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TOM PERROTTA
Election
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Fourth Estate
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
This Harper Perennial edition published 2009
First published in the USA in hardback by G. P. Putnam's Sons (1998).
First published in paperback in the USA by Berkley (1998).
Copyright © Tom Perrotta 1998
Tom Perrotta asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007262403
Ebook Edition © MARCH 2009 ISBN: 9780007319411 Version: 2017-01-05
‘Election provides those gratifyingly exact and telling portraits of the kids themselves. Solid plotting guarantees that the reader really does want to learn who wins when the ballots are finally counted’
New York Times
‘A neatly written, nimble-witted novel. A good-natured, John Irvingesque portrait of the contemporary world … Seamless storytelling’
Washington Post
for my brother and sister
“The teacher is engaged, not simply in the training of individuals, but in the formation of the proper social life. I believe that every teacher should recognize the dignity of his calling; that he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of the proper social order and the securing of the right social growth.”
—JOHN DEWEY
“The world is the School gone mad.”
—WILLIAM TREVOR
Table of Contents
MR. M.
ALL I EVER WANTED to do was teach. I never had to struggle like other people with the question of what to do with my life. My only dream was to sit on the edge of my desk in front of a room full of curious kids and talk about the world.
The election that turned me into a car salesman took place in the spring of 1992, when Clarence Thomas