Rating: 
Summary: Perrotta hits another home run
Review: Anyone who's ever been bored to tears pushing their child on a swing for the umpteenth time will be amazed to discover how much drama Little Children can cull from the interaction between parents who meet regularly at their neighborhood playground. The novels gets inside the heads and explores the arrested development of more than a half dozen characters including Sarah, a formerly bisexual feminist trapped in a loveless marriage; Todd, a stay-at-home dad who is studying for the bar after two failed attempts and who is so handsome the moms at the playground call him "The Prom King"; May, the mother of a convicted child molester who's resettled into the neighborhood; Larry an ex-cop who mistakenly killed a local kid and who is now obsessed with tormenting the child molester; Richard, Sarah's husband, who's become obsessed with Internet sex; and Todd's wife Kathy, the beauty queen who needs to rescue her marriage after Sarah and Todd start an affair.There are very funny scenes here -- Sarah walking in on her husband while he's pleasuring himself while sniffing panties he received through the mail from an Internet porn queen; Sarah getting her revenge against the neighborhood's Supermom Snob over a discussion of Madame Bovary at a ladies' book club meeting. Some of the most poignant moments come from the mundane details Perrotta can mine from the moments when people should feel transported -- Sarah smelling pool chlorine and thinking about all her pathetic previous rejections while she's ecstatic about making love to someone as handsome as the Prom King. There's never a false note with any of the characters' interior monologues -- ranging from Sarah's angst over buying a bikini that will sufficently entice Todd to Todd's inability to understand why he's become obsessed with watching teenage skateboarders while he's avoiding studying for the bar. It's a great testimony to Perrotta's depth and range. He's often compared with Nick Hornby, but the humor here comes not so much from clever one liners, but rather the feelings of the characters. (That doesn't mean there aren't some very funny one-liners here, too. Several times I laughed out load reading the book). It all builds to an exciting climax at the very playground where the Little Children -- the kids, the parents who behave like children, and the man who's obsessed with them -- meet.
Rating: 
Summary: Perrotta fans will enjoy -- especially 30 somethings.
Review: Little Children is as easy and as fun to read as any Perrotta book to date. I was hooked only a few pages into it and I stayed in awe of its realism and insight into my own world of young children, marriage, and friendships for the first hundred pages. I also love the pop-culture references. The brief passage about Sarah's Blues Clues fantasy is as hilarious as any character's in Election or other Perrotta work. Perrotta's characters are amazing. They are well rounded and complicated without readers having to dig through pages of otherwise pointless digressions and descriptions to understand them. Unfortunately, I thought the book lost some steam down the stretch. It is awkward how some of the characters such as Mary Ann re-appear after being forgotten for sometime. Also, some of the circumstances are a little far-fetched (fun but a little hokey). I am eager to discuss this book with other readers. My feeling is that most fans of Perrotta will like it, but maybe not as much as his other books. Overall, I really liked the book and eagerly await his next. I hope another one of his books will soon be converted to a movie.
Rating:
Summary: American Beauty, only more literate and heart-wrenching
Review: This scathing view of suburbia is the very fear I've had of leaving the city for the four-lane-strip-mall-minivan world of the suburbs. I found it heart-wrenchingly sad, poignant and funny and sometimes a little close to home. If you read this book and you are a young parent living in a suburb it would scare the crap out of you.
Rating:
Summary: My casting choices
Review: Terrific book. One of my favorite movies is ELECTION, however I was just a tad disappointed with the book (which I read after seeing the movie). It wasn't that the book was bad, it's just that the movie was so great. Anyway, Perotta's latest book kicks ELECTION's butt. So, here are my casting ideas: Vince Vaughn for Todd (I know Brad Pitt's an obvious choice, but Vince hasn't done anything relatively serious in a while), Lili Taylor for Sarah, Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Ronnie (once again, a bit too obvious, but that's because he'd be perfect), Kate Beckinsale for Kathy, Will Smith for Larry (it wouldn't hurt to get a little bit of color into this story).
Rating:
Summary: Excellent work and a captivating read
Review: This book transports you into a world that's as interesting as it is mundane. Tom Perrotta does for the stay-at-home culture what "American Beauty" did for the middle-class family; he made something so mundane into something so captivating. It's hard to figure out exactly how he manages to make such boring, average lives into a book you can't put down. Sure there are intrigues, but nothing sensational or overblown as you might see in a movie.
Another note I have to mention [not a spoiler]. You soon learn that one of the characters that makes up the web of this book is a convicted child molester who's recently moved into the neighborhood. Some neighbors are outraged and want him gone; others are a bit more sympathetic to his plight. But Perrotta doesn't make it easy for you to take your own stance; the man is not a monster or a saint, you have to make your own decision. And I have an incredible amount of respect for his ability to write a character like that, when it would be so easy to go strongly one way or the other.
Rating:
Summary: Superior Story
Review: Tom Perrotta nails a bullseye with this book. The suburban characters we meet are faced with less-than-perfect lives that aren't what they envisioned themselves having, and it would surprise me if there were readers unable to identify with one of the leads. The deus ux machina of the novel comes from a newly paroled child-molester who moves into town, ratcheting up the suburbanites' fear factor and motivating them into making some questionable decisions.
A fascinating read, and a book sure to generate conversation.
