Ruth is a sex education teacher in a high school who is increasingly frustrated by the new abstinence curriculum. Tim is an ex-musician, ex-addict who is struggling with his faith and his marriage. Tim is also the football coach of Ruth's daughter and when the team prays at the end of a football match, Ruth and Tim's life collide.
The Abstinence Teacher is a thought-provoking book, not in a shout-the-loudest-speaker corner way but a gentle chat with someone you admire but disagree with way. Perrotta is more interested in seeing how his well-rounded characters make choices rather than using them as a way to score points in this complex debate about religion in America. The novel is also satisfying sloppy; not neat and happy endings just the feeling that the two characters that you have grow to love will continue to muddle through just as they always have.
"Later, after Tim left, she realised - though maybe it was a less of matter of realising than of being able to admit it to herself - that she'd secretly been hoping to find herself enmeshed in one of those corny "opposites attract" narratives that were so appealing to writers of sit-coms and romantic comedies...
Luckily for Ruth, this ridiculous fantasy crumbled immediately upon contact with reality"
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