Election

By: Tom Perrotta

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

Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

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....

©1998 Tom Perrotta. All rights reserved. (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

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.

Fun and fast

Story was well done with each character moving the story forward from their perspective. Fun and kept my curiosity up. Made the read fast!

2.75 Stars 🌟

Another first time author for me that I took a chance on because it was the "Audible Book of the Day". I didn't know this at the time, but apparently this is a very popular movie (or was it a series? Honestly have no clue) that was based on this book. And also, this book was written sometime during the 90's - which is also where it is based on in terms of timeline.

What to say about this book? This was a VERY quick and easy read/listen. Personally though, it kind of annoyed me. Why? I'm not really sure. I was actually trying to figure out what it was about the book that had me feeling put out at the end of it instead of any other feeling which might have been better.

If I really think about it, there really was not ONE likeable character in this book. I especially didn't like Tracy Flick, but really, the other cast of characters were pretty awful as well. Whether it was self-centeredness, complete and utter leering behavior and actions from adults who should have known better, or the fall from grace of the one character that we, as the reader, thought was the "nice guy" - it was just disappointing.

I did listen to this on audio and apparently this is a brand new release with a full cast of narrators. The narration was fine, I didn't have any problems with it, but I don't think I'm going to be moving on to the next book in the series. Especially since Ms. Flick seems to be the main character in that one.

Unlikable yet Sympathetic Characters Abound

I enjoy the writing of Mr. Perrotta, striking a tone that is as infuriating and comical as the characters that walk the halls of Winwood High School. I found it hard to be completely sympathetic to a lot of the character's plights but there were some surprising moments of relatability. It's got a steady pace and the voice acting from the different POV's was a nice touch and made it easier to follow.

Not worth anything

What's this? I didn't like the plot and especially the ending. it feels like the author just wanted to complete the necessary number of pages to pass as a book.

Quick read, pretty accurate

3⭐️
This was a cute quick read. Some of the narratives of adult men disgusted me but wasn’t too surprising. And was how it was back then. Also, it depicted high school life quickly but pretty accurately. Not a bad fast read if you like a quick book.