Rating:
Summary: Perrota changes direction -- and delivers again!
Review: This time around, Perrotta takes satirical aim at the stifling confinement of suburban middle-class existence. Perrota's male characters are lost, utterly bewildered as to how they've landed in their unremarkable lives, saddled with spouses and mortgages and children. Having drifted, almost involuntarily, into adulthood, they suddenly snap awake, and begin a dismayed accounting of their lives, all facing the same choice: do they resign themselves to the lifelong tedium of the roles outlined for them by society, or risk the censure of family and friends by abandoning the façade of responsible adulthood and striking out alone after individual happiness?
Perrotta's characters are likable and, on a modest scale, tragic; from Sarah's halfhearted forays into being a strong-minded, independent feminist to Mary Ann's hard-won Martha Stewart perfection, their very natures are what will dictate the course of their lives and their inevitable discontent.
LITTLE CHILDREN is certainly a pleasure to read, with all of the sly humor and deft observation that Perrotta does so well. Whether it's the subtle jockeying for power among playground mothers, or the threadbare, joyless sexual relationship between long-married spouses, his prose is sparkling and clever.
Surrounded by abundance and prosperity, free from any real hardship, the characters must invent reasons to be unhappy in order to give their lives dramatic shape; deliberating over which playground to take their children to, or which fruit juice is really the healthiest, only points up the futility and insignificance of their existence. There's plenty of inherent irony in the self-important, status-obsessed suburban lifestyle, and Perrotta mines it to the fullest - if you didn't know better, you might think the author himself had done time among backyard BBQs and afternoon play dates. This is a terrific read -- don't hesitate to pick up a copy! Also recommended: THE LOSERS CLUB: Complete Restored Edition by Richard Perez -- another wonderfully engaging, funny -- albeit obscure -- Amazon quick-pick. THE LOSERS CLUB and LITTLE CHILDREN -- are definitely my favorite two purchases this year.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing letdown
Review: As a fan of other satirical novels and films lambasting white, thirty-something surbubia, I had high hopes for Perrotta's book. Sadly, they were quickly dashed. The dialogue wasn't believable (who really uses the word "creep" anymore?) and I felt absolutely nothing for any of the characters. Perhaps this was Perrotta's intention, but if that is the case then he needed to add something new to the discussion about dysfunctional suburban life. In this respect, he failed.
In addition, the novel was quickly and awkwardly wrapped up in the final 5 pages or so. It's almost as if Perrotta himself couldn't quite believe what he was writing and wanted to be done with it.
Rating: 
Summary: Master of puppets
Review: Like "Being John Malkovich," the hero of "Little Children" is a puppeteer--but in the novel's case the puppeteer is the author, smirking from the behind the scenes at the misadventures of his creations. Perrotta is dead-on in capturing 30-something anomie and delusions of suburban life, and he's skilled at creating a plot that's compelling and just this side of outlandish. But the novel was gone from my mind as soon as the last page was turned--recent chick flick "The Wedding Date" was more thought-provoking. It's a good read, but basically an empty shell. Oh well, what do you expect from a puppet show?
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: This is one of the best books I have read in years. This is kind of a "yuppie" version of a Richard Russo novel. The story has various characters that face many of the same temptations as most people do and seem to act on them without thought to the consequences to their lives.
The two main characters are Todd, a "thirtyish" father who never stopped being a teenage football hero that all the girls were crazy about in high school. Todd got married to one of the popular girls (Kathy) from college, who become the typical working mother who kept her good looks. Todd is supposed to be using the summer days to study for the bar exam but he prefers to hang out in front of skateboarders and envy them and he later gets roped into playing a dangerous game of football in a league with some cops.
Then there is Sarah, who is like a lost teenager, unsure about her sexuality, who married an older man just to try to bring some sanity to her life. She is a good mother but still looking for meaning in her life. Her husband loves to use the Internet chat sites and gets involved with some pornographic sites. One day Sarah catches him doing something "disgusting" and loses whatever feeling she may have had for him.
Sarah, hangs out at the playground with her young daughter trying to "fit in" with the other mothers there but she finds their conversations empty and finds the women annoying, especially Mary Ann, a control freak that already has her four year old on a path to Harvard and "allows" her husband to make love to her only on Tuesdays.
The mothers have one thing in common is that they moon over Todd, who comes to the park everyday with his son. Sarah gets fed up with all their daydreaming about Todd and tells them so. They kind of dare her to go up to him and talk to him. Sarah does them one better and not only goes up to Todd and gets him to kiss her right there in front of the mothers. That kiss sets off sparks, because it not only makes Sarah a pariah to the mothers, but something happens between her and Todd that will make their worlds topsy-turvy.
While the Todd/Sarah love saga unfolds, there is a sub-plot about a paroled child molester who is living in their neighborhood and is being hounded by one of Todd's cop friends. The cop's obsession seems to ruin his life.
The book to me is a kind of what if. Many of us fantasize about some of the things that the characters in the book act upon, but would never have the guts to upset our own "comfortable" lives to act on our desires.
The only downside to the book is that while several of the books characters finally understand themselves at the end, the book seems to end abruptly and I just wish that it could have continued. It would have been nice if the author gave you a "what happened" to the characters at the end, kind of like several movies do.
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