The Abstinence Teacher - Hardcover

Perrotta, Tom

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312358334 ISBN 13: 9780312358334

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 2007

Synopsis

Teaching human sexuality from a perspective that information and pleasure are top priorities, divorced mom Ruth Ramsey butts heads with the local soccer coach, a divorced former addict who became an evangelical Christian after hitting rock bottom. By the author of Joe College. 200,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

'Highly entertaining...At heart, this very funny, very engaging novel poses a question that seems all too pertinent in our Manichean times – why are we afraid of doubts and the mess that is human existence? And why, oh why, does there have to be a goddam answer to everything?' The Times

‘An expectedly serious, fair–minded and humane look at a lonely woman and a searching man. It is surprising and unusually loving towards its characters. Perrotta is especially good on that thorniest of questions, why Americans are so drawn to evangelical Christianity.' Guardian

‘The Abstinence Teacher is an entertaining exposé of the visible disparity between America's unconquerable Puritanism and its still less conquerable wellsprings of sexual desire.' Arena

'A good writer who has produced a novel of ideas, centred around the culture wars that currently convulse the United States.' The Tablet

Praise for his previous books:

‘Suspenseful, ruefully funny and ultimately generous... an American Chekhov whose characters even at their most ridiculous seem blessed and ennobled by a luminous human aura.’ New York Times

‘Perrotta is like an American Nick Hornby: companionable and humane, lighthearted and surprisingly touching.’ Newsweek

‘Unalloyed reading pleasure...most readers will probably end up standing at the footlights, hooting for an encore.’ New York Times

About the Author:

Tom Perrotta is the author of five previous works of fiction: Bad Haircut, The Wishbones, Election, and the New York Times bestsellers Joe College and Little Children. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0312358334
• ISBN 13: 9780312358334
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320