Lovely Little Shelf

Yay! Day #1 and get this: I’m blogging from my in-laws. That’s right, not even at home and I’m doing a full fledged review. Also, I get a minute to myself. So this is an all-around win! If you’re participating in the review-a-thon, don’t forget to go to today’s linky and add the link to your new review!

The Book: Little Children, by Tom Perrotta

The Story: This book starts out in typical suburbia: there are all these “park parents” who spend every day watching their kids at the park, comparing lives, competing for the best children, and doing it totally civilly even when they want to destroy each other.

One day, a “new parent” shows up: Todd.  He’s rugged, handsome and kind of a mess.  Sarah, a “typical” stay-at-home-mom, greets him in a… well.. unusual way.  The other moms are shocked beyond words and thus begins a twisty tale of modern suburbia.

What I Thought: When I first started this book, I was almost floored.  For one year I have been a stay-at-home-mom to a great kid.  I love it, but there are all these conflicting emotions.  Isaac is my world, but sometimes I just want to talk about something else.  I love watching Isaac learn and grow, but sometimes I just want to really use my brain, learn new things, dig into something really intellectual. I’ve wanted this all my life, but now that I’m here, I sometimes have this desire to just run away.

Sarah totally gets this.

The first couple chapters of this book, as Sarah explains her life now, I must have teared up 30 times.  I don’t know how Tom Perrotta saw into the heart of a stay-at-home-mom, but he really, really did.  I was totally into it.

Then it kind of turned into this “affairs are ok as long as you’re happy” thing, which I don’t really believe at all.  The story line got more twisted and I no longer really identified with any of the characters, and suddenly the book lost its initial magic for me.

It was still great, just not in the same way.  I thought it told a provoking story of life today.  I thought that the plotting was great, that it flowed well and that the characters grew and changed in a way that was pretty believable.  I found myself wanting to scoop up the kids of these parents and just hug them and love them and care about them “right.”

Also, the cover is lovely and I heard that the movie they made based on this book was kind of awesome.  I haven’t seen it. Have you? What did you think?

Conclusion: I would recommend this without reservation, especially the first third or so. Good, honest stuff.