THE LEFTOVERS by Tom Perrotta

Finished Fr 9/29/11

"Barefoot People"- Hippie hedonists who seek pleasure in the time that remains. They have bulls eyes painted on their foreheads.

"Guilty Remnants" (The Watchers,GR's)- They wear all white, and usually travel in pairs. And, they are always smoking, and they more or less take a vow of silence. They feel that it is their duty to remind everyone that "you must get right with God" in the seven years that remain. They affect an "in your face guilt trip".

Kevin- Retired millionaire, liquor store owner who is the mayor of Mappleton (Northeastern small town)

Laurie- Kevin's wife who later joins the GR's.

Jill- Their rebellious daughter. Cuts off all of her hair, and hangs out with sultry high school student, Aimee. Later, Aimee lives with Kevin and Jill.

Tom- Son of Kevin and Laurie. He is in college and falls under the spell of Pastor Wayne Gilchrist. He is 'The Hugging Minister', and he hugs his flock, takes their pain away (Healing Hug Movement). He also is busted for his involvements with many teenage girls.

Christine is one such girl who is supposed to be having Wayne's son. She is hiding out with Tom on a cross-country odyssey. The child is a girl, and Wayne ends up in jail, and renounces his divine status.

Nora- Kevin's girlfriend. She lost both her children, and her husband during the Rapture. Jamison uncovers her husband's infidelity with their day-care worker. She ends the novel by finding the child which Tom has left on Kevin's doorstep.
"Hey, look what I found"!

Reverend Matt Jamison is so angry that he or any of his family were not called to The Rapture, that he spends his time trying to discredit all of the people who left in the rapture.

I totally loved this novel, and I have never read a bad book by Perrotta.