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    The Abstinence Teacher: A Novel
    The Abstinence Teacher: A Novel
    The Abstinence Teacher: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Abstinence Teacher: A Novel

    Written by Tom Perrotta

    Narrated by Campbell Scott

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The Abstinence Teacher illuminates the powerful emotions that run beneath the placid surface of modern American family life, and explores the complicated spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people. It is elegantly and simply written, characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that has become Tom Perrotta's trademark.

    Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise children: it's got good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market. Parents in the town are involved in their children's lives, and often in other children's lives, too—coaching sports, driving carpool, focusing on enriching experiences. Ruth Ramsey is the high school human sexuality teacher whose openness is not appreciated by all her students—or their parents. Her daughter's soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tim's introduction of Christianity on the playing field horrifies Ruth, while his evangelical church sees a useful target in the loose-lipped sex ed teacher. But when these two adversaries in a small-town culture war actually talk to each other, a surprising friendship begins to develop.

    "Perrotta is that rare combination: a satirist with heart….Those who haven't curled up on the couch with this writer's books are missing a very great pleasure."—Seattle Times

    "Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America."—The New York Times Book Review (in a front-page review)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateOct 16, 2007
    ISBN9781427201928
    Author

    Tom Perrotta

    Tom Perrotta is the bestselling author of ten works of fiction,including Election and Little Children, both of which were made into critically acclaimed movies, and The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher, which were both adapted into series. He lives outside Boston.

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    Reviews for The Abstinence Teacher

