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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780312363543
ISBN: 0312363540
Label: St. Martin's Griffin
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: September 02, 2008
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: September 02, 2008
Sales Rank: 14393
Studio: St. Martin's Griffin
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
“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. 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.
“Nobody renders the world of soccer moms and sprinklers and SUVs like Perrotta. 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. It is elegantly and simply written, characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that has become Perrotta’s trademark.
Customer Reviews Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Pointless......amusing in places....but pointless
I made a concerted effort to read this book with an open mind and not let my opinions of the beliefs and views of the characters influence my enjoyment of the book.While there were some enjoyable and amusing parts (my favorite characters in the whole book were Randall and Gregory) I kept waiting for the point to sneak up on you. It never did.
Rating:  - two dimensional characters
straight to the point: this book was a disappointment.
i actually enjoy reading mainstream books that talk about christians. there's an almost voyeuristic fascination with finding out how we'll be portrayed. i'm often quite pleased with the depiction. a great example of this from my fairly recent reading was the young adult fiction book "evolution, me, and other freaks of nature", which (like this book) takes place in a public high school and revolves (at least partially) around a conservative ... Read More
Rating: - Good start
Perrotta, author of ELECTION, is wonderful of capturing the idiosyncrasies and absurdity of modern suburban life. He has a talent for developing believable, realistic characters, people who could be your next door neighbors, and then putting them in such awkward situations that, although they do outlandish things, they don't seem outlandish.
In THE ABSTINENCE TEACHER, a fundamentalist Christian church has moved into town and pushed upon the local school district a curriculum of abstinence over sex education. ... Read More
Rating: - The Abstinence Teacher
This is a truly bad book on so many levels. Flat characters, predictable plot, repetitive dialogue.Don't waste your time.
Rating: - BLAH!
Great premise, and I was into the book in the beginning. It started to just lose the plot and the characters were so poorly developed.The ending...I was like "are you serious? this is it??".Waste of my time. Too bad.
The Abstinence Teacher (Reading Group Gold) |
