Revenge of the Teacher's Pet: A Love Story

Doyle has given us a joy of a novel; as other reviewers have noted here, it's funny, sure, and startling, and smart, but let's not forget the beauty of the writing. (The over-the-top-ness makes us forget the latter sometimes as we're reading...) So much of the novel also hits perfectly, not to mention the utterly weird and fantastic look at adult relationships. The author does what writers must: he makes us laugh, feel, and teaches us that darkness and light exist simultaneously... and sometimes characters must walk on one side to learn about the other.

This book kept me laughing throughout. Yet, at the same time I felt a sense of sympathy for the main character. The story also has a great plot twist that takes it to a very reasonable end. Great first novel.

In his first novel, Doyle has achieved the near-impossible feat of breathing vigorous life into the time-worn "tale of suburban angst." While the characteristic middle-class dread is present, it derives not from the easy lampooning of broad targets like conspicuously consuming neighbors or relgious hypocrites. Instead the unease springs from complicated, deeply troubled personae of the characters, and their suspicions about themselves (which ultimately motivates the calamitous events). Plus, this novel is snort-out-loud funny, where the reader draws odd looks from others when she reads it in public. The humor is dark, sure, but it is the most impressive kind of humor that derives from the design of the story (as opposed to easy slapstick or tired irony). In fact, one of the key things that made me love this book is that it's a love story for people who hate romance. The proclivities (emotional, sexual, and otherwise) of Mr. Portwit and Mary Ann make them idiosyncratic and geniunely authentic, in the end, because they possess the same desires that we all do. Problem is, they go to absurd and ridiculous (and hilarious) lengths in attempts to sate those desires. On top of it all, it is a rip-roaring, page-flipping, good-time read that delivers the emotional goods again and again.

"Poor Twit" Mr. Portwit, the star of this dark comedy, decides to get married to a fellow teacher and lead a "normal" suburban life which entails attempted murder and a jail term. A witty and tender look at the maturation of a warped soul.

Raucously funny, sweetly touching, and perfectly paced, this superbly written novel is a joy to read. The characters are at once sweet and acidic, banal and bizarre. The level of sympathy I had in the end for characters that seemed at the start to be simply hilariously over-the-top, is a testament to Doyle's writing. "Revenge" also contains the funniest family Thanksgiving dinner scene ever.