Ruth Ramsay is a high school sex ed teacher in a suburb somewhere in the USA.  Even though she has been teaching this sensitive subject for over 10 years, or maybe because of this, she gets into trouble for presenting too positive a view of oral sex to a class of ninth graders.  Local conservative Christians protest, and the school quickly caves in to their demands that Ruth should teach abstinence.  Ruth is outraged.  Yet the local fundamentalist church, The Tabernacle of the Gospel Truth, has attracted many followers in recent years, and its followers seem to follow lockstep in their demands that the school follow strict Christian morals in its teaching about sex.  The Tabernacle is led by Pastor Dennis, who is convinced of the truth of his doctrines, and believes passionately in his evangelical mission, whether or not it fits with state law.  He wants to lead his flock to salvation, and he has won over many lost souls.  One of them is Tim Mason, who volunteers as the school soccer coach.  Tim used to drink and do drugs, meaning his marriage didn't work out, and his life was falling apart.  Once he found Jesus, he got his life back together again, and he married a good Christian woman.  But when Tim leads the girls on the soccer team in a prayer, Ruth, whose daughter is on the team, makes trouble for him.  This gives us the main framework for the novel: Ruth, the liberal divorced mother of 2 teen girls, fighting against the influence of religion in the school, making the rest of the community hostile to her, and Tim, uncomfortable with the role he is thrust into of defender of soccer prayer, and struggling with his marriage. 

Perrotta is excellent at making the novel entertaining and readable.  He describes his characters' thoughts sympathetically and so keeps a balance between the two sides, skeptical and Christian.  His tone is relatively neutral, and he shows the positive side of passionate Christian belief, yet he also makes very clear the unthinking mob mentality of the Tabernacle, and especially their hypocrisy and lies when it comes to abstinence education.  While the book is certainly not anti-Christian, it is at its best when it is skewering the abstinence movement and the school administrators refusing to stand up for truth or decency, and just bowing to pressure.  Perrotta manages to make Ruth a full character: she has her two best friends, a gay couple, with whom she spends many evenings.  She argues with her daughters about religion, and she struggles with her loneliness.  Perrotta fills out Tim's story too, with his many job troubles, relationship troubles, and descent into substance abuse, but it is less convincing and gripping.  The details of Tim's sex life with his new Christian wife are surprising in their pursuit of Hot Christian Sex, but this side of the story mostly lacks the humor that Perrotta gives Ruth's side. 

So The Abstinence Teacher is entertaining, going over similar ground to Perrotta's previous novel Little Children, suburban anxiety about careers and relationships and mob thinking about any connection between youth and sexuality.  When it works well, it is really effective, but there are many parts where the narrative falls a little flat.  It's at its strongest when Ruth is at the center of the story, dealing with her colleagues at school and her gay friends, while the internal doubts and concerns of Tim the former rebel and now born-again Christian are less vivid.  Still, this is a strong novel that will appeal to those who enjoyed Little Children.

Link: Tom Perrotta home page

© 2008 Christian Perring

Christian Perring, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Dowling College, New York.

Keywords: fiction