Stonewood Heights is the perfect place to raise children: it has
the proverbial good schools, solid values and a healthy real estate
market. It's the kind of place where parents are involved in their
children's lives-coaching sports, driving carpool, taking an
interest in their development at every level. The Abstinence
Teacher focuses on two divorced parents who each play key roles in
the lives of other people's children: Ruth Ramsey is the human
sexuality teacher at the local high school who believes that
pleasure is good, shame is bad, and knowledge is power. Her younger
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 is a member of The Tabernacle, the local evangelical
Christian church that wants to take its message outside the doors
of its own sanctuary, and sees a useful target in Ruth Ramsey.
Adversaries in a small-town culture war, Ruth and Tim instinctively
distrust one another. But when a controversy on the playing field
forces the two of them to actually talk to each other, an uneasy
friendship begins to develop. The Abstinence Teacher illuminates
the powerful emotions that run beneath the placid surface of modern
family life, and explores the complicated spiritual and sexual
lives of ordinary people. Elegantly and simply written, the book
has the distinctive mix of satire and compassion readers have
responded to in Perrotta's other novels. Ruth arrived late and
mildly hungover for her daughter's soccer game on Saturday morning.
Smiling queasily, she made her way down the sideline, nodding hello
to the more punctual parents, many of whom she hadn't seen in quite
a while. Afew of the spectators were sitting in collapsible chairs,
but most were on their feet, chatting in sociable clumps as they
sipped from state-of-the-art stainless steel travel mugs, giving
the whole scene the air of an outdoor cocktail party. As usual,
Ruth's ex-husband, Frank, had removed himself from the talkers, his
attention focused solely on the game. He stood like the baseball
player he'd once been - knees bent, hands resting on his thighs -
observing the action with an expression of intense absorption that
Ruth might have mistaken for disgust if she hadn't known him so
well. Morning, she said, tugging gently on his sleeve. How we
doing? Tied at two, he muttered, shooting her a reproachful glance.
First half's almost over. Maggie thought you forgot. I overslept.
Ever hear of an alarm clock? Didn't go off, she explained, leaving
out the part about how she''unplugged the thing in a fit of
three-in-the-morning insomniac misery. Because, really, what was
worse than lying wide awake in the dark, watching your life drip
away, one irreplaceable minute after another? --from The Abstinence
Teacher From the Hardcover edition.
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