The Abstinence Teacher

by Tom Perrotta

book data

4,457 ratings, 3.25 average rating, 1,136 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		7%
4		34%
3		38%
2		15%
1		4%

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published

October 16th 2007 by Random House Canada

binding

Hardcover, 368 pages

isbn

0307356361 (isbn13: 9780307356369)

description

“Some people enjoy it.”

That was all Ruth had said. Even now, when she’d had months to come to terms with the fallout from this remar...more

[close] “Some people enjoy it.”

That was all Ruth had said. Even now, when she’d had months to come to terms with the fallout from this remark, she still marveled at the power of those four words, which she’d uttered without premeditation and without any sense of treading on forbidden ground. (p. 11)

Thanks to an off-hand remark made during a class discussion of oral sex, sex-ed teacher Ruth Ramsey finds herself a target of the Christian evangelicals who are increasingly influencing the schoolboard of suburban Stonewood Heights. Forced to attend remedial sessions with a smug “Virginity Consultant,” Ruth is isolated and alone, caught in the polarized red-versus-blue landscape of present-day American suburbia. It’s like “living in a horror movie,” she thinks, “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, or something. You never knew who they were going to get to next.” Divorced and sharing custody of her daughters with her ex, and sometimes attempting a futile date, Ruth spends many a lonely weekend wondering how her bleak existence came to be.

Then one morning at her daughter’s soccer game, Ruth meets Tim Mason, a cute forty-something volunteer coach. Ruth feels an instant attraction to Tim, but when he draws the girls together for a spontaneous prayer circle after the game, she angrily yanks her daughter away from the proceedings, placing herself once again in the sights of the evangelicals.

But Ruth has another unexpected problem: she can’t seem to get a handle on Tim, her supposed adversary, who keeps appearing at her front door. A recovering addict whose bottoming-out cost him his home and his marriage, Tim found his way to the Tabernacle of the Gospel Truth through the intervention of Pastor Dennis, the charismatic preacher who put Tim’s shattered life back together in an approximation of happiness. Thanks to Pastor Dennis, Tim is now married to Carrie, a fellow Tabernacler who is attractive and attentive, if robotic. He plays guitar at the weekly prayer sessions in a sanitized reenactment of his days in a Grateful Dead cover band. He holds a respectable if unfulfilling job as a loan officer, well aware of the irony of the post for a man with his history. He is grateful for the help he has received from his church community and Pastor Dennis. But he can’t shake the yearning for something more, and a nagging attraction to that troublesome sex-ed teacher....

With The Abstinence Teacher, Tom Perrotta wades into the murky waters of contemporary American suburbia, fully deploying his proven gift for describing the panic lurking beneath its seemingly placid surface. Already widely known to book and movie audiences for his scathing satire mixed with remarkable compassion in works including Election and Little Children (both adapted for film, Little Children garnering Perrotta an Oscar nomination), this novel once again proves, as declared by the Los Angeles Times, “Perrotta’s balance of humor and pathos has no equal.” [close]

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02/24/09

David rated it:

(review of isbn 0312363540)

bookshelves: read-in-2009

Read in February, 2009

JESUS WANTS YOU ........ TO GROW A PAIR.

Tommy, Tommy, Tommy! How did such a promising young literary stud like yourself turn out to be such an emasculated whore? When did things start to go so horribly, horribly wrong?

Let me be clear. When I picked you up at the airport in San Francisco, it was with entirely clear-eyed, realistic expectations. Let's face it. I wasn't looking for the literary love of my life. Just a two-plane romance - enough to while away the time it ta...more JESUS WANTS YOU ........ TO GROW A PAIR.

Tommy, Tommy, Tommy! How did such a promising young literary stud like yourself turn out to be such an emasculated whore? When did things start to go so horribly, horribly wrong?

