Disturbing. The movie is more disturbing, but more well-written. Perotta's a good storyteller, though. ( )

Disturbing. The movie is more disturbing, but more well-written. Perotta's a good storyteller, though. ( )

Disturbing. The movie is more disturbing, but more well-written. Perotta's a good storyteller, though. ( )

This book had potential. I loved the fact that it referred to Madame Bovary and might have been a modern version of a great tragedy. However everything is slightly wrong: Sarah is too educated (although you would never guess by her behaviour) and Todd is too ditsy and dependent. The evolution of their relationship and their entourage is nonetheless well done and culminates in perfection. Why then introduce the element of the molester? What was the purpose of this by-line that does not really tie into the main theme? The final scene is certainly a great one, full of shadows and gray zones - an image of the human soul, but it's too little too late. I found that the various bits were dispersed and that the overall story lacked serious structure. A shame because the novel is well-written and the characters are interesting and dynamic. ( )

I admit I liked the beginning, where some moms dare the protagonist to get a playground dad's phone number, and she does them one better by kissing him for the shock value. But it all went downhill from there. It couldn't just be a prank. That action Started Something. And we have to hear all about it, in excruciating detail. Everyone's life is far more messed up than it appears on the surface. And lucky us, we get to hear all about that too. If people's lives are like this, I don't want to know about it. My life isn't like this. It's not a good story. The sordid underbelly of society has the same attraction for some people as a five-car pileup on the interstate. But I don't know that it's an interest that ought to be indulged. ( )

Good book

This book was written through the perspective of multiple characters, which is a great way to follow and understand the story line.
Unfortunately, the story was beliveable because some of it happens in everyday society. The cover didn't really make too much sense to me either. It would have been better if it was a picture of a swing set from the park.
Read the book BEFORE you see the movie. I felt that the movie was a bit flat in comparison to the book. ( )

With an irreverent style reminiscent of Carl Hiassen, the author spins a believable tale complete with an interesting cast of characters. The central theme is an affair between a lonely housewife and her neighbor who is a stay-at-home day who is trying to pass the bar exam, but it is woven around the neighborhood tension created when a child molester moves into the neighborhood. The characters especially come to life with the skill of narrator George Wilson (when I looked George Wilson up, I learned that maybe I was reminded of Carl Hiassen's style because George Wilson has narrated a few of his books as well). I appreciated the way the author showed the human side of child molestation from various sides -- the wary neighbors, the molester, the molester's mother, the neighborhood cop. Although adultery was central theme, the secondary theme added another layer to the story that made it more interesting. ( )

This is a very good novel. Perhaps Tom Perrotta's best to date. It's funny, erotic, troubling, exaggerated--though probably not. There are a lot of conflicting themes and situations. The ending wasn't great, but the very last sentence even saved that. ( )

Engaging writing style, interesting plot, but the ending left me a little deflated. But I will read more of his novels because I like nothing more than finding a book that I simply can't put down. ( )

I found the the book an okay read but a little boring. I am going to watch the movie and see if that does it for me. Iistened to the audiobook instead of reading an actual book, maybe I cheated myself out of a good read, don't know. ( )

Perrotta is a master at creating very unlikeable characters who manage to elicit a fair amount of pity by the end. This suburban satire has that in spades. ( )

With his sly humour and compassion for his characters, Tom Perrotta rescues Little Children from drowning in the bitterness of its main subject matter: infidelity. The book is populated with people we should hate but don't - a wayward wife, a feckless husband, an internet porn addict who neglects his family. Even the character of Ronnie, a child molester, is afforded a slim measure of compassion. It's a mark of Perrotta's skill that he can bring this flawed bunch together and make Little Children an enjoyable, thought-provoking read. ( )

Excellent. Very much the legacy of John Cheever's suburban dystopia. In the same class with Jay McInerney and Jane Smiley. The play on words that is the title is very well traced through the entire novel. The book is really about the adults, and the adults in the novel are all very much like little children--selfish, narcissistic, and overly sensitive. All the adults in the book are also very profoundly influenced by the parent-child relationship, whether it manifests itself with an actual parent, a pseudo-parent, or a much older lover. Very nice. Perrotta is a true literary talent. ( )

I really enjoyed Little Children. It does a good job of capturing some of the desperation and apathy that hides under the squeaky clean surface of middle class suburban America. Perrotta does a good job of capturing his various characters, from a suburban housewife to a child molester, and the story is complex yet simple enough that any reader knows a similar tale.

