Little Children

Tom Perrotta's Little Children follows the story of several unhappy suburban families. Sarah, our main focus, is an active feminist who falls into the role of typical housewife, but frees herself from a stifling life when she begins an affair with Todd, the "prom king" of the parents. Kathy, Todd's wife, must wait as she watches the affair unfurl before her, though she continues to remain concerned about Todd's performance on the bar exam. Sarah's husband, Richard, remains constantly un-interested in his life with Sarah, as he is too busy living an internet fantasy life. And the whole town must tip-toe past the fact that they live in the same town as a child molester/murderer.

This book was some hard core realistic fiction. It accurately portrays the dynamic between mothers at a playground--the underlying competative streak follows the mothers throughout their conversations. The unhappy marriages rings true to many real-life couples. The lost feeling many adults share was there, but not as evident as it could have been. It was difficult to tell if Perotta was trying to parody the suburban lifestyle and one-dimensional mothers, or if he was trying to portray it. Quite frankly, the reviews that say this book was "laugh out loud funny" shock me. It was a rather depressing, yet poignant read. The immature, almost caricature-esque parents could have been more fleshed out if Perotta was going for pure realism, but the mothers whom Sarah can bounce off of work perfectly as satire. The dark comedy was so subtle, the book was seemingly satire that didn't realize it was satire.

At times, the book seemed an adult version of the TV show Friday Night Lights. Todd's football practice seemed out of place and unnecessary. The competitive sport, paired with the swimming through miserable--and exciting--relationships seemed to say "sure, it looks ridiculous, but this shit actually happens in life." The predictability of the characters could have been bad writing--or it could have been a statement that sometimes humans seem like paper cut-outs, just waiting as they wade through mistakes they've made, choices they must stick with.

I would have liked to gotten to know the characters a little better. At times, their interactions seemed to convenient, too clean. There were some clever moments, as well as some poignantly sad moments--as satire, I'd give this book a good mark. But as your average realistic fiction, that's just what it was--average and stale.