Let me be clear. When I picked you up at the airport in San Francisco, it was with entirely clear-eyed, realistic expectations. Let's face it. I wasn't looking for the literary love of my life. Just a two-plane romance - enough to while away the time it takes to get from SFO to Madrid. Maybe a little bathroom nookie during my stopover in Dulles. And believe me - I'm no snob about this shit. I think there's everything to be said for the fleeting joy of airplane lit. Done right, it can be one of life's great pleasures. And the possibility can never be ruled out that it may lead to a deeper and more passionate commitment. I mean, look at Nate and Brenda in "Six Feet Under", and how well it worked out for them. Even the briefest of airport bathroom encounters is pregnant with possibility.

So I'll admit to a certain nervous excitement as I boarded the plane at SFO, your manly bulk in my pocket, pressing against my crotch in mute promise of pleasures yet to come. And for the first 20 pages or so, you didn't disappoint. There was wit, a sense of direction, a certain ability to nail characters with brisk efficiency within a couple of snappy paragraphs.

But I should have heeded the warning signs that were obvious right there in the book store. Even if the appalling cutesy biographical sketch could be excused as a horrendous contrivance foisted upon you by your publicist, there was that truly worrisome 'author portrait', which presumably you had to have approved at the very least. You know the one I'm talking about. The one where your desperate need to be liked permeates every line of the simpering come-hither rictus of a wistful little-lost-geisha-boy pout that you project to your potential johns. It might as well have been subtitled "me make you happy long time".

Did they teach you that at geisha school, Tommy? To try to be all things to all men? Because, here's the thing, eunuchboy. Let me let you in on a little secret. Nowadays even the sweatiest of Japanese salarymen no longer finds the response "Who would you like me to be?" even faintly arousing in answer to the question "Who are you?".

So that, when your thin excuse for a bold courageous novel touching on polemic issues degenerated into an incoherent mess of not wanting to offend anybody under any circumstances, frankly my frustration increased in direct proportion to the flaccidity of your prose. What was particularly weird was that you were hardly fooling anyone with your lethally boring 150 pages of padding trying to cover up the moral vaccum at the heart of your cardboard ex-stoner Jesus freak.

And what about plot, Tommy? Do castrati get a pass?

WARNING....... POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD .... BUT ONLY IF YOU ARE REALLY, REALLY STUPID ... AS STUPID AS THE AUTHOR ... WHICH SEEMS UNLIKELY ...

Or is that what passes for resolution these days? Fading to black as hormonal Barbie and stoner Ken get it on. Despite the well-documented lack of genitalia of said eponymous action figurines.

And apparently of the author of this excessively wordy piece of trash of a book, devoid of almost any smidgen of intellectual content. Guaranteed to offend nobody. Unless, of course, you have a brain.(less)

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02/07/08

Jason Pettus rated it:

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 stifl...more (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 stifling environment that squashes all yearning for something beyond the lowest common denominator as thoroughly as a Communist cultural crackdown. Ah, but then I read his latest, 2007's similarly-themed The Abstinence Teacher, and realized something I think I knew all along but that I hadn't wanted to admit to myself; that Perrotta in fact dances on that thin little line between being a good movie-friendly author and a bad one, and that even a small amount of seemingly inconsequential bad decisions on his part concerning character and story will eventually amount to one giant stinker of a book by the end, even with such a book still being 92-percent exactly like the other book that's great and that everyone loves.

Like Little Children, for example, The Abstinence Teacher is also set in a repressive McMansion-happy middle-class suburb in the American Northeast; like Little Children, it's also supposed to be about a subversive sexual tension between people on opposite sides of an arbitrary issue that is arbitrarily important in this gossipy hothouse suburban environment. But see, here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about, because in Little Children Perrotta makes such a relationship work, by making the supposed opposites actually two sides of the same coin; in that book, it makes sense that the former radical-feminist academe and the former frat-boy football hero would have a charged illicit affair, because it was the Kafkaesque environment they were in that brought an end to both their individual hopes and dreams. In his newest book, though, Perrotta tries to use a Fundamentalist Christian church as the catalyst bringing two people from opposite sides of the fence suddenly and unusually together; but in this case such a thing simply doesn't work, because of the church and its actions causing a legitimate rift between anyone who falls on either side of the fence, too big to be overcome in a cutesy romantic way like Perrotta tries to do.

