Little Children: A Novel
by Tom Perrotta

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Book Reviews of Little Children: A Novel

Book Review: "Repetition that goes with boredom becoming a kind of peace"
Summary: 4 Stars

The novel centers on the chance meeting of Todd, the handsome, sexy stay-at-home-dad nicknamed "The Prom King" with Sarah, a trendy, one-time feminist, who has become trapped in a sexless, conventional marriage to Richard, an older man. The kiss that Sarah unwittingly smacks on Todd at the local playground, leads to a desperate, highly sexual, and clandestine affair, which in turn has ramifications for their marriages that neither of them could have anticipated. There's also an effective subplot involving the arrival in the neighborhood of a convicted child molester, which presents some of the characters, particularly Larry, an ex-cop, with a quite challenging moral dilemma. With all this subversive and duplicitous behavior, Perrotta never judges his characters; he sees them as basically nice people trapped by their own inertia but at the same time honest about their lot and stage in life.

Little Children is whimsical, light-hearted and amusing, and Perrotta achieves this tone by developing his characters emotions in potent and surprising ways. Todd, the father of a new born son "begins to suspect that there was something not quite right, something unresolved and defective at the core of his being," and he thinks of the thrill, and electrical current filling him with a conviction that a life with Sarah, is not only possible but absolutely necessary. There's Sarah's husband, Richard, sending away for mail order pornography, at war with his own desires, and loosing in the end. And then there's Todd's husband, Kathy, a documentary filmmaker, beautiful, gorgeous, and frustrated at Todd's unwillingness to re-enter the workforce.

There are some wonderfully funny moments in Little Children: In one scene during a local church service, Larry, irreverently pulls Ronnie, the child molester's pants down to the chagrin of the other worshipers. And in another scene, when Sarah goes to a meeting to discuss the adulterous aspects of Madame Bovery, the subject keeps returning to illicit sex. Perrotta desperately wants us to like his characters in all their passivity and honesty; but frustration always lurks underneath, and the result is a narrative that creeps up on you and builds in intensity. Little Children is a tremendously entertaining and unexpectedly vigorous novel, which should provide the reader with many hours of reading pleasure. Mike Leonard April 04.

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