What I like most about Perrotta’s characters is that they seem so real, so normal, flawed but basically OK. I feel like I both identify with them and I really know them, that they are my friends and neighbors. His latest novel is no exception. Set in the suburbs, it chronicles a summer in the lives of several people who aren’t quite sure how they ended up where they are, who didn’t consciously make the decisions that led them to this neighborhood, this marriage, this life. Two of the characters, Todd and Sarah, begin an affair that plays out like a high school romance, even culminating in Todd’s victory on the football field with Sarah cheering him on. But Perrotta doesn’t try to deceive us that life is this idyllic teenage fairy tale. Life is not ideal; it’s more often confusing or messy or just plain work, and we the readers are a little relieved and glad when the novel leads us, and Sarah, to this conclusion. Because that is more satisfying than the fairy tale.

“Beauty’s overrated. Only someone who took his own beauty for granted could have been able to say something so outrageously stupid with a straight face.”

I have been waiting for a novel like this. I just wanted a fun-to-read book that wasn’t mindless entertainment and this book exceeded all expectations. It is about a collection of characters and their families, who are challenged by their relationships, their love for their families and the tensions that develop between people with opposing viewpoints. The story centers around the fear that seizes the community after a convicted sex offender moves into the neighborhood. The book is ver clever and smart and the author writes both male and female points of view equally well. I got totally sucked into the story and couldn’t stop reading until the conclusion. No, this book doesn’t have a traditionally “happy ending”, but it is a book that contains truth and empathy and offers a narrative that is a joy to sink into.