In fact, this is the question I kept coming back to, over and over and over again as I read this novel; of why the main Christian character, former rock star and wicked addict Tim Mason, so thoroughly devotes his life to a cartoonishly evil Evangelical church to begin with. Perrotta tries to explain that it was the church who helped him overcome his addiction, and so Tim feels an irrational fear of falling off the wagon if he were to ever stray from their mustache-twirling neocon activities, but I'm not buying it; I myself am an atheist who's never been through a recovery program, and even I know that there are literally hundreds of politically moderate religious organizations out there designed specifically to help recovering addicts. (This is even a basic precept of...(less)

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07/28/08

Michael rated it:

Read in August, 2008

I really enjoy Tom Perrotta's writing style, and this book is no exception. His prose is smooth and easy, the kind of writing that pulls you into the story and makes you forget you're reading a book. I would compare reading Perrotta to watching an engaging movie. He's just an excellent storyteller.

That said, I have some issues with his latest, The Abstinence Teacher. The book is about a woman named Ruth, a sex ed teacher in Suburbville, USA, who sparks a controversy by responding...more I really enjoy Tom Perrotta's writing style, and this book is no exception. His prose is smooth and easy, the kind of writing that pulls you into the story and makes you forget you're reading a book. I would compare reading Perrotta to watching an engaging movie. He's just an excellent storyteller.

That said, I have some issues with his latest, The Abstinence Teacher. The book is about a woman named Ruth, a sex ed teacher in Suburbville, USA, who sparks a controversy by responding to a question by one of her students about oral sex. Her student thinks that oral sex is like kissing a toilet seat. Ruth replies that oral sex is safe and can be made safer with certain devices, and that some people even like it. Well, this sets off the local Christian right and a movement starts that results in the school's adoption of an abstinence-only sex ed program (hence, the title). Needless to say, Ruth doesn't believe in the program, but she's stuck in a tough position.

On the other side, the story is also about Tim, a member of the ultra-conservative Tabernacle church, led by religious zealot Pastor Dennis, a former Best Buy employee who found Jesus and then smashed up the store's most expensive merchandise. Tim is a former minor rock musician, alcoholic, and drug addict, and he is recovering now that Pastor Dennis has introduced Jesus into his life. Tim's obvious conflict is between his sinful urges and his desire to lead a Christian life. Is Jesus just another outlet for an addictive personality? You decide.

Ruth and Tim come into conflict at a soccer game. Tim coaches the local girls' soccer team, on which both Ruth's daughter and Tim's daughter play. Following one particularly emotional win, and with Ruth in the crowd, Tim sits his team down in a circle and leads them in a prayer of thanks. As you can imagine, Ruth does not take kindly to the decision, and the real path of the story begins from there.

Of course, there are a lot of other things going on, too. Perrotta is a master of highlighting the little conflicts that plague everyday families in suburban America, as well as the small victories. And this book was going just great up to the point that Ruth's and Tim's worlds collide.

But here comes the major storyline of the novel that I just couldn't buy, and that really messed up a lot of moments for me: Perrotta introduced sexual tension between Tim and Ruth. Wait, what? Ruth just saw this religious nut (the same kind of nut that has cost her her curriculum) leading her daughter in an unsanctioned prayer, and then loudly berated him for doing it, and rightly so. And now you're telling me she wants to sleep with him? Even date him?

I don't have kids yet, but I'm only a couple of years away from that point of my life, and I can picture myself in the situation. Here I am, a nice Jewish guy who's raising his kids to be nice Jewish kids. They happen to play for a soccer team coached by a desparately hot woman who happens to be a religious fanatic (as yet unknown to me). At the end of the game, this beauty sits down my kid, MY KID, and leads him/her in a prayer of thanks to Jesus. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm pissed just thinking about it, and I don't care how hot this coach is, I'm certainly not getting over my righteous indignation about her interference with MY CHILD just because she has a great butt. So naturally, when I read that Ruth is having feelings for Tim, and vice versa, well, I'm just not buying what Perrotta's selling. I can see Tim being interested, but reciprocation of that interest doesn't fit the Ruth character that Perrotta had already introduced me to, and that lingering attraction messed up a lot of the story's credibility. It's hard to enjoy a book fully when there's such a major disconnect, and I couldn't help but close this book with a sense of dissatisfaction at how Perrotta chose to lead his main characters.(less)

