Little Children

by Tom Perrotta

Book Overview

Tom Perrotta's thirty-ish parents of young children are a varied and surprising bunch. There's Todd, the handsome stay-at-home dad dubbed "The Prom King" by the moms of the playground; Sarah, a lapsed feminist with a bisexual past, who seems to have stumbled into a traditional marriage; Richard, Sarah's husband, who has found himself more and more involved with a fantasy life on the internet than with the flesh and blood in his own house; and Mary...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312315716
• ISBN13: 9780312315719
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.8" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

more than I expected!

This a a must read if you are in a book club! I didn't know what it was about when I went into reading it. Kind of just went off of the title. I wasn't far off. However, the way the author laid out the characters. I was kind of mad at myself for building up these walls and making these judgments. I was hooked from the beginning and it was SO very worth it! the end will make you cry.

A novel for grown-ups

This is a wise and humane novel and one of the very few American novels to deal with marital and extramarital sex with honesty and understanding. Both the plotting and the characterization are exceptional and I hope this book finds a much wider audience.

Decent people beware.

Little Children was my favorite movie of 2006, and also my sister's favorite. So someone gave my sister a copy of the book it was based on. After she finished it, she gave it to me. It is a lot like the movie, only longer, since it doesn't have a two hour time limit. There are many extra scenes here that didn't make it into the movie. Much more background into the characters' past. One main difference between the book and the movie is that the actors in the movie don't match the descriptions of the characters in the book (not that they have to). The main difference plotwise is that the character of Ronnie meets a different fate in the book and the movie. Anyway, this is a great book which I enjoyed very much.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

For the record, I would only give 6 or so books a year 5 stars. I'm not someone who hands them out like candy on Halloween. That being said, Perotta's novel is a highly involving surburban satire that is difficult to put down. Some may say that he isn't making much of a point, and maybe that's true, but what a humorous and enjoyable read. A handful of characters living in the suburbs interact over a time period of a couple of months. There are affairs and vandalism and gossip, and much like Joe College was a vivid evocation of University life, this novel is an honest depiction of yuppie life. The characters aren't necessary likable, since they all have flaws, but they ARE fun to read about. His choice of title is very accurate and sums up the novel well. If you have ever lived in the suburbs, you will recognize some of these characters as your friends and neighbors. I also thought his depiciton of the child molester character was simultaneously sympathetic and accurate. A fast read.

Well-written, irreverent, mostly honest = great satire

I'm a loving mom to two boys (8 yrs old, 16 months old), married, work full-time, and have little time to read -- but I MADE time to finish this one. I recommend it especially to other parents of young children trying to do the marriage/house/kids suburban thing and finding it's not always all it's hyped to be. (And I suspect we are many!) Found myself identifying with Sarah as she tried to measure up to the moms on the playground, identifying with Kathy as she realized what was happening to her marriage, truly wondering what in fact was going to happen with Sarah and Todd (and although a bit disappointed by their decisions, I know most of us would do the very same thing)...and who could resist wanting to know what ends up happening to the panty-sniffer, the molester, Mary Ann, and the football team? I advise those reviewers who were offended by this book to get a dictionary and review the definition of "satire"...or just stick with the Nicholas Sparks books if you want non-offensive. As for LITTLE CHILDREN, what a cast and what a slice of (exaggerated, but basically accurate) reality.

Absolutely Superb

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.