Although this was a well-written book, I did not care for most of the characters. Dramatis Personae: Sarah, on immature bisexual housewife who is disinterested in her 3-year-old daughter, Lucy. Lucy is silent in diapers and her language Appears to be behind that of her peers. Sarah's husband is an ineffectual boorish oaf who Becomes addicted to cyber porn and even leaves Sarah for a cyber porn model. He Was Previously married and has twin daughters from adult did First Union. You just want to kick in the shins Sarah. Todd: The only likable adult character. He is married to a ruthless, driven woman who hounds him to take the bar exam. He appeases his wife by pretending to take the exam. To his credit, he finds joy in spending time with his son, 3-year-old Aaron. Todd's son and daughter are developmentally Lucy's on the same plane. In time, Todd and Sarah become lovers after Sarah boldy flirts with and kisses Todd on the playground in plain sight of the other playground mothers. This comes as no real surprise to readers. Mary-Ann was truly for the birds and was just as impossible to like. You just want to kick her as well. A ruthless barracuda, she schedules intimacy with the impersonal precision of a board (or in this case bored) meeting. She is a gold digger, having married Louis only for his bank account, stocks and portfolio. I did not like the way she had her pre-schoolers go to bed at 7:30 just so as to make life easier HER. She did not appear to be interested in her son and daughter and had all the loving warmth of a clinical report or financial statement. Larry - a thuggish boor of a cop who started an evening football team. He thus hounds the town misfit, Ronnie and, like Sarah's husband is the father of twins. Unlike the boor / Bore Sarah married, Larry's twins are boys and he is not fully divorced. He makes horrific blasphemous comments about the Catholic Church and Scripture Which made his character all the more disgusting in my eyes. He was a crass, boorish oaf. May - Elderly mother to Ronnie, a known pedophile. The only truly sympathetic character in this book. Naturally you have to have an odd duck, so enter Ronnie. A confirmed pedophile who has been released from prison, he lives with his elderly mother and is made the target town. As reprehensible as pedophilia is, hounding and abusing people is no improvement. It just perpetuates a harmful cycle. I found the way Todd's friend, a football wannabe just as reprehensible for targeting Ronnie, Because what he what doing what harming the pedophile's mother. He gets Todd to join in a night football team and after games, he takes on Todd runs to harass Ronnie. They leave a sack of burning dog droppings on the man's stoop; They harass him verbally and Whenever They see him in public, They hound and grill him. Naturally this takes a toll on May, Ronnie's mother. I was just repelled by what Those bullies put her through. The book is rather bland and predictable. Todd and Sarah become a couple; Sarah's bored husband finds life on the internet and in the arms of his porn models Preferable to marriage in Surburbia and the other playground moms limp through this tired tale. One can only feel bad for May and thesis literary Children as They are The Ones who get shafted in this tired story.