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11/13/07

David rated it:

Read in November, 2007

My dad sent me this book, and also the DVD of "Little Children", which is based on his novel of the same name. Here's what I wrote him after reading it:

I went to the theater but it was packed, so I opted out, went to a coffee shop and read Perrotta's book, which I finished this morning. Really bad. If you haven't read it yet, I wouldn't bother. There was something that bothered me about Little Children that I couldn't put my finger on until now. Perrotta is trying to be...more

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02/02/09

Tori rated it:

Read in February, 2009

When it comes to my sex life, there’s a lot my parents don’t need to know. They don’t need to know that I was deathly afraid of sex until I was almost 18 – not because of those “abstinence only” education documentaries that made sex seem like a death warrant – but because it was me giving something of myself to someone, letting them have a power over me that I wasn’t entirely comfortable with. They don’t need to know who I lost my virginity to, or what my current boyfriend and ...more When it comes to my sex life, there’s a lot my parents don’t need to know. They don’t need to know that I was deathly afraid of sex until I was almost 18 – not because of those “abstinence only” education documentaries that made sex seem like a death warrant – but because it was me giving something of myself to someone, letting them have a power over me that I wasn’t entirely comfortable with. They don’t need to know who I lost my virginity to, or what my current boyfriend and I do behind closed doors.There are, however, some things they deserve to know, even if I’m never going to be the one to bring it up. They deserve to know that I am happy with my partner, and, if and when we are sexually active, that I am on the pill, he’s wearing a condom, and I get tested every three months. They deserve to know these things because they are my parents. They love me, and want me to be safe, happy, and not in a situation I will regret later.
This is a book about sex. It's one of the better books on the "Abstinence only" education I have read, because it doesn't display everything in black and white. Each side isn't pointing to finger to the other and screaming "They're trying to ruin our children!". Everyone's just scared. The teachers are scared because they aren't allowed to give the students the information they need to be safe, and the parents are scared because they don't want their children to need this information in the first place. The main characters of this story do a fantastic job of portraying this to the reader, but Perrotta also makes a point of showing the negative effects of the "Virginity Consultant" and her "Safe Choices" program for teenagers.
Abstinence only education is, as my social psychologist boyfriend would put it, "Empirically verified as ineffective". The information is crap (condoms failing 1/3 of the time, EVERYONE who has sex will get a disease, that hot girl with teh A&F model boyfriend is content in her life without orgasams, etc), the teachers don't believe it and are teaching it to a group of students who, rather then listen, are eyeing that cute girl in the second row. I try not to be forceful with my opinions, but this is something I feel strongly enough about to share. I was fortunate enough to have parents and teachers who gave me the information I needed, and trusted me to be smart about making my own choices. My mother made sure I was covered for birth control on our insurance plan, My teacher told me in confidence that Lover's Package had the cheapest condoms (and the employees were the most knowledgable about which brand was more effective), and the testing once every three months, that was my idea. Because, believe it or not, an 18 year old can make responsible choices about sex. When given the *correct* information. (less)

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10/29/07

Abby rated it:

bookshelves: fiction

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....more 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 Ruth realizes that Tim is praying on after a particularly invigorating game is so well-done.

But. And there's a but. It's well-written, because, of course, it's Tom Perrotta and he's wonderful. However, this book was so lackluster compared to his other great books (Little Children! The Wishbones! Election!) that is was almost reminiscent of Joe College, the only book of his that I didn't devour in a single sitting. And it was really disappointing.

Maybe I should blame myself. After reading Little Children two years ago, I was already impatient for his newest book to come out. And with the startling way Christianity has dominated our politics, I think it's absolutely necessary for a satirical book to make light of it and show how RIDICULOUS it all can be through every day circumstances. Every day circumstances and satires are, after all, what Tom Perrotta does best.