    3.5/5

    830 ratings78 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I'm halfway through and the verdict so far: great idea. Too bad it's so lamely executed.The main characters are in conflict over their deeply held beliefs... that should make for compelling reading, right? But it just isn't doing it for me. Both the sex ed teacher and the born-again soccer coach are equally righteous and boring. UPDATE: Also, one of my pet peeves: way too many pop culture references. The Grateful Dead mentions are fine; they work because the character associates the music with his drug-addled past. But Jessica Simpson? eBay? Desperate Housewives? Too much of this leaves the story feeling dated.On a positive note, the conclusion was pleasantly open-ended. A refreshing way to end a novel that, otherwise, was sorely lacking in ambiguity.
    • 2/5
      I liked the treatment of Tim, but I thought the "abstinence teacher" was boring, boring, boring...the kind of person who really believes nothing.
    • 2/5
      (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)As I've mentioned here a couple of times before, I've recently become a fairly big fan of movie-friendly author Tom Perrotta; for example, I found his breakthrough 2006 novel Little Children to be a surprisingly complex and subtle look at just what a horrific place the suburbs can be to some people, a stifling environment that squashes all yearning for something beyond the lowest common denominator as thoroughly as a Communist cultural crackdown. Ah, but then I read his latest, 2007's similarly-themed The Abstinence Teacher, and realized something I think I knew all along but that I hadn't wanted to admit to myself; that Perrotta in fact dances on that thin little line between being a good movie-friendly author and a bad one, and that even a small amount of seemingly inconsequential bad decisions on his part concerning character and story will eventually amount to one giant stinker of a book by the end, even with such a book still being 92-percent exactly like the other book that's great and that everyone loves.Like Little Children, for example, The Abstinence Teacher is also set in a repressive McMansion-happy middle-class suburb in the American Northeast; like Little Children, it's also supposed to be about a subversive sexual tension between people on opposite sides of an arbitrary issue that is arbitrarily important in this gossipy hothouse suburban environment. But see, here's a perfect example of what I'm talking about, because in Little Children Perrotta makes such a relationship work, by making the supposed opposites actually two sides of the same coin; in that book, it makes sense that the former radical-feminist academe and the former frat-boy football hero would have a charged illicit affair, because it was the Kafkaesque environment they were in that brought an end to both their individual hopes and dreams. In his newest book, though, Perrotta tries to use a Fundamentalist Christian church as the catalyst bringing two people from opposite sides of the fence suddenly and unusually together; but in this case such a thing simply doesn't work, because of the church and its actions causing a legitimate rift between anyone who falls on either side of the fence, too big to be overcome in a cutesy romantic way like Perrotta tries to do.In fact, this is the question I kept coming back to, over and over and over again as I read this novel; of why the main Christian character, former rock star and wicked addict Tim Mason, so thoroughly devotes his life to a cartoonishly evil Evangelical church to begin with. Perrotta tries to explain that it was the church who helped him overcome his addiction, and so Tim feels an irrational fear of falling off the wagon if he were to ever stray from their mustache-twirling neocon activities, but I'm not buying it; I myself am an atheist who's never been through a recovery program, and even I know that there are literally hundreds of politically moderate religious organizations out there designed specifically to help recovering addicts. (This is even a basic precept of the 12 Step Program itself; that the "higher power" at the center of the program isn't necessarily the Christian God, or indeed any personified supernatural being if you don't want it to be.) If I'm a godless heathen and still know all this, it would only be natural that a former addict going through a 12-Step-based recovery would know it all too, and know that he has plenty of alternatives besides sticking around with the Ralph Reed crowd seen here.In effect it creates this incredibly awkward literary situation for Perrotta to messily have to handle -- a supposedly "nice guy," who you're ultimately supposed to root for, who throughout the book secretly belies his moderate and humanitarian beliefs regarding a wide range of subjects, but who for some inexplicable reason keeps participating in the crazy Moral-Majorityesque antics of this "Tabernacle" group he belongs to, thus providing a convenient form of conflict between him and the liberal Sex Ed teacher who both want to get it on, but can't because of the group's ongoing crusade to not only get her fired but to get an "abstinence-only" educational campaign instituted at the school itself. Ultimately it makes Perrotta just as guilty as network news organizations at presenting an unfair, alarmist portrait of what American faith is actually like -- a world where every citizen is either an abortion-clinic-bombing zealot or a hate-filled Christopher-Hitchens-style "I spit on your puny so-called god" brand of atheist.The book is full of all kinds of problems like this, where in Little Children he made them work but in The Abstinence Teacher a slight change makes them fail -- take, for example, the way he deftly shows in the first book how surprisingly thrilling an evening football game among middle-aged former athletes can be, while in the newest book he tries to do the same thing with grade-school soccer to dismal effect. In fact, it's almost like Perrotta drew a sketch of Little Children, then used one of those old carbon-copy systems to try to make a copy of it for The Abstinence Teacher. but then had the whole thing blur and smear and get all messy along the way, resulting in something that kinda feels like the former but is definitely not the former, not nearly so in terms of quality and originality. It's a shame to see, after recently becoming such a big fan, and I hope that Perrotta will learn some lessons from this experience; that the literary rules he plays with in his books are subtle ones, ones that deserve to be paid attention to, and that you can't just shoehorn in any idea that might pop into your head ("I know -- I'll do a novel about suburban Fundamentalists!") and expect the formula to work every time. I'll still be reading his books in the future, but will be coming at them now with a much more critical eye.Out of 10: 3.9
    • 4/5
      Its lack of a really determinative conclusion - true to life and thought-provoking.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook about real characters dealing with real problems including sex, relationships, religion, and more. Very absorbing; many laugh-out-loud and "no way!" moments. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Well written character study that manages to walk a line between mocking and understanding. Even the "bad guys" in the story aren't really bad and the good guys aren't all that good, everyone feels pretty real. In some ways the whole church experience gets a little bit of a short shrift, in that one might take from this book that it never helped anyone but other than that it was pretty fair and accurate.
    • 3/5
      3.5 stars, if I may be that specific. I liked this book. That doesn't come as a surprise to me because I like all of Perrotta's books. But, maybe those other books are why I didn't LOVE this one. Compared to the others, this one is just OK. I would tell people to read it, but only after they read Little Children and The Leftovers.Perrotta is one of my favorite contemporary writers. He writes with such wonderful humor and ease. His books are always "good reads." The characters are well-drawn and the plots are engaging. This book focuses very heavily on religion. Out of all his books, this seemed to be trying hardest to make a point. As a reader, I didn't love the transparency of that intention, but I still enjoyed the story.
    • 4/5
      This is a great audio book. Ending comes up too soon though!
    • 2/5
      After reading The Leftovers, I wanted to read this one by Perrotta as well. The struggle surrounding religion is so interesting to me, I feel like I could never get sick of reading these types of books. I was disappointed with this one though. At times it felt like you could tell a male was writing Ruth's character. And I thought the whole naming thing was a bit overkill - Ruth from the book of Ruth. Somehow now that we've seen this done so many times before I find it weird that authors do it now. Also, it felt like the book was swaying in a certain way, labeling Ruth as the woman in need of redemption and a man to marry despite the fact that she's the one who doesn't believe in a being that created women as an afterthought.
      I remember this book having a lot of hype surrounding it when it was first published, but I don't think it lives up to that. Ultimately, I think the Perrotta's argument felt limited or like it was trying to break out beyond somewhere he wouldn't let it go. It felt forced and inorganic, bumping characters about in this little cube. The Leftovers seemed to do a much better job of moving beyond a wall. Not they are about the same subject, but that he used religion as a jumping off point. I think that worked better for him. shrug. Honestly, this one just took me a long time to read because I kept getting bored. If you're going to read Perrotta, I would suggest the Leftovers, not The Abstinence Teacher.
    • 2/5
      The abstinence movement and the Christian right are two of my favourite topics in relation to American politics, one of my strange hobbies. They both fascinate and horrify me in equal measure and I’m always on the lookout for books, fiction and non-fiction, related to them to fuel my interest. I’ve only read one Tom Perrotta novel before, “Little Children”, which I enjoyed immensely and found to be a well orchestrated satire on suburban life and its less than picture perfect truth, so I entered reading “The Abstinence Teacher” optimistically, only to find myself very disappointed very quickly.

