruth are great. The scene where...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
1 comments
Read in January, 2008
recommended to Venessa by:
On Point interview with Tom Perrotta
I enjoyed this fast read; or at least, fast for me. Parts if it I had to grit my teeth through, reading about the brainwashing committed by a certain sect of people, even though I knew it was fiction: it still hits too close for comfort for my liking. Anyway, a brief summary: a divorced sexual education teacher comes under fire when the abstinence only movement (read my feelings on that here) led by the Christian Right comes to her town and is forced to provide abstinence-only education to her s...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
bookshelves:
08books
Read in February, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
This is a copy of the review i wrote for boldtype, I really dug this book a lot:
FICTION
The Abstinence Teacher
by Tom Perrotta
Published: October 2007
Pages: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Links:
Author website
Post Road interview
Fresh Air interview
“The Abstinence Teacher accomplishes what many politicians wish they could achieve: it's lively and entertaining while also remaining impartial.”
Review
The master of suburban angst strikes again, and this time not ev...more
FICTION
The Abstinence Teacher
by Tom Perrotta
Published: October 2007
Pages: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Links:
Author website
Post Road interview
Fresh Air interview
“The Abstinence Teacher accomplishes what many politicians wish they could achieve: it's lively and entertaining while also remaining impartial.”
Review
The master of suburban angst strikes again, and this time not ev...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
bookshelves:
2007,
bookclub-nbb,
fiction
Read in May, 2008
So, just finished this book and I have to say that I actually enjoyed it. I had read Little Children by this author a while back and hated it so much, but I put that aside to read this one for a bookclub.
There were so many issues going on at once in the book, and I just don't know where to begin. First of all, I *do* believe in abstinence HOWEVER, I don't believe that it should be taught in schools, that is something that a parent should discuss with their children...the schools should be ...more
There were so many issues going on at once in the book, and I just don't know where to begin. First of all, I *do* believe in abstinence HOWEVER, I don't believe that it should be taught in schools, that is something that a parent should discuss with their children...the schools should be ...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in December, 2007
Tom Perrotta's writing is very straight-forward and perfect during a hot bath or in bed after a long day. He tells a good story, often in school settings or school-aged children and their neurotic morally-challenged parents. The Abstinence Teacher is the story of Ruth, a high school sex ed. teacher and Tim, her daughter's soccer coach and a born again Christian. Ruth struggles to provide her students with the information she knows they need, within a curriculum that advocates abstinence as the o...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in May, 2008
Although I've been wanting to read a Tom Perrotta book for a few years, I don't think that "The Abstinence Teacher" was the best of his oeuvre to begin with. Maybe the dark satire of the film version of "Election" clouded my expectations too deeply. At any rate, I found this book to be a little flat where I hoped it would be sharp and short where I hoped it would be long. The parallel narratives, that of Ruth, a teacher coerced into proselytizing an abstinence-only curriculum...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
Perrotta's latest installment uses public school health teachers and suburban soccer moms and dads to examine the war between liberals and evangelicals. For over ten years Ruth Ramsay let her motto of "Pleasure is good, shame is bad, and knowledge is power" guide her teaching of human sexuality; in her classroom no subject was forbidden, but the envelope is eventually pushed too far when, in response to a student's vocal disgust over oral sex, she replies, "some people enjoy it.&q...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
parents, teachers, sex educators
As a divorced single parent and high school health teacher, this book about a divorced single parent health teacher seemed to be written just for me. Like Perrotta's other books, this is a funny, fast read that doesn't feel trashy or too light.
In his last book, the exceptional Little Children, Perrotta really captured the mix of joy, loneliness and isolation that frequently accompanies modern parenthood in America. This one doesn't probe quite as deeply into the internal depths of it...more
In his last book, the exceptional Little Children, Perrotta really captured the mix of joy, loneliness and isolation that frequently accompanies modern parenthood in America. This one doesn't probe quite as deeply into the internal depths of it...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
bookshelves:
blah
Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
people who prefer simple, unadorned writing
Frankly, I was pretty disappointed by this book. I was looking forward to it because it was on all these notable book lists AND it's about a cultural clash that's timely and relevant to the country in which I live.
However. The writing. Was SO PLAIN. I don't think there was not a single bit of imagery or figurative language anywhere in the book. Which possibly could have been okay if Perrotta had made up for it by increasing the book's pace (since what's the point of pacing something slo...more
However. The writing. Was SO PLAIN. I don't think there was not a single bit of imagery or figurative language anywhere in the book. Which possibly could have been okay if Perrotta had made up for it by increasing the book's pace (since what's the point of pacing something slo...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2008
This book starts off so promising. Perrotta has an easy way of writing the familiar, and drawing you in to those suburbia settings of his.
