``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 Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise children: it\'s got good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market.
It is elegantly and simply written, characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that has become Perrotta\'s trademark..
He\'s the Steinbeck of suburbia.``-- Time ``Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America.``-- The New York Times Book Review (in a front-page review) 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. ``Nobody renders the world of soccer moms and sprinklers and SUVs like Perrotta.
But when these two adversaries in a small-town culture war actually talk to each other, a surprising friendship begins to develop.
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.
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.
Ruth Ramsey is the high school human sexuality Teacher whose openness is not appreciated by all her students--or their parents.
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. ``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 Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise children: it\'s got good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market