I will say that all of the characters in the novel are archetypes, but the author seems to know this, by referring to characters by their stereotypes. ( )

The title itself brings so many different layers to a lush suburban landscape that is brushed with all the right levels of satire, sincerity, humor, and melodrama. While the subject itself isn't anything profound, it is the storytelling technique and the usage of the backstory to explain the characters' present motives that pulls the novel out of the depths of obscurity. Perrotta is skillful at getting into the minds of desperate people in desperate marriages, giving honesty to a genre that could have been filled with caricatures. Some of the comments the author makes about the circumstances of the book are breathtakingly dead-on. The story lags in the latter half of the second part, but by the time you get to the third part, Perrotta has found his niche and the reader is left with overwhelming and indescribable emotions. In a stroke of genius, parallelism from Part One is brought to the final act, bringing the narrative to a full circle - and close. Who are the little children? This ultimate question is up for debate, and is part of the true magic that Perrotta brings to the literary scene. ( )

Tom Perrotta's 'Little Children' tells stories of young couples who are unhappy and dissatisfied with their lives. The dreams and hopes of all of these people have been shattered by the harsh ground realities of their suburban lives. Most of them do not have any financial troubles, and yet, there is something in their lives which keeps troubling them. For some of them, it is a missed career; for others, it is a spouse who seems to be on a different planet most of the time; some of them find it very difficult to outgrow their youth and adjust to the demanding lives of adulthood entailing tedious obligations and responsibilities of familyhood. Whatever maybe the case, all these people find themselves at a place where they never expected to be just a few years ago.

Perrotta's novel is all about opportunities missed and opportunities taken; it deals with the choices we all make in our lives, sometimes willingly, sometimes not so willingly. Nevertheless, we have to live with those choices. And it is the realization that we have dug ourselves in a rut which makes us bitter with ourselves and with people who surround us. And some of us decide to do whatever it takes to break the monotony of their lives and to have one last try at that elusive happiness, at that elusive contentment which all cherish but only the chosen few obtain.

All the major characters in the book are well-rounded and completely fleshed out. There were no cliched personalities with stereotypical qualities. And one aspect of the book where Perrotta really succeeded was the fact that it is very hard for anyone to dub any of his characters just plain good or bad. The characters are just.....human....like all of us, with their very own flaws and strengths.

Todd, one of the main characters, has a problem in coming to terms with the fact that his life as a carefree youth has come to an end. He still sees himself as that jock in college with not a care in the world. His immaturity manifests itself in many ways throughout the book: through his football games, through his fascination with young skateboarders, his secret fantasies of running away from it all and starting his life afresh; all these attributes of his personality depict his yearning for the life he had before he got married; the life which he would never have again.

Even the supporting characters in the book were heart-breakingly human and oddly intriguing. Larry, the guilt-ridden ex-cop who feels morally superior by harassing Ronnie, the sex offender; Mary Anne, the control freak who is sucking life out of her four-year-old son with constant brainwashing about him going to Harvard when he grows up; Richard, Sarah's husband, whose Internet sex fantasy seems to have taken over his actual marital life.