      This book isn’t populated by characters; it’s populated by mouthpieces for opinions. Every character acts like a mouthpiece, everything they say seems to be taken from a newspaper article debating the pros and cons of religious and sexual issues, and their functions as mouthpieces don’t give them any room to develop as fully rounded characters independent of the debate Perrotta wants to have. They’re not even well rounded opinions to spout off. There is very little resolution to these points and they don’t seem to develop beyond a few buzzwords or commentary rants better suited to a newspaper opinion page with a limited word count. Things happen and there are some interesting set-ups for what promise to be bigger and more explosive events but they seldom come to fruition. It’s such a disappointment because the potential is definitely there. We only get one or two real scenes of Ruth teaching abstinence and the school politics of it all but Perrotta seems bored, as if he doesn’t want to create any real conflict. I wanted to see more of the newly instigated abstinence classes’ impact on the school and its students. I wanted to see how big an impact the growing churches were having on the community (it’s hinted at and ranted about as yet another mouthpiece opinion but never given much development beyond that.) I wanted to see more of Ruth’s daughters choosing to engage with the church and the tensions it created with Ruth and her anti-church stance. There was plenty of room for these things, why weren’t they there?

      There is no real story to speak of, events just ramble along and meander back and forth as the point-of-view switches from divorced mother and health teacher Ruth to born again Christian with a crisis Tim. These two characters are supposed to be engaged in a battle of wits and morals, one being the atheist with a grudge against the radically increasing Christian presence in her school, the other the former drug addicted rock-star who found solace in Christ and wants to be a good person through his teachings. Once or twice, we’re treated to an interesting conversation between the two, and it is interesting to hear their parental stories, but since they spend so little page time together, it makes the weak, abrupt conclusion all the more baffling and lazy. I can’t say I especially disliked Ruth or Tim. As I said before, they were mainly mouthpieces but they did have a lot of things I really liked, such as Tim’s struggle to be what he saw as a good Christian man and Ruth’s relationship with her daughters. Instead of any real development in these traits that actually would have had relevance to the plot, we’re treated to page after page of tell-don’t-show info-dumps of Ruth’s teenage sex escapades, her desperation for a man (because a strong, independent and intelligent 40 something single woman must be in want of a man at every possible moment) and other bites of information that could have been woven much less awkwardly into the story to a much more effective result. There were some moments crying to be re-written, the biggest one that stands out in my mind being a moment where Tim muses about homosexuality and how he doesn’t think it’s a sin (told with the subtlety of a sledgehammer with a talk radio show) when we have an established character who is a gay man working in the high school with Ruth who could have been used much more effectively to portray the topic of homosexuality and its place in the Christian right and schools. Any potential for wit and truly successful satire is gone and the rest just falls flat. (I’m also worried since Perrotta’s prose bugged me quite a bit yet it reminds me so much of my own. I’ve got some rewrites to do.)