The pages went fast, but the more I read, the more I felt like the author was falling back on too many stereotypes to define this culture war between Ruth Ramsey, a divorced sexual education teacher, and a town taken over by the Religious Right.
Like much of Perrotta's work, rights for a film of The Abstinence Teacher already have been purchased and a ...more
The pages went fast, but the more I read, the more I felt like the author was falling back on too many stereotypes to define this culture war between Ruth Ramsey, a divorced sexual education teacher, and a town taken over by the Religious Right.
Like much of Perrotta's work, rights for a film of The Abstinence Teacher already have been purchased and a ...more
Like this review?
yes
4 comments
bookshelves:
general-fiction
Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
Laura, Lynne, Toni
The story unfolds...It sounds like such a cliche but that truly is the best way to describe this absorbing read. Perrota does an excellent job of reeling the reader in, slowly disclosing background information and details about the main characters, all the while allowing the story to be told. Perrota never hints at his own personal position on the controversial issues raised by this novel (i.e. educating high school students about abstinence, public prayer, Christianity.) Both of the main charac...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
2 comments
Read in May, 2008
This book has an interesting premise: a sex education teacher has a run in with a born again Christian. The sex ed teacher is being forced to teach abstinence-only by the same church where the born-again guy got back on his feet after a lifetime of alcoholism and drug abuse. He is clearly better off now that he's saved, but the community is worse off for the new sex non-ed program.
I thought I'd love this. I enjoyed "Little Children" quite a bit, but Abstinence Teacher just didn...more
I thought I'd love this. I enjoyed "Little Children" quite a bit, but Abstinence Teacher just didn...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
bookshelves:
read-in-2008
Read in February, 2008
My first introduction to Tom Perotta was the movie Election, so perhaps I have an unfair grudge against him because of the way the movie was marketed. There was a lot of hype about how the film skewered the so-called perfect life of the suburbs.
I grew up in the suburbs, and couldn't imagine anyone thinking life there was perfect. Who are these people who really believe that all the lawns are neatly trimmed and all the parents are proud and supportive? Besides, everything from the Stepford...more
I grew up in the suburbs, and couldn't imagine anyone thinking life there was perfect. Who are these people who really believe that all the lawns are neatly trimmed and all the parents are proud and supportive? Besides, everything from the Stepford...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
bookshelves:
unfinished
Read in January, 2008
It took me two months to NOT read this book. I don't make enough time for reading as it is and chasing a 19 month old around the apartment most days isn't helping me carve into my to-read stack. That said, and while I am a Tom Perrotta fan, I had some problems with this book. I read a couple of excellent short stories published in the last couple years that had me thinking he was headed into some seriously vaunted territory with his fiction. Say, inching toward Raymond Carver type stuff. (Mind, ...more
Like this review?
yes
(2 people liked it)
add a comment
bookshelves:
neitherdorksnorfood
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in December, 2007
My friends recently started asking me for book recommendations, and I kept telling them to read Mike Pollan and Sarah Vowell and God is Not Great. And they kept saying, "yeah, I'm looking for a novel...," so I'd send them to The Corrections or The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay or ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
one and all, Barbara
Give Tom Perrotta credit for tackling the tricky topic of the heavy-handed influence of Evangelicals in the suburbs and public schools. Definitely gets you thinking.
Judging from his book jacket photo (with his cut-the-BS pose and fashion eyeglasses) Perrotta (author of "Little Children" and "Election") looks like the opposite of a born-again Christian. Yet he manages to create a plausible and understandable, bordering on sympathetic, portrait of Tim, the born-again, former-...more
Judging from his book jacket photo (with his cut-the-BS pose and fashion eyeglasses) Perrotta (author of "Little Children" and "Election") looks like the opposite of a born-again Christian. Yet he manages to create a plausible and understandable, bordering on sympathetic, portrait of Tim, the born-again, former-...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
people who like to read and who aren't offended by sex talk
Like all of Tom Perrota's books, The Abstinence Teacher was a quick read for me and an enjoyable one. In this book, sex ed teacher Ruth Ramsey is told that she can no longer educate kids about condoms and the pill, etc. Now she can only teach an abstinence-only curriculum. When I first picked up this book, I thought it would really focus on the fight between Ramsey and her backers and the followers of the Tabernacle church, a Christian church that tries to ban books, among other things. But real...more

























