false 347143 0307356361 9780307356369 4786 1151 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1256082902m/347143.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/347143.The_Abstinence_Teacher 15907 Tom Perrotta 17190 2677 3 3 false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 29 14:46:07 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 06 19:21:17 -0800 2007
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.]]>