      Overall, “The Abstinence Teacher” was such a disappointment. It was incredibly mediocre, but not without some merit, and failed to truly get a sense of the contradictions and difficulties of the abstinence movement and the growing presence of the Christian right in public services in America. Perrotta seems more concerned with painting a black and white picture with very broad strokes when what was really needed was a much finer brush and a wider palate of colours.
    • 3/5
      Perrotta's novel touches on the destructive impact of fundamentalist religous zealots on others. The two princpal characters are Ruth, a high school health teacher and Tim, a recovering addict who has been "saved" by his adoption of religion in a born-again type church. Ruth, while teaching a sex education course to 9th graders, makes an off hand comment about the pleasures of certain sexual practices that reaches the attention of the local fundamentalist church. This creates a public reaction that pressures the school board to adopt a pre-designed curriculum that advances the abstinence only message. The portrayal of this course's content and its champion is so devastating as to be almost comical. However, this cave-in by the school board to the extremists does great harm to Ruth, who is further wounded by the attraction of her daughters to the conservative religion group in town.Tim is a former rock band member who has had a long and self-destructive experience with drugs. He has lost his family over this and is grieved by their new life without him. While the church has definitely helped him overcome his addictions, its oppressive nature and high demands on him are becoming harder to accommodate. At the church pastor's connivance Tim marries a fellow church member who is clearly a poor match for him. Ruth and he become acquainted through their daughter's soccer team where he is the coach. Tim conducts a post-game prayer session for the team which infuriates Ruth and starts her on a campaign against such inappropriate displays. Over time, she and Tim become attracted to each other and at core each is reacting to the pernicious influence of the church on their lives. By the end, they are going to be together in an attempt to be happy despite the harm that is being done to them by the local church.The story, which, while mocking in tone, doesn't exaggerate too far the influence of the fundamentalist crowd, points out the massive downside of those who would seek to impose their views of morality on others.
    • 3/5
      A friend suggested I read this book and tell her what I thought, because "it's different" and it was. It warrants discussion, because I don't think I can fully appreciate all of it on my own (yet I didn't like it enough to want to reread it). 3 stars because I'm torn between liking it and not liking it.

      I thought the book would be more focussed on the abstinence teacher's struggles with her sex ed curriculum, but that wasn't really the focus of the book at all. It starts the book off, and produces the most entertaining stories and quips about sexual experiences, but it seems to me that the main protagonist is Tim, the 'saved from drugs and rock'n'roll born-again Christian.' It's his struggles to continue life with the right-winged evangelicals and not fall off the wagon that seemed to take centre stage.

      I was scared the book would turn out to be Christian fiction at its worst: typical Christian conversion story in which everyone sees the Light (ie God) at the end is on their knees praying for forgiveness. Instead it went the other way and satirized that type of story (I certainly hope the preacher is a parody, because that guy's wacked).
      Instead, I think, the story suggests that the gung-ho for Jesus life of the Christian fundamentalists is not really effective in changing a person long term. For Tim, it gets him out of his drug addiction, but only replaces the high with a euphoric Jesus glow. When the glow fades, he doesn't know where to go (this is illustrated through Jay). The pastor pushed him into marrying a 'good Christian girl' with the expectation that just because they were both Christians, it would work out.
      The black and white legalism of the Pastor must also be satirical (or critical), though with an addict temptation is probably more present than others. Tim's past meant he couldn't be near any of his past demons, yet he wasn't really given any forms of entertainment to replace them; it seems inevitable that he would get bored with his new life and slip. Maybe it was more the way the pastor responded to Tim's shortcomings and struggles that was problematic, rather than Tim himself.

      The book does not reject Christianity completely -- just fundamentalism. It's a liberal Christian novel, maybe? My grounds for A) Christian because: Ruth's girls go to church with the Korean family and there are no negatives put on that development; Tim does seem to be lead by God at the end (though I suppose this could be argued) and he never rejects God -- he doesn't go to the strip club with Jay, and he still prays -- he just rejects the Pastor and admits his marriage failed. B) liberal/left-winged because: the Joann character is made to look dumb and her approach to sex (abstinence) is rejected (the book is not clear in its stance on sexual encounters, though it does suggest people be informed and personally discerning and never really disputes sex ed teacher's motto); the book is clearly unambiguous in its acceptance of homosexuality (maybe the only point it is clear about); a lot of sex stories and presence in the story. I'm not sure why sex is such a big part of the secondary plot -- maybe I'm misreading the book by putting Tim's story as primary and the sex ed teacher's as secondary. There must be a reason for the two plots intersecting, right? In Shakespeare the minor plot is commentary on the major plot, but I can't see how the work together, other than the main characters of the two are connected.

