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By: Kirsten Law
Date: 21st May 08
Format: Book
Motivation: Improve your dinner conversation
What:
The Abstinence Teacher
Who:
Tom Perrotta
Where:
Everywhere, except, maybe, Borders
How much:
RRP $29.95
Teacher says oral sex OK!
In The Abstinence Teacher, Tom Perrotta (Election, Little Children) takes an average North American town and adds an evangelical congregation called the Tabernacle, whose fearless leader believes Lara Croft is an ‘abomination' and deems ‘hot [marital] Christian sex' the only sex acceptable.
In this climate of encroaching conservatism, Ruth Ramsey's straight-talking sex-ed lectures don't gel and are subject to intervention by Tabernacle sympathisers. Through Ruth's love/hate relationship with her daughter's born-again soccer coach, a reformed drug-user and musician, the seemingly unresolvable conflict between the Christian right and the liberal-minded the world over is given a human face.
But Perrotta is not an author who takes sides; he lets his characters make their own mistakes, which is where the true value of his work lies. The Abstinence Teacher is funny and accessible, and, with the growing influence of places like the Hillsong Church, is so pertinent, it hurts. An airport novel it may be, but an important one.