Domestic bliss weathers a shock

Tom Perrotta is catching up with us, and what used to be funny is starting to draw blood. His witty satire of high school politics in "Election" (1997) was tucked safely in nostalgia for most readers. Even when he graduated to "Joe College" in 2000, his skewering humor was still pointed back at the dorm days of the early '80s. But now with "Little Children," Perrotta has moved into the suburbs with a wrecking ball.

Of course, the tranquility of middle-class bliss has been rudely interrupted by American authors since Sherwood Anderson tore the covers off "Winesburg, Ohio." You would think there were only so many ways to portray the shiny suburbs as dens of boredom, banality, and sexual frustration, but Perrotta has cooked up recipes of depravity that would curl Betty Crocker's hair.

In the late '90s, "women's lib" sounds quaint to the sophisticated women in Perrotta's pleasant East Coast neighborhood. They've all graduated from college prepared for impressive jobs, while taking on the old duties of homemaker and motherhood. They're equally familiar with Tom Peters and Dr. Seuss, their lives effectively tabulated by Franklin Covey to coordinate staff meetings, play dates, and sexual intimacy.

Sarah, Perrotta's antihero and the mother of a 3-year-old, doesn't fit comfortably into this scene of parental one-upmanship. A women's studies major now trapped in domesticity, she feels both superior and inadequate next to the tight, tanned supermoms who rule the sand box.

Perrotta's satire of this have-it-all set strikes tones that will delight any parent who's less than perfect. Mary Anne, for instance, lectures about the benefits of her strictly enforced 7 p.m. bedtime; her diaper bag is a well-stocked pantry and pharmacy; and her 100-percent-juice juiceboxes are always served chilled.

Meanwhile, Sarah's life is a boring, disorganized trial. "It wasn't easy to tell one weekday from the next anymore," she thinks. "They all just melted together like a bag of crayons left out in the sun." When she can't find an old rice cake for her whiny daughter, Mary Anne comes to the rescue with a bag of Goldfish crackers. "It's nothing," she reassures Sarah. "I just hate to see her suffer like that."

This story of suburban unhappiness revolves around an unlikely affair between Sarah and a hunky stay-at-home dad she meets at the playground. Todd cares for his son and procrastinates studying for the bar exam (third try). His gorgeous wife would like to have more children, but somebody's got to bring home a salary.

"Little Children" is a test of Tolstoy's claim that "All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." There are no happy families in this satire, and all the unhappy families are unhappy in almost exactly the same way. Again and again, we see well- educated 30-somethings with all the advantages bickering about who gets stuck taking care of the kids. The adorable little pests constantly interrupt the workout or the business trip or the illicit affair.

Page: 1 | 2