Barely finished it, and still not sure how or why I did...

Tom Perrotta tortures me by asking questions in the form of situations that make me look at myself and ask, "How would I respond in this situation? What would I do?" and it's very uncomfortable because the answers are never easy. This book didn't do that. It started off with that sort of feel, but something of that controversy got lost. I started off immediately able to identify with Ruth, but soon became frustrated with her, because she never DID anything. She didn't fight the people who were forcing her to teach something she didn't believe in, she didn't fight the religious right because the soccer coach was too cute, and she never took her sex life into her own hands - which I truly thought she would because she did so fearlessly as a teenager. I wanted to really like Tim, but I felt he was so emasculated by his "religion" that he was unable to do anything either. There were characters thrown into the story that I thought were completely extraneous - Randall and Gregory, for instance. George Dykstra. Carrie was an interesting character, and I would have liked the eventual fight scene to have received more attention. It was a great concept of a novel, with meaty subjects, but it just never panned out. There was too much attention paid to Ruth and Tim's unrequited attraction and not enough time given to possible solutions or actions for the very real issues being addressed in the novel.

Don't waste your reading eyes ...

This book was poorly researched, poorly written, and isn't worth a second glance. This is not Perrotta at his best, he can do so much better. Don't waste your reading eyes ...

Disappointing

This book starts out so dynamically and with so much potential that it's hard not to get engaged in it. However, it tends to fall short around the last 1/4 of the book, with the focus shifting to a love story. Were I to make this into a movie, it would be the classic Jennifer Lopez formula: Boy and Girl are on opposite sides of an issue. Somehow, without ever resolving their conflict, they fall in love.

Great book!

I read this book straight through. It would be a great book to open up discussion with parents and their kids about faith AND sex.

choose a side and enjoy

In my favorite chapter, Ruth and 3 other sex-ed teachers are having to write an essay on a sexual encounter that they regret. The fundamentalist woman in charge promises that she won't be judgmental--yeah, right. One teacher is a lesbian who writes about her first and only hookup with a guy. Then another woman writes about having sex with her best friend's husband-to-be. Then a guy writes about having sex with a minor. It's just too morbidly funny, because you can't help being judgmental. Ruth realizes that she regrets virtually ALL of her sexual encounters, and yet she's furious about having to advocate abstinence to high schoolers. Actually, the book is not so much about abstinence as it is about the conflict between the religious right and those of us who still believe in the separation of church and state. Tim is a soccer coach and reformed alcoholic whose life has been turned around by Christianity. When he leads the team in prayer after a big win, Ruth jumps into action, yanking her daughter from the circle. Ruth is feisty and righteously indignant, and I applauded her chutzpah, especially when she slaps Tim for lying to her. It would be easy to say that these two characters are an example of how opposites attract, but really their relationship is more complicated than that, as they try to meet each other halfway. Although Tim has remarried, both Tim and Ruth are trying to raise daughters jointly with their former spouses, and in some ways they're each responsible for the difficulties that the other is grappling with. Ruth's best friends are a gay couple, and when they hit a rocky spot because Gregory won't propose to Russell, Ruth suggests perhaps Russell should propose instead. She and Tim have a role reversal as well. She is obviously the stronger party and the gatekeeper of their relationship, driving away the forces, such as Pastor Dennis, who have a stranglehold on Tim's life.