Little Children: A Novel (Paperback)

~ (Author) "THE YOUNG MOTHERS WERE TELLING EACH OTHER HOW TIRED they were..." (more)
Key Phrases: Mary Ann, Prom King, Town Pool (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The characters in this intelligent, absorbing tale of suburban angst are constrained and defined by their relationship to children. There's Sarah, an erstwhile bisexual feminist who finds herself an unhappy mother and wife to a branding consultant addicted to Internet porn. There's Todd, a handsome ex-jock and stay-at-home dad known to neighborhood housewives as the Prom King, who finds in house-husbandry and reveries about his teenage glory days a comforting alternative to his wife's demands that he pass the bar and get on with a law career. There's Mary Ann, an uptight supermom who schedules sex with her husband every Tuesday at nine and already has her well-drilled four-year-old on the inside track to Harvard. And there's Ronnie, a pedophile whose return from prison throws the school district into an uproar, and his mother, May, who still harbors hopes that her son will turn out well after all. In the midst of this universe of mild to fulminating family dysfunction, Sarah and Todd drift into an affair that recaptures the passion of adolescence, that fleeting liminal period of freedom and possibility between the dutiful rigidities of childhood and parenthood. Perrotta (Election; Joe College; etc.) views his characters with a funny, acute and sympathetic eye, using the well-observed antics of preschoolers as a telling backdrop to their parents' botched transitions into adulthood. Once again, he proves himself an expert at exploring the roiling psychological depths beneath the placid surface of suburbia.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The New Yorker

The eponymous children in this satirical novel are actually adults who, chafing at the burdens of parenthood, try to re-create their unencumbered youth. Sarah, an overeducated young homemaker, likens her tantrum-prone daughter to a "brooding Russian epileptic" out of Dostoevsky, and pines for lost college days of feminism and bisexuality. While her husband orders used panties online, she has furtive sex with a stay-at-home dad whose repeated failure to pass the bar has earned him the contempt of his gorgeous wife. The humor is sometimes cruel, but Perrotta never betrays the complexity of his characters. For all Sarah's sins—neglecting her child, wallowing in romantic delusions—there's something almost brave about her refusal to join the supermoms drilling their toddlers with dreams of Harvard, and about her yearning for more than "a painfully ordinary life."
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 2nd edition (September 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031236282X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312362829
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (242 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #396,083 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

111 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant and powerful look at modern suburbia., March 13, 2004

By	E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Little Children: A Novel (Hardcover)

In Tom Perrotta's latest novel, "Little Children," the author focuses his microscope on the marital problems of suburban mothers and fathers with young children. Thirty-year-old Todd is a former jock and a blonde hunk dubbed "The Prom King" by the playground mothers. He is a stay-at-home dad who takes care of three-year-old Aaron while his gorgeous wife, Karen, works as a documentary filmmaker. Todd has failed the bar exam twice, as his wife reminds him repeatedly, and his prospects of ever becoming the family breadwinner seem dim. Sarah is a college graduate who is stagnating mentally as a stay-at-home mom. Her marriage to her businessman husband, Richard, is in the doldrums.

The other playground mothers watch in horror as Sarah strides up to Todd one day and kisses him the first time that they meet. Sarah arranges to "bump into" Todd and the two forge a strong bond that threatens their fragile marriages.

The characters in this book are out of touch with their spouses, themselves, and, at times, with reality. Although Perrotta's writing is often humorous, this book is not merely a lighthearted satire of suburban mores and modern marriage. There is much ugliness here, mostly centered on the townspeople's horrified reaction when a convicted sex offender moves in with his mother after a stint in prison. One bitter retired ex-cop named Larry engages in a personal vendetta to harass the ex-con and his aged mother. Todd goes along for the ride, and although he verbally protests, he never makes much of an effort to stop Larry from committing his horrible deeds.

"Little Children" is a brilliant and merciless look at the sterility of suburbia and at the dark emotions that threaten the characters' placid and predictable lives. Most of the individuals in this novel are hypocritical, selfish, and immature. Nevertheless, Perrotta is such a gifted writer that he humanizes the characters and makes us care deeply about them. The author implies that even when we grow up and become parents ourselves, in some ways we all remain "little children" inside.

45 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Superb, March 18, 2004

By	Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Little Children: A Novel (Hardcover)

Tom Perrotta's Little Children is, in a lot of ways, much like those cheese goldfish on the cover of the novel--addictive and easy to swallow. Unlike the goldfish, however, Little Children also contemplates larger issues. Perrotta is a master. Little Children is funny (laugh-out-loud at certain points), engaging, compelling while also being thought-provoking. I finished this book over two weeks ago, yet the characters and their decisions in the novel still haunt me. The main characters, Sarah and Todd, are two thirty-something suburban parents who are, for varying reasons, unhappy with their lives. Todd and Sarah meet at a town playground and from there, the relationship develops and pretty much serves as the unifying thread throughout the novel. Perrotta manages to create well-rounded, flawed characters with a sympathetic eye. We can somehow forgive them for their flaws and mistakes because we can understand why they do what they do. Little Children is truly an enjoyable and satisfying read--a rare thing. The ending is terrific. I thought there were one of two things that could happen at the end, and I wasn't sure which I preferred. Perrotta had a different idea and took the characters in another direction (a believable one) entirely. I recommend this novel very highly.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kids See the Darnedest Things, March 17, 2004

By	Mark H. Giles "markgiles" (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Little Children: A Novel (Hardcover)

I've enjoyed Perrotta's other books over the years, but nothing he has written in the past could have prepared me for "Little Children", a fine, fine novel.

In spare, wry prose he has given us a comedy of resentment, a book that should be put in a time capsule to explain our self-important, self-absorbed societybut only after it's read and passed on to at least a couple of friends.

Perrotta's keen eye, sensitivity to withering detail and, conversely, his generosity of spirit are all in evidence, as in all his other books. But in "Little Children", his 30ish mommies and daddies are haunted by the vague sense that accomodations made a long time ago have taken them off the happy not to mention fasttrack. They are victims of resume interruptusand that has them feeling unhinged.

I read the review in the Sunday Times and, while I shared the reviewer's high opinion of Perrotta's effort, I though the Cheever comparison wasn't quite right. The author I thought of us I read "Little Children" was Iris Murdoch, in that wonderful period in her career that saw books like "A Fairly Honourable Defeat", "The Black Prince" and "A Word Child". Novels that potray our folly unflinchingly, but also allow for moments of understanding, grace and renewal.

Which is good, because in the end, someone's still got to pay the bills.