Election
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- 6,49 €
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- 6,49 €
Publisher Description
A brilliantly funny novel from the author of ‘The Abstinence Teacher’ and ‘Little Children’, made into an acclaimed film starring Reece Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick.
Tracy Flick wants to be president of Winwood High. She’s one of those ambitious girls who finds time to do it all: edit the yearbook, star in the school musical, sleep with her English teacher. Staunch idealist, Jim McAllister (aka ‘Mr M’) thinks the students deserve better. So he persuades Paul Warren – a well-liked, good-hearted jock – to run as well. But that puts Paul’s sister, Tammy, in a snit. So she runs too, on an apathy platform – before starting a real campaign…to get herself kicked out of school.
The idea was to educate the students of this suburban New Jersey school in the democratic process and the American way. But with all the sex scandals, smear campaigns and behind-the-scenes powerbrokers at Winwood High, it doesn’t look as if they need any lessons…
Reviews
‘As J D Salinger most expertly showed, a certain kind of wit – honest, nervous and brave – often offers the only shield, however flimsy, against the true heart of adolescence. Perrotta captures this humour…“Election” provides those gratifyingly exact and telling portraits of the kids themselves. Solid plotting will guarentee that the reader really does want to learn who wins when the ballots are finally counted.’ New York Times Book Review
‘Captures the texture of high-school life in a refreshingly unromantic way’. Time Out New York
‘A neatly written, nimble-witted novel…a good-natured John Irvingesque portrait of the contemporary world…seamless storytelling.’ Washington Post
‘A darkly comic and winning novel.’ San Francisco Chronicle
About the author
Tom Perrotta is the author of several works of fiction, including ‘Little Children’, ‘Joe College’ and ‘Election’. He lives outside Boston, Massachusetts.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A far cry from Sweet Valley High, this wry, engaging story of a 1992 high-school election in a New Jersey town "a couple of exits" away from Glen Ridge is observant and sly, if less amusing than the battles over pop-musical taste in Perrotta's quirkily humorous first novel, The Wishbones. The candidates for school presidency of Winwood High are an uninspiring bunch campaigning for what almost everybody knows is an empty office. Ambitious Tracy Flick is a hot bundle of raw political ambition and a bad reputation, who campaigns with cupcakes against Paul Warren, a jock with a pretty face and high PSAT scores who is urged to run by his history teacher (and sometime narrator) Jim McAllister. Paul's nihilistic sister Tammy (who enters the race in a despairing rage because she's in love with Paul's girlfriend) is the single fresh and original character here--and she gets herself suspended before Election Day. The results are blessedly far from feel-good, and Perrotta casts a wonderfully cool eye on his ostensible protagonist, "Mr. M.," even if the hints of true political satire remain just that, tantalizing hints. Despite six alternating narrators, this is a simple, spare story--designed, perhaps, with moviegoers in mind as well as readers. FYI: A movie version already is in production with MTV Films/Paramount, featuring Matthew Broderick as McAllister.