Election

By: Tom Perrotta

Narrated by: Santino Fontana, Midori Francis, Dioni Michelle Collins, Andre Bellido, Sura Siu, Chris Ciulla

Never before on audio! The beloved bestselling dark comedy that became a Reese Witherspoon screen classic, Tom Perrotta's breakthrough novel about the American democratic process as brought to life in a suburban New Jersey high school finally comes to audio, on the eve of the Scribner and S&S Audio publication of its eagerly-awaited sequel, Tracy Flick Can't Win!

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 musical, sleep with her English teacher. But another teacher, staunch idealist Jim McAllister, a.k.a. “Mr. M.,” thinks the students deserve better. So he persuades Paul Warren—a well-liked, good-hearted jock—to throw in his hat. 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 at 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 power brokers at Winwood High, it doesn’t look as if they need any lessons....

Critic reviews

"This new production of a 1998 novel makes the most of its talented full cast. Using voices as distinctive as the characters themselves, the narrators embody their roles artfully, using vocal nuances to propel the witty story forward. When the buildup to a high school student government election spirals out of control, the players in the drama must confront their own missteps, ambitions, disappointments, and consciences. The result is fascinating. The novel is well suited to the audiobook format since its structure shifts from one character's point of view to another's. Every performance is believable; every transition is well paced. Whether it's Tracy Flick's snappy attitude, Tammy's plaintive tones, or Mr. M's hapless machinations, each narrator is fully invested in the story, making this audiobook a real winner."

Well written and performed Light Reading

I enjoy Perrotta’s writing and this is the kind of First Person novel he’s best at. It captures the dynamics of Suburban High School life that many of us might be able to identify with. There is some Social Commentary but the book’s real strength is in the well-drawn creation of the characters: Students, Teachers, Administrators and the dramatic trials and tribulations of Teenage and Middle-Age Suburban American Life. All played out in the “Life & Death” struggles of a Student Body Presidential Election.

This isn’t War and Peace, but it’s a pleasant read made even better by a good cast humanizing the Characters. Four Stars. ****

A solid listening experience

I only have vague memories of the movie that was created based on this book, I always get curious about how different the source material for any work can be. That led me to pick up this title and honestly enjoy the story as a whole. It's a pretty interesting story that either makes a high school election feel like the most important thing in the world or uses the election as a way to convey deeper truths and problems with its characters. You know that it aims to do both and I can't deny things entirely as it's a fun ride.

This audiobook also has some great voices reading the different POV characters and it goes a long way to making the listening experience even more fulfilling. It's not quite a full audio drama, but it's more than just one person trying to handle all the character voices on their own.

Pretty solid overall.

Great book, beautifully read

Great book, beautifully read by a talented cast. Perrotta's wit, verbal play, and mastery of rotating first-person narration are remarkable. And this wonderful Audible version -- with a full cast of actors portraying each of the narrators -- feels like a classic, old-timey production, the way that I imagine radio plays of a past era must have sounded.

Highly recommended.

Delightful

I enjoyed this book! Full cast. Great quality. You should read. Four more words here.

Way Better Than Movie

This normally goes without saying, but this book is SO MUCH BETTER than the movie. I purchased it as a daily deal, thinking, why not? I vaguely remembered seeing the movie years and years ago but not much else. It was a quick listen; nothing of substance, but you wouldn't expect it to be. Turns out I own the movie as part of a movie compilation from the 80s and 90s, so I then watched the movie after finishing the book. Obviously movies often change details to shorten storylines, etc., but some of the details that were changed truly made no sense and just made most of the characters really unlikeable. In the end, I wouldn't read or watch it again, but would recommend the book as a fun read. I would not recommend the movie as a fun watch.