For anyone who read Tom Perrotta’s 1998 book Election, and/or is a fan of the 1999 movie Election, with Reese Witherspoon and Matthew Broderick, the return of character Tracy Flick is very exciting. Even before reading the new book, I envisioned a movie with Reese Witherspoon reprising her role as the obnoxious overachiever. We find a very different Tracy however, as life has intervened to bring her trajectory somewhere far short of the stars, where she was undoubtedly heading at the end of Election.

A quick recap of Election is needed for context. Tracey is the smart, over-prepared student, plotting her course to inevitable, deserved success. Having paid her dues in lower student government positions, and demonstrated her dedication with hard work, in fact always being the hardest worker around, she feels she has earned the top job of student council president. Important to note that Jack Dexter, a teacher at Winwood HS, had a brief affair with Tracey when she was a 15 year old sophomore, this at a time long before Me Too, when many teachers were married to former students— as I witnessed when I was in high school in the seventies. Jack started teaching at the same time as Jim McAllister (known as Mr. M), and they became instant buddies. Jack loses his job, and Jim, or Mr. M, has more than a little simmering resentment for Tracey. While an inevitable victory for Tracey violates Mr M’s sense of a fair election at the heart of democracy, we realize that the roots of his resentments of the juggernaut of Tracey go much deeper. Was he an idealistic Tracey himself, albeit lazier? Was teaching civics at a high school his career goal, or did he see himself in elected office, but didn’t have Tracey’s motivation, her unquenchable ambition for success? Nonetheless, he hides two votes for Tracey, throwing the close election to his hand-picked candidate, popular, clueless football star Paul Warren. As dirt inevitably comes out in the wash, the votes are discovered, Mr. M loses his job in disgrace, and Tracey’s rising star continues its fated path.

We leave Tracey heading to Georgetown, and figure she will attack Washington with the same resolve and energy as Winwood. It is quite a surprise to find forty-something Tracey Flick an unmarried mother to 10 year old Sophia, and working as an assistant principal at New Jersey high school, Green Falls HS. Thinking back to Election, Tracey’s mother was a woman with unrealized ambition, whose spouse left her. She poured that positivity into Tracey, making her believe that with hard work, she could achieve anything. She was not a tiger mom, but rather worked as a close friend with Tracey, giving her undivided attention, time, and support. When she falls terribly ill of multiple sclerosis in Tracey’s second year of law school at Georgetown, Tracey choses to first delay return, then finally give up the dream of law school and a political life, caring for her mother and taking the only work that was at hand, subbing at the local high school. Tracey becomes pregnant during an affair with a local doctor, a relationship that ended of its own accord. Her mother’s dying wish is for her to keep the baby, assuring her that it will be her greatest love.

Tracey is a loving and dutiful mother, but she isn’t like her own mother. She pours her energy and ambition into her career, and feels she has earned the top job of principal through her hard work, dedication, and filling in for the soon-to-retire Jack Weede, when he suffers a heart attack. There are several interesting circular developments in the new book. Tracy is a single mother just like her mom, but somehow different, as she tries to find success in her own ambitions rather than fueling her daughter’s goals. Her daughter is no Tracey, just casually going from one activity to another, more interested in her social life. Tracey never could make friends, and was generally disliked, or misunderstood. Her inability to bond will continue to impede her ambitions. With Me Too news popping out every were, Tracey looks back at her teen experience with fresh eyes. We learn that years before, principal Jack Weede had an affair with a former student, waiting until the summer after graduation to consummate the simmering attraction.

Interesting to me is that naked ambition in a woman is still viewed as inappropriate, whereas men are praised and rewarded, indeed expected to be overtly ambitious. School Board president Kyle Dorfman, tech millionaire who makes his fortune from a silly app called Barky, lives in the most ostentatious and out-of-place mansion in town, a house that would be more at home in Silicon Valley. He regularly flaunts his success, driving a Tesla and bragging about getting high with Elon. When Tracey tries to demonstrate her worthiness for the top job during the interview process, she must do so carefully, and not make it appear inevitable and completely deserved. She appears to have learned that lesson from her earlier high school election experience.

Life seems to not be all that different from high school. Relationships are much more important than hard work and credentials. A vaulted football coach, much needed at Green Falls, almost takes Tracey’s long-desired job, until fate intervenes. Much other action occurs in this book, regarding Dorfman’s dream of a Green Falls HS Hall of Fame, which he clearly saw himself as the first nominee, until realizing how inappropriate that would be, as school board president. Perrotta is an excellent plotter, as he weaves many threads together neatly into a very happy conclusion. Doing everything right is no guarantee of success, as we all need a bit of luck in the end. Perrotta wrote a very satisfying return to the story of Tracey Flick, one that none of us saw coming, but so true to how life comes to all of us. If you enjoy dark humor, you will thoroughly enjoy these twin novels. Highly recommended.