Tracy Flick Can't Win by Tom Perrotta Review

Tracy Flick’s a middle-aged single mom and working as an Assistant Principal at Green Meadow High School. And then she finds out her boss, Principal Jack Weede, is suddenly retiring - at last, a shot at being in charge! Except she needs the support of the school board whose president, a Silicon Valley millionaire, is dead set on giving the school an Alumni Hall of Fame. Its first inductee? A former NFL player. And just like that, Tracy’s right back to where she was in Election: in high school, struggling for power, and a football player’s involved. But this time she’ll win - right?

We do live in the age of nostalgia so perhaps it’s not that surprising to see that Tom Perrotta has written a sequel to his late ‘90s novel, Election, even though it wasn’t a massive bestseller, or all that good. But here we are anyway, nearly 25 years later, with Election Part 2: Tracy Flick Can’t Win.

I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either - this seems to be how I experience all of Perrotta’s novels. Election, Mrs Fletcher, and now Tracy Flick Can’t Win. They’re well-written, accessible, the characters are mildly interesting, but the stories themselves? So very forgettable. Honestly, I read Election less than 5 years ago and couldn’t recall a thing about it so I had to re-read a summary of it before picking this up.

The story of this novel really isn’t edge-of-your-seat stuff either. Tracy’s going along with this Hall of Fame idea while waiting to interview for the job, and we get to know a myriad of other characters along the way. There’s Vito Falcone, the former NFL star, now an alcoholic much-married-much-divorced high school football coach; Jack Weede, the current principal with a somewhat sordid past; Kyle Dorfman, the tech millionaire; and a pair of students: Lily Chu, who’s dating a non-binary person, and Nate Cleary, who’s smitten with a YouTuber who does ASMR.

Election was loosely about the ‘92 Clinton campaign - Tracy Flick Can’t Win doesn’t really seem to be about anything. There’s certainly a running theme: Vito, Jack, and Kyle are all cheating bastards, and, given how things play out for most of them, is the point some kind of social justice/MeToo thing against guys who used to hurt women’s feelings back in the day? I suppose it’s again a microcosm of the political world - Tracy once again having to play the game to get ahead - though the message seems to be… it’s gahbage? Eh.

The thing is that Perrotta introduces a lot of interesting elements throughout the story: CTE, depression, mortality, addiction, ageing - but he doesn’t do anything with them. He throws them in and then immediately backs away from them rather than explore them deeper. The effect is very superficial and is why this novel doesn’t feel like it has any point.

Despite not being a very long novel, it still feels heavily-padded out. The chapters are told from the characters’ perspectives and the students’ chapters, Lily and Nate, felt completely worthless. Why do we need to know about Lily’s romance with a non-binary (they/them) or Nate’s fascination with a YouTuber? Is this Perrotta’s concession to the times and is throwing them in to sound contemporary?

The ending feels really forced, even melodramatic considering the mundanity of the story up to that point. Besides being flimsy and contrived, it also very conveniently sorts out Tracy’s problem - which also takes away any agency she has as a character. We think she’s going to do something about her problem but someone else does it for her - a man, no less. Girl power… ?

All of which sounds like I hated the novel and I didn’t. Perrotta’s a fine writer, the novel is a smooth read, and you don’t need to have read Election to pick this one up. He also has a remarkable knack for character voices. Perrotta writes across genders and generations and makes each one sound convincing - that’s a helluva skill.

And it was interesting to see what happened to Tracy Flick, the girl who was gonna be the first woman president of the USA and fell short of that ambition. But it’s also not a gripping story so it’s all too easy to put down. And, while I remember the story now, I’m certain I’ll end up forgetting it wholesale in no time, like I have with the other Perrotta novels I’ve read.

Definitely not a must-read novel for anyone besides Tom Perrotta fans, Tracy Flick Can’t Win is still a decent, sometimes-entertaining read about life... or something?