I don’t know why I hadn’t gotten around to reading “Election” by Tom Perrotta until recently. I had read “The Wishbones” and “Joe College,” his two funny books which bookended the novel ultimately made into a film starring Matthew Broderick and Reese WItherspoon. After reading the 1998 novel at the beach recently, I’m glad I remembered to add it to my reading list.

First off, Perrotta does an incredible job with shifting the narrator throughout the story, something I have done in things I hope to publish some day. Secondly, you can almost smell the angst of high school life through his characters, whether they are 16 or eyeing up retirement.

If you are used to the perky side of Tracy Flick portrayed by Witherspoon, brace yourself. The novel character has that attitude, but with a much darker undertone. In fact, I had to read about the differences between the movie and the book after I finished because I thought they had diverged some from the plot for the screen. I was right.

Even though I have not seen the movie in a while, I think I liked the book better. The conflict between sinister actions and the ability to forgive rung more true to me. I just like the way Perrotta puts his characters through the situations they need to endure in order to learn a lesson. He does it all in a tidy fashion, making us find some sympathy and have some anger toward almost everyone involved.