The Abstinence Teacher, Tom Perrotta
The Abstinence Teacher, Tom Perrotta
5 Rating(s)
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

The Abstinence Teacher
A Novel

Author: Tom Perrotta

Narrator: Campbell Scott

Unabridged: 10 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/16/2007


Synopsis

The Abstinence Teacher illuminates the powerful emotions that run beneath the placid surface of modern American family life, and explores the complicated spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people. It is elegantly and simply written, characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that has become Tom Perrotta's trademark.

Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise children: it's got good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market. Parents in the town are involved in their children's lives, and often in other children's lives, too—coaching sports, driving carpool, focusing on enriching experiences. Ruth Ramsey is the high school human sexuality teacher whose openness is not appreciated by all her students—or their parents. Her daughter's soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tim's introduction of Christianity on the playing field horrifies Ruth, while his evangelical church sees a useful target in the loose-lipped sex ed teacher. But when these two adversaries in a small-town culture war actually talk to each other, a surprising friendship begins to develop.

"Perrotta is that rare combination: a satirist with heart….Those who haven't curled up on the couch with this writer's books are missing a very great pleasure."—Seattle Times

"Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America."—The New York Times Book Review (in a front-page review)

About Tom Perrotta

Tom Perrotta is the author of several works of fiction: Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, Election, and the New York Times bestselling Joe College and Little Children. Election and Little Children were made into critically acclaimed movies. The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher were both adapted into HBO series. He lives outside of Boston.

About Campbell Scott

Campbell Scott’s many audiobook narrations include Stephen King's The Shining, Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit, Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain, and Tom Perotta's The Abstinence Teacher.  Scott has won an AudioFile Earphones Award and was an Audie Finalist for Best Narrator. Additionally, Scott is a critically-acclaimed actor and director, appearing in such films as The Amazing Spiderman, Music and Lyrics, The Secret Lives of Dentists, Phoebe in Wonderland, and Dying Young.  He has also performed in the television series Royal Pains, Damages, and Six Degrees.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Fabian

Mr. Perrotta creates self-fulfilling demimondes in intricate, contemporary detail. But it's all sound and fury. This one's about what occurs when the Religious Right clashes with more modern and shall we say promiscuous tastes. His best is the hilarious "Joe College." His worst, strangely enough: "T......more

Goodreads review by Tessa

Va puteti imagina o scoala unde elevii au ore de "Sexualitate umana" si unde "profa" se duce imbracata in fusta scurta, bluza stramta si sandale cu toc cui? Si iata ca perspectiva de a sta la ore si chiar de a sustine un examen nu mai este asa de sumbra, mai ales ca va ganditi (baietii) ca poate exi......more

Goodreads review by Jason

(My entire review of this book is much longer than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].) As I've mentioned here a couple of times before, I've recently become a fairly big fan of movie-friendly author Tom Perr......more

2.5 Stars The Abstinence Teacher is a pretty solid near-three-star read from Tom Perrotta, though I thought he really could've gone a lot farther with his observations on the rift between the religious right and the secular left. It does, though, serve as an ideal warm-up to his (in my opinion) much......more


Quotes

“He's the Steinbeck of suburbia.” —Time

“A finely wrought novel.” —Jerry Eberle, Booklist

“Perrotta is that rare combination: a satirist with heart….Those who haven't curled up on the couch with this writer's books are missing a very great pleasure.” —Seattle Times

“Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Ruefully humorous and tenderly understanding of human folly: the most mature, accomplished work yet from this deservedly bestselling author.” —Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

“Rife with Perrotta's subtle and satiric humor.” —Publishers Weekly

“Extraordinary...at once suspenseful, ruefully funny, and ultimately generous...” —The New York Times Book Review on Little Children

“Perrotta is that rare writer equally gifted at drawing people's emotional maps...and creating sidesplitting scenes. Suburban comedies don't come any sharper.” —People on Little Children

“A virtuoso set of overlapping character studies.” —The Washington Post on Little Children

“A precise and witty evocation of the sweet, mind-numbing routines and everyday marital conflicts...an effervescent new work.” —Entertainment Weekly on Little Children


Awards

  • Publishers Weekly Listen Up Awards: Best in Category
  • iTunes Best Audiobooks
  • Audible.com Best of the Year