      I'll have to puzzle over this one longer.
    • 4/5
      I've never read Tom Perrotta before, but I will read again. This is a funny, compassionate and respectful book about people's struggles with love, faith, sex, marriage and addiction. Several major characters are evangelical Christians, but not a one is a stereotype.
    • 3/5
      Not bad, but not great either. Maybe I was expecting too much after reading Little Children, which I loved.
    • 3/5
      My first introduction to Tom Perotta was the movie Election, so perhaps I have an unfair grudge against him because of the way the movie was marketed. There was a lot of hype about how the film skewered the so-called perfect life of the suburbs.

      I grew up in the suburbs, and couldn't imagine anyone thinking life there was perfect. Who are these people who really believe that all the lawns are neatly trimmed and all the parents are proud and supportive? Besides, everything from the Stepford Wives to Judy Blume novels already showed this wasn't so.

      Perotta's work, I decided, was targeted to shallow hipsters with an inferiority complex. A mite unfair on my part. I read Little Children and started to turn my opinion because the characters were complex and I kinda recognized them.

      The Abstinence Teacher has quelled my prejudice against Perotta. He does get it. I liked this book, and thought most of the characters were realistic, especially a young Christian wife who turns out have more depth than you'd expect.

      It's hard to say if the portrayal of hyper-evangalism is true-to-life, and I kind of fear that the church in the book is a lot more moderate than its real-life counterparts. The Abstinence Teacher covers a lot of territory as far as modern separation of church and state, and I can see it providing great topics of conversation for progressive and conservative book clubs.
    • 3/5
      This is only the second of Perotta's books that I've read (Little Children is the other), and I don't think this is his strongest. I enjoyed it, sure--he's basically taking a long stick and poking abstinence-only sex ed and fundamentalist Christianity--but I was conscious of the stick the whole time. I never really connected with the characters--the fundie, for instance, could have been a very sympathetic identity character, but Perotta keeps him at arm's length with the "but he's a FUNDIE!" poking. The church is presented as a bunch of perfectly normal people, as long as we're putting "perfectly normal" in the context of evangelical, proselytizing Christianity. I walked away from this book not knowing whether I was supposed to be more understanding of fundamentalism, or less.

      All that said, it's an engrossing, quick read, and includes a fair bit of suburban sexuality and lust, so it's hard to go totally wrong here.
    • 3/5
      I guess I wasn't expecting much from this book, so maybe I'm fortunate that it didn't deliver. The characters are mostly paper-thin stereotypes, existing only to fill a place in the narrative. The story is weak and inconsistent, bouncing between the two main characters at random, and generally drawing you away just as things seem about to get interesting. And the social commentary was somewhat less than cutting, content merely to let loose a few platitudes and generalizations that are neither surprising, interesting, nor particularly shocking.

      As for the ending, I might have been impressed at Perotta's choice of ambiguity, suggesting that the only way to win in the culture wars is not to fight (not a particularly interesting take in and of itself, of course), had I not read the reader's guide at the end (and on a side note, I generally hate these things and their implicit suggestion that the reader should be approaching the material at a grade school level), wherein Perotta explains that writing another scene set at a soccer game would have just been too hard.

