Tom Perrotta's MRS. FLETCHER Makes Mrs. Robinson Seem a Tame Dame

Tom Perrotta (b Amer 1961) is a novelist and Acad. Award nominated screenwriter for his novels "The Election" and "The Children".  His novel "The Leftovers" was turned into an HBO TV series.  But seriously, too-koo-ka-choo Mrs. Fletcher you are not a dame destined for fame or deserving of blame.  Mrs. Fletcher is a divorced mother of a son, Bernard, who is just about to depart on his debacle of a freshman semester of college.  Bernard is no saint and calling girls bitches ain't the way to talk or treat the ladies.  There are many more players in this novel of a middle-aged woman muddling her way through lonely nights mostly by watching porn.  I don't foresee "Mrs. Fletcher" being turned into a screenplay but if it is, it will just cut out the foreplay and head straight into sexual liaisons in countless couplings: hetero, homo, menage a trois, transgender and so on. Or, not at all for those who consider themselves asexual.  Asexual is explained as someone who wants to be with people but doesn't want to do anything with them.  This novel is a toast "to people being whatever the fuck they wanted."  It's a light read that tries for heavy philosophical mores by finding enlightenment in open minded views towards a progressing spectrum of sexuality in terms of acceptance, appetites and  attitudes.  Autism's broad spectrum and individualities are included as part of Perrotta's syllabus.  So too are the concepts of masculinity & femininity as embodied in the context of the novel as a continuous whole.  Overall, Perrotta's novel offers the ideals of trying something different, meeting new people, and making one's world bigger rather than withdrawing from life & becoming disconnected.  This all comes wrapped in a large lubricated condom.  The conundrum is it's partially engrossing, not totally dumb or grossing.