Joseph Borri 2009-01-05

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

I actually sought this book out after watching the sleeper movie adaptation of it (co-written by the author) that's been playing on cable. The movie stayed very close to the book, though some of the secondary characters' detail was either cut from the final or not fleshed out. But there's so much going on in the book that relates to the desires of adults not wanting to embrace their responsibilities both as parents and partners. Perrotta's sparse writing style packs a wallop though. You feel like you're in the room, whether it's during the intimacy of a sexual tryst between the characters or during the discomfort they feel at a dinner party with their spouses. There's a lot to like and learn from here, while the tale weaves in and out of dark humor and ironic passages. Check this book out. I look forward to now reading Election (which became the brilliant Reese Witherspoon/Matthew Broderick film) and Joe College.

God Sent 4 2008-11-27

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Great book! It had been a long time since I found something to read that wasn't a complete disappointment. Being a stay at home mom myself if I find the time to read a book it better be worth it...this was really worth it. My husband picked this book up for me to read but when he wanted something to read and couldn't find anything at the moment he picked this up and devoured it in one day. He couldn't put it down. He really like it and knew I would too.
He was right, when I finally got a chance to read it (several weeks later) it was time well spent.
There are times when you can see yourself in some of the charters or others you know in some of the charters. Interesting be be on the outside looking in at life and/or what life maybe like for those we know.
I'm off to find other books by this author...

K.Smith 2008-11-02

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

I bought this book used for $1. I'm glad I paid this much for it because while it was very mildly entertaining it had the tiresome plot of rich/middle class white mostly heterosexual people in suburbia having affairs and the plot does go on like a soap opera or like a full season of Desperate Housewives but the book's themes have been covered A LOT before, way too much in my opinion. While this book is supposed to be satire Perrotta isn't that good at writing satire about the suburbs or about rich/middle class heterosexuals.

I like Perrotta's other novels but this one is a big waste of time and totally predictable.

I also agree with the people who wrote about how Perrotta's characters are way too flat and we don't know enough about them and towards the end we learn more about minor characters in the novel who we should have learned more about in the beginning of the novel.

*****SPOILER ALERT***** DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR THE ENDING!





Also the book just ends, out of nowhere. I didn't care about any of the characters or feel sorry, or happy for any of them and two of the main characters who were having an affair were planning to run off and get married or at least stay together as paramours and Todd doesn't show up because he falls while trying to ride a skateboard. How lame of an ending? Also both main characters know where they both live so it's not like they're complete strangers or they'd never see each other again ever.

Also Sarah's husband who goes to San Diego to meet with Slutty Kay/Carla they go out to dinner the day after having sex on the beach and you never hear if they wind up together or if Richard joins the adult entertainment industry.

The pedophile character was totally predictable and so was the ex cop. It would have been better if they hadn't been flat cookie cutter characters that we've all seen before.

Katherine Laura Mayfield 2008-10-13

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

The only reason this book is garnering more than a one-star review from me is for its readability. I actually got into the story (in spite of the disgusting pornographic references--a man breathing into a woman's used panties? Gross!), but felt let down at the end, feeling the events were leading up to a grand finale, but the conclusion was very anticlimactic.

Basically, Todd (the hunky, but pansy stay-at-home dad--not saying stay-at-home dads are prissy, look at Todd Palin, but this one was) staying with his wife just because she's good in the sack, well, need I say more? And how sexist is it that his wife, Kathy, who knows about his affair with Sarah (which only begins because of one kiss--seems like anything will get this guy going), basically prostitutes herself to hold on to her cowboy (or more like would-be-lawyer turned cop). Idiotic.

I felt my intelligence was insulted by reading this, and it's obvious it was written by one of those far-left loons in Massachusetts (I know I'll get negative points for this assessment), but it was obvious what with the whole unnecessary lesbian fling thrown in, the child molester being painted as just an average joe six-pack, the cop accidentally shooting the kid (who just happens to be black--gee, it was an accident, a tragic one, cops are human, too, doggonit, but he really did think the kid had a gun on him and if so many black people didn't commit violent crimes (more unhelpful votes here), maybe he wouldn't have been so anxious) and whose against the child molester being in his neighborhood, the existence of God being mocked, the Christian Mary Ann being painted as a real *itch, Sarah standing up for the sick freak who abuses children in a way that murders their innocence, the use of the term "c*ck", ugh!

It wasn't very believable how all of a sudden, Sarah realized that running away with Todd wasn't the answer to her happiness. It didn't seem like she even enjoyed being a mother and there was Richard, her husband, whining about how his grown daughters from his first marriage took his money, but didn't want anything to do with him, well, can you blame them? He wanted to have them aborted and it's his responsibility to care for them until they turn eighteen. Should have kept it in your pants, pal.

This book was really just too much. I don't think you'll get anything out of it. I am really in the wrong business when rubbish like this not only sells, but gets so many good reviews, and is given a movie deal.

Scott R. Lucado 2008-10-04

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Reading "Little Children", I couldn't help but think of John D. MacDonald, who would've written this kind of story in a couple of weeks--and done a much better job.

I wish I could've enjoyed this novel more, but the characters (or caricatures) just aren't very interesting, and there is no real protagonist.

Instead, we get a routine tale of love and adultery in the suburbs, with a paroled child molester thrown into the mix. Too bad he wasn't a mad bomber; he might've blown up the whole group on page 9 and saved the readers a lot of wasted time.