      That all said (and it sounds a lot more scathing than I'd intended), this wasn't awful, mostly because it seems like there's a germ of a better book buried here. Perotta's story gets lost as he tries to sketch out a battle between people from opposite sides of our modern political and cultural divide, but it seems as though he's actually trying to tell the story of two people lost in the middle. Both Ruth and Tim, rather than embracing their own ambivalence, seem to have gotten caught up in the struggles of the extremists. A novel that was able to maintain a tight focus on them, rather than getting distracted by the usual political slurs so easily tossed around might have been a lot more interesting.
    • 3/5
      I really wanted to love this book, but I couldn't. Although I like Perrotta's writing overall, there's nothing effortless about this story. Along with the forced story, another problem for me was that the characters lack depth -- I never had a clear picture of any of them; they were just names on a page.Overall, I liked THE ABSTINENCE TEACHER. I won't be encouraging others to read it, but I'm not sorry I did. It has received rave reviews from many sources that I usually respect, so there's always the possibility that I would like it if I read it at a different time.
    • 4/5
      My first Tom Perrotta read, though I have at least one or two others on my shelf waiting. I wouldn't call this a gripping story so much as an exploration of relationships. And for that, I think it was fairly accurate. It's a good book to promote discussion, as it's got some controversial subject matter. There's Ruth, the local high school sex education teacher who is being pressured to tone down her subject matter & encourage abstinence. Then there's Tim, a soccer coach and an ex-substance abuser who's reforming himself via the local fundamentalist church. Their lifestyles don't in themselves clash necessarily, but when Tim initiates a prayer following a soccer game (Ruth's daughter is on the team), Ruth becomes upset and confrontational, and thus begins a rocky, but interesting relationship. There are no right's or wrong's in this book, but it does bring to light the ways in which we, as Americans, must find ways to intermingle different beliefs. The most disturbing part of this book for me was the ending, mostly because it felt unfinished. I realize you can't easily wrap up a complicated subject matter such as this, but I would've liked to have seen a little more resolution.As a side note, though I like Campbell Scott as an actor, I thought his voice was a little too dry & monotonic for this audiobook.
    • 4/5
      Tom Perrotta has been described as a skilfull commentator on suburbia. I find that demeaning, I don’t know why. Let’s say instead that Tom Perrotta understands the rough terrain of family relationships.The Abstinence Teacher features Ruth, an intelligent and liberal high school sex-ed teacher forced to teach a new, abstinence-based, curriculum and Tim Mason, former rock band member and drug addict, who now rehabilitated, seeks support from the pastor of an evangelical Christian church. Tim is the soccer coach for his daughter’s team. Ruth’s daughter plays for the same team. Ruth’s and Tim’s world collide when he spontaneously asks the team to say a prayer after a stunning victory.There are some quite funny bits (like when Tim alludes to Spinal Tap and turning the dial up to 11 and the chapter called Hot Christian Sex) but it’s not the type of book that lends itself to posting quotes. These are everyday scenarios that most of us have experienced either as child or parent and spouse. It’s the way Mr. Perrotta reveals the characters’ thoughts and queues the scenes that produces a wonderfully understated and entertaining story.I have seen references to a proposed film of The Abstinence Teacher with Sandra Bullock and Steve Carrell. Sure to be a funny movie. However, the book explores different kinds of relationships among blended families, colleagues and friends. I doubt the movie will do more than caricaturize these elements.I was impressed by Mr. Perrotta’s restraint: far from ridiculing evangelical Christians (that approach would be too crude), through Tim he helps us understand what this church could offer (promise?).8 out of 10 and recommended to readers who enjoy subtle satire.
    • 3/5
      This book was well-written and I wanted to enjoy it, but I did not care for the ending and the characters' choices (which seemed a bit out-of-character for me at the novel's conclusion).
    • 3/5
      Tom Perrotta is a likable writer, but I find that his books don’t have much sticking power. For me, The Abstinence Teacher didn’t even begin to measure up to my favorite of Perrotta’s novels, The Wishbones, or the very engaging Little Children, his previous release.The Abstinence Teacher is set in suburban New York. A high school sex education teacher runs afoul of a local fundamentalist church and finds herself teaching an abstinence-only curriculum that she absolutely does not agree with. Then she discovers that her daughter’s attractive soccer coach is a reformed drug addict who is a member of the same church and who stirs up a brouhaha by leading the team in prayer after a game.The main thing that irritated me about the narrative was the way it jumped around in time without much rhyme or reason. Just as I’m settling into a scene, I’m thrust two days into the past, or the action segues into the previous night. And the characters themselves seemed ineffectual and unable to take a strong stand on any of their supposedly closely held beliefs, or even on their attraction to each other. Which was probably the point, but I think this theme is getting a little worn out in Perrotta’s fiction. We’ve had the futility of modern suburban life before; let’s move on to some new material.Which isn’t to say that I didn’t like the book. I actually liked it well enough while I was reading it, and I tore through it pretty fast. But when it was over, it was the literary equivalent of popcorn: not filling, not satisfying, no sticking power. I want to love Tom Perrotta as a writer, I really do, but his books just don’t awaken that level of passion in me, no matter how much I try.
