The New England suburbia Tom Perrotta dissects in his fifth novel pits would-be guardians of morality against those who prefer leading their lives in a more open-minded way. “The Abstinence Teacher” sets human-sexuality instructor Ruth Ramsey against Tim Mason, a loan officer with a druggie past and newfound Christian faith.
Perrotta, who proved himself adept at reconciling dichotomies in the smart novel “Election” and “Little Children,” its deeper, darker successor, gets this unlikely couple together with maximum intelligence, minimum melodrama and a sharp, funny sense of irony.
At the beginning, you might suspect Perrotta aims to vamp on a 2005 case pitting school board against parents in Dover, Pa., over “intelligent design” (it was settled in favor of the parents when a federal judge ruled “intelligent design” was creationism in disguise).
But no; Perrotta is after something sexier, putting the attractive Ramsey at odds with her domineering, starchy school board when she tells her class she doesn’t condemn oral sex and has two students act out a scene designed to illustrate the danger of “going too far.”
Meanwhile, Mason, a former stoner rocker who has found Christ with Pastor Dennis, the manipulative leader of the Tabernacle, the
local evangelical Christian church, coaches the school’s soccer team, which includes Ramsey’s daughter – and his own daughter. When he bands his players in prayer, Ramsey balks
and alienates her daughter, the impressionable Maggie.
Meanwhile (many “meanwhiles” keep this book moving and give it texture), Mason marries a passive, ultimately honest Christian girl at Pastor Dennis’ bequest. Ruth struggles with her own desires, has a striking, failed encounter, after many years, with her first lover and finds solace with Gregory and Randall, a gay couple who decide to get married in Massachusetts. “The Abstinence Teacher” is strikingly contemporary and topical.
It’s also very tartly written. Take this summary of a class assembly addressed by a highly sexualized virgin who celebrates abstinence:
“The lights came on, and the students applauded enthusiastically, though Ruth wasn’t quite sure if they were applauding for the hot sex JoAnn would have in the future or her commitment to avoiding it in the here and now… JoAnn Marlow had somehow pulled off the neat feat of seeming sexy and puritanical at the same time, of impersonating a feminist while articulating a set of ideas that would have seemed retro in 1954, of making abstinence seem steamy and adventurous, a right-wing American variation on Tantric sex. It was a little scary.”
Perrotta delivers similarly deft descriptions of Faith Keepers assemblies, the male bonding opportunities poker games afford and rock constituencies spanning punk devotees and Deadheads. Readers from boomers to 30-somethings will identify with various aspects of “The Abstinence Teacher,” a smartly written inquiry that adroitly sidesteps sentimentality and anger as it delves into the culture wars that bedevil the American body politic.
Cleveland freelance writer Carlo Wolff is the author of “Cleveland Rock & Roll Memories.”
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FICTION
The Abstinence Teacher, by Tom Perrotta, $24.95
