I Am Tracy Flick: Election by Tom Perrotta

It wasn’t until I read Schatzi’s review of Tom Perrotta’s Little Children that I discovered that one of my favourite films, Election (1999) had been a book first, and he had written it.

The movie sticks closely to the plot of the book: three candidates are running for President of the student body of their high school: ambitious Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), who dots the i in Flick with a star when she signs her name; popular sportsman Paul Warren (Chris Klein – his character is named Paul Metzler in the film); and his loose-cannon sister Tammy (Jessica Campbell). Presiding over the election is history and civics teacher Mr M. (Matthew Broderick).

Unfortunately, Mr M. is far from impartial. Tracy’s affair with his best friend – her English teacher – got the teacher sacked and divorced. Mr M. knows his friend was wrong to get involved with Tracy, but he still bears her a grudge, and his pent-up resentment provokes him to cross the line himself. He persuades Paul to stand against Tracy, who was previously unopposed, but it doesn’t stop there. Mr M. will do whatever it takes for Tracy to lose.

Teaser Tuesday: Election by Tom Perrotta

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I recently got another Tom Perrotta book, The Abstinence Teacher, out of the library. The library didn’t have Election, but I really wanted to read it, so today I gave in and bought it. It was made into one of my favourite films, the 1999 adaptation of the same name starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon.  The book is funny, sharp and a pretty quick read – I’m almost done, but I might wait to review it until I’ve read The Abstinence Teacher too.

The book is narrated by the main players: high school teacher Mr M., and the three candidates for school president – Tracy Flick, Paul Warren and his sister Tammy. To give you a flavour of the whole book, I’m including a teaser for each of them. I was spoilt for choice – Perrotta is a succinct and satirical writer, and there are gems on every page.

MR M.

We had thirty-five minutes to tabulate 641 votes, and I was tired. Tired the way you might expect a person to be who had spent the night in his car.

TRACY FLICK

My mother got up at five in the morning and helped me ice the two hundred cupcakes we’d baked the night before. I planned on handing them out at the main entrance, along with a smile and a gentle reminder of who to vote for.

PAUL WARREN

It was like the Oscars, only worse. Tracy and I were made to sit together on stage in front of the whole school so everyone could watch our reactions when Larry announced the winner.

TAMMY WARREN

All I wanted was a chance to go somewhere new, make some real friends, be my true self. It didn’t seem like too much to ask of the world.

Library Loot: Sex and Death

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva (A Striped Armchair) and Marg (Reading Adventures) that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post – feel free to steal the button – and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

I collected three books from the library today, and, when I think about it, sex and death seem to be the themes of this edition of Library Loot.