But this book falls flat in several ways. Character development, for example. Ruth was two-dimensional, at best. Sure, she had her moments of fire and anger concerning her curriculum and maybe her daughters (and of course, Tim's choice to pray after games), but then what? There was no depth to her, so different from the female protagonist Sarah in Little Children. And Tim...I understood why Tim had a bigger role in the book than Ruth; it was crucial for the reader to understand how one gets to be a born-again and the doubts/uncertainties that he/she has after the fact. Which, of course, is Tim.

The soccer scenes were long and drawn out. I skimmed through them. They reminded me of the ONLY thing I didn't like in Little Children, which were the football games. Maybe it's because I just don't really care about sports and don't really care to READ about sports, but I just turned my brain off during those parts.

There were so many things I wanted to see expanded, mostly that I wanted more Ruth. I wanted more Ruth and her daughters. More about her divorce, beyond the fact that she thought her marriage to Frank was always a mistake. I really liked her; it was sad to not see more of her. And what about JoAnn? GOD, would I have loved to see her got some form of comeuppance!

The ending suited me just fine. I've read reviews so far where people thought it was blah, not good, and I found the opposite. I enjoyed it a lot.

I still really liked the book, despite my observations. It's still Tom Perrotta, and it's still good writing. And I still laughed out loud several times. And I will still probably re-read this book a few times, because that's how I roll.(less)

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08/21/08

Stuart Nachbar rated it:

(review of isbn 0007261004)

The Abstinence Teacher Gets an A in My Grade Book

Tom Perrotta and I have two things in common: New Jersey roots and novels about sex education; his latest work, The Abstinence Teacher is the only other novel, besides my own, The Sex Ed Chronicles, that I have read which covers a subject that is still considered taboo in some social circles.

The Abstinence Teacher has two main characters: Ruth Ramsey, a divorcee’ and high school sex educator who makes one inappropriate co...more

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07/05/08

Matt rated it:

Read in July, 2008

After LITTLE CHILDREN, this book seems totally light-weight. Definitely not a bad book, but the characters were painted a little too broadly for my tastes (Ruth's gay best friends, for example, or the stereotypical "ms. perfect" abstinence pusher).

Perrotta tries his best to present both sides of the religious debate as equally valid, but his heart really isn't in it (not that I blame him). While none of the religious characters come off as complete left-wing stereotypes, n...more

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04/25/08

Amanda rated it:

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 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 she doesn't support, and Tim, a born-again Christian struggling with his newfound lifestyle, were engaging but a bit two-dimensional. The conflicts are there: both are divorcees with joint custody of their children who align with the other parent, both must navigate uncertain propagandas that force light on the mistakes of their past, and each is attracted to the other, despite not being wholly available. But these conflicts don't dip fully into the potential well of complexity that stands open on each page. I was interested but ultimately not tied up in each character's arc.

Also, Perrotta adopted an odd sequence of detailed, recent flashbacks in an otherwise conventional, linear narrative that left me confused why these things weren't put in scene. More than once, he pulled out of a scene that felt incomplete, only to touch on the scene's conclusion in a flashback several pages later.

The writing is at its best when he delves into the fundamentalist agenda for sexuality that eschews the possibility of logic in the face of temptation. The virgin/whore JoAnn, the abstinence consultant, and Pastor Dennis, Tim's stalwart leader against sin and temptation, are the novel's most entertaining characters, if a bit cartoonish. I've always found this rhetoric wildly interesting yet sadly infuriating, and Perrotta delivers on both premises without belittling Christian ideals.

In short, disappointing but nevertheless a good option for anyone as entertained by religion's circus of human sexuality as I am. (less)

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03/23/08

Sarah rated it:

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

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10/19/07

Michael added it

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

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03/04/09

Cher rated it:

Read in March, 2009

The obvious confrontation in this story is between the Christian's perception of the "godlessness" and the non-Christians who perceive the Christians as zealots who push their beliefs down other's throats. However, religion aside, the bigger point seems to be an overall lack of tolerance for diversity. Aren't we all tempted to justify our own convictions and values? And in doing so, aren't we somewhat blinded to the fact that our adversaries are just doing the same?