One of the peripheral characters in the book which I personally found emotionally devastating was May: the sexual pervert's mother. This poor woman spent her youth suffering at the hands of her alcoholic, abusive husband; and she spent the rest of her life trying to defend a son who could not be defended. She spent decades standing up for her son, trying to tell the rest of the world that her son, too, could become a nice person; that he, too, could be rehabilitated despite his heinous crimes. She died on the street in front of her house defending his son against a neighbourhood that was foaming at the mouth to find a pervert in the midst of their seemingly flawless paradise.

Perrotta casts an unflinching yet compassionate look at the heart of modern day life in suburbia where everybody seems to be desperately trying to fit in the society; where the expectations of families and societies sometimes prove chokingly claustrophobic for its members. Perrotta's novel is about people who elected not to listen to their hearts while making choices in life; rather they heeded what their brains told them and took the rational, logical decisions which turned out financially rewarding but also came with a price tag of their own: the price being the loss of freedom; the freedom to live the life they wanted.

I loved Perrotta's compassion for his characters without taking sides with any of them; I loved his clear prose and deep insights into the souls of people; and I loved the way he sustained the narrative in the book without giving in to a thoughtless fast-paced plot, but rather deciding to let the book move forward on the strength of its characters. All in all, I found it a great character-driven novel which is right up there with my all-time favourite novels. I rate it five stars out of five. This is a modern masterpiece." ( )

not funny

not funny

This has got to be one of my favorite books. Tom Perrotta is a great writer -so satirical and hilarious that if you have not read his books, you are really missing out on a treat. He is sarcastic and witty, but truly seems to love his characters and craft them with care. Set during a long hot summer, the novel focuses on several middle aged suburbanites and their relationships with each other. There are affairs, fights, romantic encounters and break-ups enough to make this seem like a soap opera, but the characters are so fine and believable it is far better than any sordid soap opera you will find on t.v. I enjoyed reading this novel and look forward to more! ( )

Sarah was married to a sexual "pervert.". Todd was married and not driven at all to pursue his exam for a 3rd time to become a lawyer, nor was he motivated to work. While taking care of the kids Todd and Sarah met at the park and a relationship followed. A neighbor, Ronnie McGorvey was a sex offender, but legally the murder of a young girl could not be proven. He lived with his old mother. They were harrassed constantly. When his mother died, he went to the playground late at night and Sarah was there waiting for Todd, so she and he could run off together. Ronnie broke down crying and when cops came, he admitted to killing the little girl. It was sad. Todd never showed up. ( )

I loved this book. I thought it was really well written and paced. I grew attached to the characters and found in each one flaws that were sympathic. I was satisfied with the ending, even. I saw the movie and really enjoyed it as well. ( )

Little Children is a vividly drawn portrait of a summer at the playground and town pool. The story centers around Sarah, a lapsed feminist who always meant to be more than she is and isn’t quite sure how she wound up at the playground, and her affair with Todd, a stay-at-home father whose wife resents his inability to pass the bar exam and get a job as a lawyer so she can stay home instead. Perrotta also explores the worlds of Richard, Sarah’s chronically adolescent middle-aged husband; Mary Ann, the bitchy woman who tries so hard to enforce perfection on herself and her family to cover up her inability to enjoy life; and even Ronald and May McGorvey, a newly released child sex offender and his worried mother. For both Mary Ann and Sarah, Todd represents something missing from their lives, something they want—but for both of them he will ultimately fall flat. **SPOILER ALERT** When Richard leaves her and Todd doesn’t leave his wife for her, Sarah finds the courage to rescue herself from the playground world she hates so much, resolving to go to law school. Perrotta walks a fine line, managing to satirize the playground world without denigrating the child-raising work done by its inhabitants; ultimately, it is not the stay-at-home lifestyle which is a problem, but the opting for inertia over hard choices. Nothing is as simple as the characters would like it to be. ( )

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/2... ( )

Here's hoping the movie version is better. Perrotta's book just didn't hold my attention. While some of the characters are intriguing and there are a number extremely humorous moments, "Little Children" was an overall disappointment. ( )

Better than I thought it would be, but still no great shakes. ( )