Numerous adults are far from being good role models for young people. A teacher called Jim McAllister—in Tom Perrotta‘s 1998 novel, Election—is one of them. At the high school where he works, McAllister is in charge of the election for student president, a position coveted by the high-achieving, 17-year-old Tracy Flick.

Tracy is nice but has no friends. However, she is much gratified over a sordid affair she is having with McAllister’s fellow teacher, Jack, who is married. McAllister, aware of the affair, dislikes the girl, even though there is not really much to dislike. As it happens, he wrongs Tracy in the election. Shabby behavior here mirrors the kinds of things plaguing adult political elections.

Perrotta’s book is breezy and wise. We never feel superior to the characters, certainly including Tracy, not “just a sweet teenage girl,” McAllister claims. But Tracy, in truth, is a child of divorce, and is let down by the book’s grownups. Election‘s denouement is brilliant in a way that the ending of Alexander Payne’s movie adaptation of the novel is not, for it shows Tracy conciliating with a man, McAllister, who has lost his job and his reputation. She doesn’t need to reject him.