Each ma...more

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07/15/08

Tony rated it:

Read in July, 2008

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

This book was well-reviewed by the NY TIMES. Well-reviewed enough that I was convinced that I wanted to read the book, even after finding the film version of LITTLE CHILDREN to be rather uninteresting. I am well aware that films of novels leave a lot to be desired, but the story in LITTLE CHILDREN didn't even make me curious enough about the book to want to read it. I figured that "better than the movie" would still be kinda bad.

But, I said, "Yes," to THE ABSTI...more

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07/08/08

Kit rated it:

bookshelves: peanut-m-ms

Read in July, 2008

I'm about halfway through this, and am not loving it. Maybe the ending will pull thigns together (and pull this off).

Where I am now: characters are stock characters, so am assuming the point is not character or character development, but some larger point about our culture and its issues about the roles of sexuality and religion.

A parent is shocked/distressed that their child's health ed (sex ed) teacher says that some people like oral sex (and, presumably, not so happy ...more I'm about halfway through this, and am not loving it. Maybe the ending will pull thigns together (and pull this off).

Where I am now: characters are stock characters, so am assuming the point is not character or character development, but some larger point about our culture and its issues about the roles of sexuality and religion.

A parent is shocked/distressed that their child's health ed (sex ed) teacher says that some people like oral sex (and, presumably, not so happy that the teachers flips diaphragms around the classroom like tiny frisbees) -- feels that's an abuse of the teacher's authority, that it crosses the line into what the parent should be responsible for teaching her child.

Another parent (who just so happens to be that sex ed teacher) is shocked/distressed that her child's soccer coach has the kids join hands and pray (very ecumenically, as best we can tell) after a big game win --- feels that's an abuse of the coach's authority, that it crosses the line into what the parent should be responsible for teaching her child.

Sooo..... is there a moment of revelation waiting in the wings for the characters? For us?

I don't care much about the characters, actually, so don't feel invested in whether or not they have a revelation moment. And I'm thinking not-so-much for us, because it's so broadly drawn. But will keep reading, just in case.
----

OK, I finished it. Bleh.

Maybe this is a draft of a screenplay? Maybe if you had compelling actors take on these characters, the characters would be more 'real' and more interesting? Maybe if you had a strong editor you could structure the storyline so that it, um, worked?

Disappointing. But a fast read, if anyone's got it in his or her tote bag for the beach.....

----
P.S. Because this bugged me so bad -- but stop reading right now if you don't want anything 'spoilerish' --- I couldn't stand the scene where the health teachers go in for re-indoctrination in the abstinence curriculum. The facilitator tells them to write down their sexual experience they're most ashamed of and then they're supposed to read these aloud to the group.

Hello? Wouldn't a group of experienced sex ed teachers know how to just say NO to being 'coerced' into sharing a private experience? Couldn't one of them have gracefully objected to the assignment on the grounds that they see their sex lives as their personal business and not fodder for the abstinence curriculum? (less)

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06/09/08

Heather Hadlock rated it:

bookshelves: literary-novels

Read in June, 2008

hmmmm. Not scathing, not laugh-out-loud funny; comic in the positive, compassionate sense. I missed the outrageousness of some of the things Little Children. ("Slutty Kay!" still laughing over that subplot!) these characters seem real in an ordinary, everyday way. I cared about them and wanted their lives to become happier, without feeling any urgency about it. There's almost no plot; nothing dramatic happens. Fairly superficial action setpieces (busy but without much at stake dramat...more

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05/24/08

Yosafbridg rated it:

