Little Children

Little Children is a 2004 novel by the American author Tom Perrotta that interweaves the dark stories of seven main characters, all of whom live in the same suburban Boston neighborhood during the middle of a hot summer. The novel received critical praise, spurring The New York Times to declare Perrotta "an American Chekhov whose characters even at their most ridiculous seem blessed and ennobled by a luminous human aura." The novel was featured on numerous "Best Books of 2004" lists—including The New York Times Book Review, Newsweek, National Public Radio, and People magazine. In 2006, the novel was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film of the same name starring Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, and Patrick Wilson. Plot summary Sarah, who once considered herself a radical feminist, wonders how she allowed herself to be reduced to a common housewife, constantly at the playground with three other neighborhood Stepford-esque mothers whom she can't stand. Her husband, Richard, is much older than she is, and a sort of last alternative for her love life; it is even hinted that she married him only because she feared that she would be stuck in her dead-end job as a Starbucks barista forever if she didn't. When she discovers his addiction to online pornography, she is more apathetic than repulsed. Todd is a handsome young father whom the neighborhood women have nicknamed the "Prom King." One of the other mothers dares Sarah: "Five bucks if you get his phone number." While jokingly discussing the bet, Todd and Sarah engage in a kiss that becomes more passionate than the ruse called for. This leads to an affair between the two, who "happen" to cross each other at the local pool and bring their children to nap together while they have sex on the living room floor.