    • 4/5
      Interesting. A book that I never felt I couldn't put down, but was always drawn to. A tale of Tim, an ex junkie and alcaholic and Ruth, a sex education teacher. There lives become entwinned via the local soccer team against a background of religion and 'finfing' themselves. An enjoyable read, but not exactly a life changer.
    • 4/5
      This was fun. It wasn't pure comedic gold, or a stunning historical satire. But, I enjoyed it. This book delves into abstinence only sex ed, evangelical Christianity, and separation of church and state. Yet, it is not heavy handed or depressing. The characters, if a little flat, help to move the story forward. While some may complain that the ending is to loose, I felt the ending was good.
    • 4/5
      Another book that I'm unlikely to have discovered without LibraryThing, which I really enjoyed. Ruth Ramsey is a sexual education teacher, whose frankness lands her in trouble with local right-wing Christians. Tim Mason is a former addict whose welcome into the local church has helped him turn his life around. Circumstances bring them into conflict, and this conflict brings to light many of the interesting (and sometimes disconcerting) aspects of American society today. I liked the nuanced portrayals of characters here, and the thought-provoking hints of the shades of grey that can lie beneath the surface of such debates.
    • 5/5
      The intersecting and contrasting stories of a left-wing sex ed teacher and a right-wing soccer coach, told in an even handed way that does not give away the author's own biases or perspective. Great characters. Well told. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      When Ruth Ramsey, tenured sex education teacher, makes an offhanded comment in class regarding oral sex, she finds herself in the middle of a conflict regarding sex education curriculum. The result is her "retraining" as an abstinence teacher which ultimately ends in a job reassignment due to her lack of enthusiasm and questioning of the new abstinence curriculum.In addition to her problems at school, Ruth is also dealing with her role as a single parent, her daughters' new found interest in going to church, and loneliness associated with her singlehood. When her daughter's soccer coach spontaneously gathers his soccer team in a prayer of thanksgiving after a hard earned victory, Ruth's frustrations with the religious right come to a head and she works to gather support for a letter to the soccer league asking for disciplinary action against Tim, the soccer coach.Tim, on the otherhand, is dealing with his own personal issues. A former drug addict, Tim has found peace in her new faith and membership in the Tabernacle church. As the book unfolds, however, Tim experiences a crisis in his spiritual life as he works to deal with an ex-wife who does not want their daughter going to church, a lukewarm 2nd marriage, and troubles with the temptations of drugs and alcohol. Ulitmately, Tim ends up on Ruth's doorstep looking for a refuge from his life. While the book was a page turner with its complex character development and inner character conflicts, it ultimately is a disappointment. At the end of the novel, there doesn't seem to be any resolution to the miriad of conflict that the author sets in motion. Overall, this book was a reading disappointment.
    • 4/5
      Ruth is a divorced mother of two daughters, and the school's health and human sexuality teacher. Tim is a divorced former stoner and alcoholic who has found salvation through the Tabernacle, an evangelistic church. He is also the soccer coach for one of Ruth's daughters. When a remark about masturbation in her sex-ed class brings the puritanical ire of the Tabernacle upon her, and an impulsive prayer circle by Tim after a close and exciting game brings the ire of Ruth upon him, the furor pits the two into a confrontation that forces them to each look past their own preconceived notions of what the other stands for. Well-written and some interesting ideas portrayed here that go beyond stereotypes, but the ending is a bit pat and abrupt. I would be interested to see some of the author's other work, though.
    • 4/5
      I think the title of this book would make some people shy away from it, i.e. "IS THIS A BOOK ABOUT SEX ED AND RELIGION BLAH BLAH BLAH??" But - I think the title works, and the book is thorougly enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      Ruth is a liberal teacher whose frankness about sex during health class brings down the wrath of local fundamentalists. Tim is a recovering alcoholic/addict who gets in hot water when he spontaneously leads the girls’ soccer team in prayer. Put them together and you have an engaging book that is perhaps a little less than the sum of its parts.This is my first Perrotta. His portrayal of suburbia is interesting enough, often funny but not uproariously so. I expected a more scathing indictment of the Bible thumpers, but if anything Perrotta is kinder to them than to Ruth. His Christians may be corny and they may not be great intellects, but they are absolutely sincere and mostly good-hearted, especially the protagonist Tim. Ruth, while unimpeachable in her principled arguments about the sex ed controversy, is portrayed as quick-tempered, unsettled and a little immature. My discomfort with this undoubtedly reflects my own beliefs on both sex and religion, which are not exactly fundamentalist.