Read in December, 2007

"A stranger might have mistaken him for a dedicated Information Sciences professional getting an early start on some important research,
but Ruth knew that he was actually scouring eBay for vintage Hasbro action figures, a task he preformed several times a day."
(wilely creatures, those (or should i say, we?) Information Sciences professionals.)
The Abstinence Teacher is the first Tom Perrotta novel i have read (though i loved the movie Election) and i quite enjoyed th...more "A stranger might have mistaken him for a dedicated Information Sciences professional getting an early start on some important research,
but Ruth knew that he was actually scouring eBay for vintage Hasbro action figures, a task he preformed several times a day."
(wilely creatures, those (or should i say, we?) Information Sciences professionals.)
The Abstinence Teacher is the first Tom Perrotta novel i have read (though i loved the movie Election) and i quite enjoyed the experience (but then, i am a sucker for a well-done satire)~one of those books i read (almost) straight through. Ruth Ramsey teaches high school Health & Family Life in the lovely suburb of Stonewood Heights, and during the Human Sexuality unit she makes the rather fatal error of observing that she has heard that some people actually enjoy oral sex (oh, my). When one student reports this to her parents it sets off a maelstrom resulting in a pilot Abstinence only program taught at her school, she being required to attend "remedial" sexuality teachers' training, and having a companion "teacher" (a blonde and sexy virgin who is an expert in abstinence, natch).
Stonewood Heights has recently seen the addition of The Tabernacle of the Gospel Truth a "diverse" evangelic church rapidly gaining in popularity and influence. Tim Mason is a recovering drug addict who has found his recovery in God and and The Tabernacle. His pastor has talked him into a second marriage with a sweet girl who he is not sure he is happy with. Ruth, divorced, unwillingly practicing an abstinence of her own feels a certain attraction to this unlikely man who insists on closing prayer at her daughter's soccer games. Will these these attracted opposites connect? Can Ruth's tolerance extend to her daughters' desire to attend to church? Will Tim relapse? These and many more exciting questions May be answered in the first installment of The Abstinence Teacher...
Sometimes i have to ask myself if i am a shallow reader (person) for not getting (much) more than sheer pleasure out of certain reading experiences (or is it that i am just SO deep and SO clever that i have already thought out all those thoughts? hmmm...)
(and i absolutely loved the ending...)(less)

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03/05/08

Lorraine rated it:

Read in May, 2008

recommended to Lorraine by: AnnaVR
recommends it for: Christians in book clubs

A friend suggested I read this book and tell her what I thought, because "it's different" and it was. It warrants discussion, because I don't think I can fully appreciate all of it on my own (yet I didn't like it enough to want to reread it). 3 stars because I'm torn between liking it and not liking it.

I thought the book would be more focussed on the abstinence teacher's struggles with her sex ed curriculum, but that wasn't really the focus of the book at all. It starts ...more A friend suggested I read this book and tell her what I thought, because "it's different" and it was. It warrants discussion, because I don't think I can fully appreciate all of it on my own (yet I didn't like it enough to want to reread it). 3 stars because I'm torn between liking it and not liking it.

I thought the book would be more focussed on the abstinence teacher's struggles with her sex ed curriculum, but that wasn't really the focus of the book at all. It starts the book off, and produces the most entertaining stories and quips about sexual experiences, but it seems to me that the main protagonist is Tim, the 'saved from drugs and rock'n'roll born-again Christian.' It's his struggles to continue life with the right-winged evangelicals and not fall off the wagon that seemed to take centre stage.

I was scared the book would turn out to be Christian fiction at its worst: typical Christian conversion story in which everyone sees the Light (ie God) at the end is on their knees praying for forgiveness. Instead it went the other way and satirized that type of story (I certainly hope the preacher is a parody, because that guy's wacked).
Instead, I think, the story suggests that the gung-ho for Jesus life of the Christian fundamentalists is not really effective in changing a person long term. For Tim, it gets him out of his drug addiction, but only replaces the high with a euphoric Jesus glow. When the glow fades, he doesn't know where to go (this is illustrated through Jay). The pastor pushed him into marrying a 'good Christian girl' with the expectation that just because they were both Christians, it would work out.
The black and white legalism of the Pastor must also be satirical (or critical), though with an addict temptation is probably more present than others. Tim's past meant he couldn't be near any of his past demons, yet he wasn't really given any forms of entertainment to replace them; it seems inevitable that he would get bored with his new life and slip. Maybe it was more the way the pastor responded to Tim's shortcomings and struggles that was problematic, rather than Tim himself.

