The first time I read Tom Perotta's 'Little Children', my children were past that age when I spent hours of the day caring for their physical needs and felt myself withering under the pressure and monotony of full time child rearing. The book though, was all quite familiar, like the descriptions of the mothers on the playground and at the community pool who closely resembled so many mothers I'd known while trying to claw my way out of the monotony. His description of the main character's, Sarah (played by Kate Winslet), nemesis who deals with her own dissatisfaction with an unending stream of sniping reminded me of a few mothers I've had unpleasant interactions with in the past.
Reading it a second time, I saw a little deeper into the story, past the mothers I see in my day to day life and into that idea that so many of us have felt. And this, to Strollerderby readers, will not come as a surprise but sometimes parenting is really not satisfying for a whole lot of us. Sometimes it feels monotonous and brain leakingly unending and why is that?
This article talks with Perotta and really clarifies what 'Little Children' attempts to shed light on in a universal sense. The movie is out on DVD tomorrow and the article has many spoilers so I won't ruin the story for you here. But if you've read the book, this is a great article which pinpoints what made this novel speak a truth about the experience of being a parent.
