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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Campbell Scott's soft but edgy voice, earnest but with a sarcastic undertone, is a supremely apt fit for Perrotta's skewering of modern society. He is equally convincingly whether playing Ruth, a divorced mother and sex-education teacher whose community is becoming increasingly religious, to her transparent disgust, or Tim, Ruth's daughter's soccer coach and a born-again Christian who is dismayed to find himself slipping back to his old drug addict habits. Scott's tone shifts just slightly to distinguish between the deadpan humor of Ruth's gay friend Randall and the pious lack of humor of an abstinence consultant brought in to reform Ruth. The evenness of Scott's voice is a reminder of how similar everyone is on a certain basic level, and it makes for a greater impact when he does raise the volume or change his accent. Though Ruth and Tim oppose each other over religion, their love lives are both damaged, and Scott's quiet, intimate delivery brings out the wounded yet stubbornly hopeful side of both of them. This is an effective, smart and sharp production.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine
What would Jesus teach? The answer to that questionâ€"or more accurately, whether it ought to be answered at allâ€"has provided an ongoing battle in America’s so-called culture wars. According to most critics, Tom Perrotta, author of Election (1998) and Little Children (***1/2 July/Aug 2004), successfully draws his characters out of the trenches in The Abstinence Teacher, but he makes no progress toward redrawing the battle lines between the evangelists and the liberals. Critics’ opinions of the novel seemed to result from their expectations: some reviewers felt another send-up of evangelical America is just what we need; others found it cliché. Nevertheless, most remained engaged by Perrotta’s likeable and complex characters.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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