The book does not reject Christianity completely -- just fundamentalism. It's a liberal Christian novel, maybe? My grounds for A) Christian because: Ruth's girls go to church with the Korean family and there are no negatives put on that development; Tim does seem to be lead by God at the end (though I suppose this could be argued) and he never rejects God -- he doesn't go to the strip club with Jay, and he still prays -- he just rejects the Pastor and admits his marriage failed. B) liberal/left-winged because: the Joann character is made to look dumb and her approach to sex (abstinence) is rejected (the book is not clear in its stance on sexual encounters, though it does suggest people be informed and personally discerning and never really disputes sex ed teacher's motto); the book is clearly unambiguous in its acceptance of homosexuality (maybe the only point it is clear about); a lot of sex stories and presence in the story. I'm not sure why sex is such a big part of the secondary plot -- maybe I'm misreading the book by putting Tim's story as primary and the sex ed teacher's as secondary. There must be a reason for the two plots intersecting, right? In Shakespeare the minor plot is commentary on the major plot, but I can't see how the work together, other than the main characters of the two are connected.

I'll have to puzzle over this one longer.(less)

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02/12/08

Kim rated it:

(review of isbn 0312358334)

bookshelves: 08books

Read in February, 2008

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

This book went really quickly. Not much happens in it, really, and that makes the ending (which you know is coming from the book jacket blurb) a little unbelievable. There's not enough plot for a climax, so Perrotta just kind of skips one and has a minor character deliver a little speech to the male protagonist that turns everything around. The minor characters were the ones with interesting potential, but they're pretty underused. Ruth's best friend appears in the book without truly being a par...more This book went really quickly. Not much happens in it, really, and that makes the ending (which you know is coming from the book jacket blurb) a little unbelievable. There's not enough plot for a climax, so Perrotta just kind of skips one and has a minor character deliver a little speech to the male protagonist that turns everything around. The minor characters were the ones with interesting potential, but they're pretty underused. Ruth's best friend appears in the book without truly being a part of the plot at all, as though Perrotta felt compelled to throw a gay person in there.

Several reviews have said that it's hard to imagine why Tim is in such a ridiculous church anyway. He doesn't seem that stupid, although for most of the book I felt sure that he must be. In narrative, when Tim is thinking about God and Jesus and the Bible, there's no real fervor. It's easy to understand the decision he comes to in the end--I never believed that his heart was in the church at all.

So there's the question: Was I ever supposed to believe it? It's not even interesting to read about someone leaving a church if they don't feel that church's mission in their heart, especially not if the church isn't going to do anything worse than send a nerdy pastor to go sit on the church-leaver's car hood. (Ooohh, scary!) It's not interesting to read about someone teaching crap she doesn't believe in who gets to stop teaching that crap while still getting to work out the rest of her contract so that she can retire in a few years.

Living in suburbia doesn't automatically equal living without any convictions. Religion and sex are two of the most provocative topics in modern life, and yet in this book they're both as interesting as soccer-league politics. And those are only interesting if you've got a kid playing soccer. Otherwise... snore.

Maybe I'm just not his target audience? Maybe you have to have a kid who confuses you and a life that's drowning in minutiae to say ohmygodthisissomylife. (The kids weren't individuals, either, in this book, and their storylines were just dropped by the end.)

I'm glad to be done with it. I'm going to read Little Children before the end of the year before I decide whether I'll read another book by him. Somehow, I expected comedy gold and not this apathy. By the end, you know what's going to happen between the two main characters, but you feel like they're just going to screw this up too. But since the book is pretty lighthearted in tone, a feeling like that when you close a book seems like a failure in some way.(less)

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01/16/08

Elysabeth rated it:

bookshelves: book-club

Read in January, 2008

What I loved about The Abstinence Teacher:

I absolutely love shifting points of view, most especially when the writer does it so deftly that we gain important details about characters through others' observations. This is especially present in Tim's observations of Ruth and vice versa.

I also loved the way that Perrotta weaves very current, very real pop culture details into how the characters operate and go about their lives. (i.e., Ruth looks up her first lover on www.c...more

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01/10/08

Maggie rated it:

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."...more

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