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Little Children
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Plot Summary of Little Children
"Little Children takes place during a summer in present day suburbia. Everything looks good on the surface, but as with most suburbs, there is a lot of turmoil going on below the surface. The author, Tom Perotta, shows us the problems of several characters. The most shocking problem going on is that a convicted child molester has moved into the neighborhood. One character, Larry, is particularly obsessed with making sure that the molester does not harm any other children. However, this is not the only plot. Tom and Sarah are both stay at home parents to three year olds. They meet for the first time at the Rayburn School playground and begin an intense affair. Tom is also struggling with the fact that he can't pass the bar exam and really doesn't want to be a lawyer anyway. Sarah is struggling with the fact that she no longer loves her much older husband, and that she has no friends and doesn't know what sort of job she would like to have. Perotta also makes sure that we as readers find out about some of the problems of Tom's and Sarah's spouses too. "
Susanna Marlowe, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of Little Children
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - thoughtful
Time/era of story - 1980's-1999
Romance/Romance Problems Yes
Kind of romance: - playing footsy while inconveniently married
Kind of sex: - molestation
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Taboo sex story? Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - homemaker
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status: - accused criminal
Eccentric/Smart/Dumb: Yes
Eccentric: - obsessed - mentally ill - emotionally unstable
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a substantial amount
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Dumb
Physique - quite fatty

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 4 ()
United States Yes
Small town? Yes
Small town people: - hostile, like Gomer Pyle on steroids

Style
Person - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - explicit references to deaths
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - descript of kissing - licking - actual description of hetero sex - descript. of female anat. (the big B's) - rape/molest (yeech!)
Unusual Style: - No single main character?
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to Little Children
Prospect Street by Emilie Richards
South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
Upland Road by Thomas Moore
What Was She Thinking by Zoe Heller
Envy by Kathryn Harrison


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Tom Perrotta Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
fran laniado  

SCHOLARS:
Susanna Marlowe  


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