The Abstinence Teacher, by Tom Perrotta

Perrotta, author of Little Children and Election (basis of the great Matthew Broderick and Reese WItherspoon movie), is an excellent novelist who’s written several novels about the various dysfunctions of suburbia. I liked this one okay, but not as well as his others. Feels a little bit too much like ground he’s already covered before. Worth it if you like his work, but not the book I’d start with.

2 comments

  1. I really liked this book. It made me go back and read some of Perrotta’s other works again. Just finished The Wishbones, which I think may have been his first book. I didn’t like that as much. I think his writing style had developed more with the Abstinence Teacher and perhaps I read them too close together.

  2. I really liked this book. It made me go back and read some of Perrotta’s other works again. Just finished The Wishbones, which I think may have been his first book. I didn’t like that as much. I think his writing style had developed more with the Abstinence Teacher and perhaps I read them too close together.