Tom Perotta's Little Children: A Review
It was a book first and movie second; read the book first.
Oct 8, 2008 Jennifer Richardson
A Picture Perfect Town
It is a place inhabited by women carrying bags filled with goldfish crackers and baby carrots, white picket fences, vans and football fields. Tom Perotta's town of Bellington is the perfect picture of a clean and close knit suburban neighborhood in his fifth book, Little Children. The place is peaceful and practically untouched until the startling news that 40 year old sexual convict, Ronnie McGorvey is released from jail and moves in with his mother who resides in Bellington. He was convicted of exposing himself to a young girl and this news leaves all the parents of the town in much distress.
The Characters
The heroine, Sarah, is a cynical and intellectual 30-something with a four year old daughter, Lucy. She is a suburban underachiever who doesn't appreciate her over-sized house and free time at the park and town pool. Her life becomes suddenly interesting when she meets Todd, a stay at home father on a break from work to study for his third attempt at the bar exam. He is lustfully termed as the "Prom King" by Sarah's park bench acquaintances; other stay at home moms who's rigid schedules (for their children and their husbands) and carefully packed day-bags make her feel quite inadequate. Both tired of their overworked and inattentive spouses, Todd and Sarah soon embark on a heated affair, challenging their marriages which seem to be slipping away from them.
The Caring and the Perverts
To further distract Todd from his bar exam studies and marital problems, he gets coersed into joining the Committee of Concerned Parents, founded by his friend Larry, a retired police officer and full time concerned parent. Their sole responsibility (and borderline obsession by Larry, the ultimate Concerned Parent) is to harass Ronnie and his aging mother, May. Every night they take Larry's minivan and knock on the McGorvey's door and yell obscenities, spray paint appropriate adjectives for Ronnie on May's driveway, and just drive around the quiet suburban streets making sure that Ronnie remains behind closed doors and far away from their precious little ones.
A Must-Read
Filled with obsessions only appropriate behind closed bedroom or office doors, leggings, football jerseys, evening walks and book clubs, Perotta's Little Children is top-notch satire for the post-modern American town, the suburb.
The story leaves the reader with only one question to ponder; is it in our nature to be this perverse, or is it the fault of the Suburbs?
Movie Tie-In Cover
|
More in Reading & Literature
Latest Articles