The Abstinence Teacher A Novel [Paperback]

Perrotta is that rare combination: a satirist with heart&.Those who haven't curled up on the couch with this writer's books are missing a very great pleasure. SeattleTimes

Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise children: it's got good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate market. Parents in the town are involved in their children's lives, and often in other children's lives, toocoaching sports, driving carpool, focusing on enriching experiences. Ruth Ramsey is the high school human sexuality teacher whose openness is not appreciated by all her studentsor their parents. Her daughter's soccer coach is Tim Mason, a former stoner and rocker whose response to hitting rock bottom was to reach out and be saved. Tim's introduction of Christianity on the playing field horrifies Ruth, while his evangelical church sees a useful target in the loose-lipped sex ed teacher. But when these two adversaries in a small-town culture war actually talk to each other, a surprising friendship begins to develop.

Nobody renders the world of soccer moms and sprinklers and SUVs like Perrotta. He's the Steinbeck of suburbia. Time

Tom Perrotta is a truth-telling, unshowy chronicler of modern-day America. The NewYork Times Book Review(in a front-page review)

The Abstinence Teacherilluminates the powerful emotions that run beneath the placid surface of modern American family life, and explores the complicated spiritual and sexual lives of ordinary people. It is elegantly and simply written, characterized by the distinctive mix of satire and compassion that has become Perrotta's trademark.

1.) There are numerous references to Ruth and Tim's past sexual experiences scattered throughout the novel. How do these anecdotes color the debate about sex education at the center of the narrative?

2.) Is Ruth the victim of a witch hunt, or a teacher who went too far and deserved to be reined in by hlƒ.