The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book was ok. I noticed it on the library shelf and needed something for the weekend.
The story is about a born-again Christian and a sex education teacher in a small town whose paths cross. The teacher says something in class that the Christian right doesn't like and the school changes her curriculum to be about abstinence, and not grounded in science. Most of the book is about each of the two characters' individual lives and how they developed the values they have, then there is some part of the plot about their interactions with each other.
The writing in this book was very good and I enjoyed getting to know each character. Where I felt like the book fell short was in the conflict between the characters. Each one had such a rich back-story and so many complexities, then their interactions with each other just weren't interesting enough to hold my attention.
The other thing about the book I wasn't wild about was that it seemed to make a socio-political statement that sex ed is good while not respecting religion. I thought the depictions of the born-again character and his church were negative stereotypes while the sex ed teacher was a really positive character - I agree with him, don't get me wrong. I believe in sex ed and science and all that. I just think that the story would have been more interesting if the Christian side of the story were more accessible.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment