Think about those scenes from every high school: the popular girls huddled together around the lunch table, the jocks posturing for them from across the room, the outcasts hoping in equal parts to catch someone's eye and slip by unnoticed. Now fast forward fifteen years and you've got Tom Perrotta's Little Children, a high school drama for people who've long since graduated.
The characters in Little Children live what is often considered to be the prototypical American Dream. They are young, well off, and for the most part successful. They are healthy and they have beautiful young children, but for various reasons they are unsatisfied. Perrotta's characters are facing the not-so-joys of young parenthood that your parents didn't warn you about where the sacrifices you make for your children may parallel lost or postponed dreams of your own. It's a hard scenario to face, and Perrotta's little children are very much like those high-schoolers: lost, self-conscious, and exceedingly selfish.
The characters in Little Children live what is often considered to be the prototypical American Dream. They are young, well off, and for the most part successful. They are healthy and they have beautiful young children, but for various reasons they are unsatisfied. Perrotta's characters are facing the not-so-joys of young parenthood that your parents didn't warn you about where the sacrifices you make for your children may parallel lost or postponed dreams of your own. It's a hard scenario to face, and Perrotta's little children are very much like those high-schoolers: lost, self-conscious, and exceedingly selfish.
The two central characters in Little Children, Todd and Sarah, exemplify this dichotomy. They both love their children, dearly so, but they also find the sheen of once-promising marriages losing their luster under the strains of unhappiness. Sarah, who once fancied a career as a literary critic, has settled down with a once-divorced middle-aged man who offers nothing but a patina of security. A formerly outspoken Feminist and college lesbian (her thesis was titled "The Normalization of Abuse: Patriarchy and Marital Rape), Sarah's dreams now consist of running away with Steve, the host of the children's show Blues Clues, in an attempt to escape her mundane life. "Oh, Steve, run away with me!" she imagines, "We can hole up in a flophouse and smoke crack for a couple of days."
Todd is equally unhappy. His path toward becoming a lawyer is stalled as much by his inability to pass the Bar Exam as it is by his not wanting to become an adult. But who could blame him? Passing the Bar would lead to a desk job, pension plan, and eventually retirement.
Todd is equally unhappy. His path toward becoming a lawyer is stalled as much by his inability to pass the Bar Exam as it is by his not wanting to become an adult. But who could blame him? Passing the Bar would lead to a desk job, pension plan, and eventually retirement.
And why would Todd want that when he can spend his days at home taking care of his son, or talking walks around the park, watching kids skateboard and remembering the days when he was the starting quarterback for his high school team and everyone knew his name. Like Sarah, Todd is in his early thirties, but already disillusioned enough with his life to think that his best days are behind him.
When another mother dares Sarah to introduce herself to Todd, whom the playground moms have dubbed "The Prom King," because his days as a stay-at-home dad have allowed him to keep himself in football shape, Sarah goes her one better, asking Todd to kiss her, just for the stir it will cause among the other moms. Todd agrees and the kiss is enough to spark a romance that will engulf their lives and have drastic implications on both marriages.
Sneaking around to meet for trysts, Todd and Sarah begin a summer love affair reminiscent of their high-school years. Perrotta cleverly places the two lovers in scenarios that expose how they've regressed back to teenage mentalities. At one point, Sarah parks herself outside of Todd's house trying to catch a glimpse of his wife. When she finally sees her, Sarah is crushed:
When another mother dares Sarah to introduce herself to Todd, whom the playground moms have dubbed "The Prom King," because his days as a stay-at-home dad have allowed him to keep himself in football shape, Sarah goes her one better, asking Todd to kiss her, just for the stir it will cause among the other moms. Todd agrees and the kiss is enough to spark a romance that will engulf their lives and have drastic implications on both marriages.
Sneaking around to meet for trysts, Todd and Sarah begin a summer love affair reminiscent of their high-school years. Perrotta cleverly places the two lovers in scenarios that expose how they've regressed back to teenage mentalities. At one point, Sarah parks herself outside of Todd's house trying to catch a glimpse of his wife. When she finally sees her, Sarah is crushed:
"She was one of those girls, the ones from high school who made you stick your finger down your throat after lunch, the ones who made you look in the mirror and cry." Its high school drama all over again, but now there are children, mortgages, and bills to further muss everything up.
Perrotta, whose previous novels include Election and Joe College, has already established himself as a smart and witty chronicler of suburbia. While the idea that suburban life is imperfect is certainly not a new one and many authors have tackled it before (Richard Yates, John Cheever, and John Updike among others), Perrotta's novels consistently feel fresh. He has a knack for pinpointing the insecurities and doubts that plague us all, and which motivate us in making some of the best and worst decisions of our lives. After all, although his characters may be "average" Americans, Perrotta shows us that even white bread grows a little mold.
Perrotta, whose previous novels include Election and Joe College, has already established himself as a smart and witty chronicler of suburbia. While the idea that suburban life is imperfect is certainly not a new one and many authors have tackled it before (Richard Yates, John Cheever, and John Updike among others), Perrotta's novels consistently feel fresh. He has a knack for pinpointing the insecurities and doubts that plague us all, and which motivate us in making some of the best and worst decisions of our lives. After all, although his characters may be "average" Americans, Perrotta shows us that even white bread grows a little mold.
