Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta

4 Stars

I started this book with my morning coffee on Saturday and quickly confirmed (once again) this about Perrotta . . . .



This is the story of Eve Fletcher, a woman who has just become an empty nester after dropping her son Brock Turner Brendan off at college. After raising Brock Brendan as a single mother for a good portion of his life, Mrs. Fletcher worries that she won’t know how to cope with being alone. But maybe all of her concern was for naught . . . .

“It wasn’t even true that there was nothing new in her life. For one thing, she was taking a class in Gender Studies and actually learning something. And, oh yeah, she’d also gone and gotten herself addicted to internet porn, not that that was anything to brag about.”

It also turns out Mrs. Fletcher is quite the . . . . .



And over the course of the book has a sort of sexual reawakening where she not only logs on to the intertubes every night in order to search out the latest offerings on milfateria.com, but also dips her toe in the lady pond, is courted by local meatheads and also becomes a modernized version of . . . . .



“You’ve given this some thought,” she muttered. Julian looked at her. His face was serious, full of adult longing. It was like she could see right through the college boy to the man he would one day become. “It’s all I fucking think about.”

If you can’t tell from the above, this isn’t a book for everyone. Perrotta definitely is a polarizing author and if your M.O. is to bitch about him and all of the offenses he commits in any given novel, I have this to say to you . . . .



Perrotta owns his shit. He doesn’t write anything that’s warm and fuzzy. He doesn’t even bother attempting to provide an “unreliable” narrator in order to pull his punches– he flat out gives you the worst of the worst. And this time he (a man *gasp*) comes face to face with the subject of sexuality and gender and dares to write about it from both a male MC’s perspective, as well as a female’s. I have a feeling that simple fact alone will be what “triggers” various readers. However, that’s the exact thing that put him on my “favorite authors” list. He’s not for everyone, but he writes characters that feel genuine . . . even with their many flaws. If he’s not for you, then he’s not for you. Just don’t ruin everyone else’s reading experience with your tunnel-vision point of view.

^^^The above paragraph was brought to you by . . . .



ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you, NetGalley!