Perfect Peace by Daniel Black
My rating: 4/5 cats
is this the best book i have ever read?
no.
is this the best book i have ever read about a child raised as the gender their parents wanted them to be instead of what their genitals wanted them to be?
no.
but it is still very very good.
this is another book where the author is not a fantastic writer, but he is a good storyteller. there were moments when i kind of wanted to compress scenes or cross out redundancies but it never prevented me from getting caught up in the story.
i was first drawn to this book because of the cover. in real life, it is so glossy and eerily airbrushed, and that creepy doll… i thought it was going to be a novel with a horror twist to it. but it’s not – it is just a deeply sad novel about a woman whose childhood was so troubled and whose relationship with her own mother so emotionally and physically abusive, that all she wants out of her adult life is a baby girl, to treat the way she wishes she had been treated – special, cherished, loved, pampered. but son after son keeps coming out of her body. when the seventh one is born, she decides to just raise it as a girl and be done with it.
it works for 8 years, and “perfect” is given privileges and special treatment within the family on account of her being a girl, and constantly told how beautiful and special she is, and “she” helps emma jean put her own past unhappiness to rest. when it becomes clear that this secret cannot be kept indefinitely, emma jean has to come out and tell the truth to perfect, her husband, her sons, and the town at large.
many lives are destroyed by this revelation. perfect (now paul), is regarded as a freak by his peers and whispered about by adults wherever he goes, his brothers and father try to “make a man” of him, despite their jealousy of his preferential treatment to this point, and paul himself has to endure it all – eight years old and utterly confused.
in a black community in 1940’s-era arkansas, there really isn’t a lot of tolerance for a “sissy” boy who walks like a girl and cries and does not take well to farm work. having been told how special and beautiful he was his whole life, now he is just another boy in a house full of boys and his self-worth is utterly destroyed. and then it gets much worse for him.
this is a book about the expectations of masculinity, love and vengeance, family and sacrifice, and respect.
i thought the family story was beautiful. i can’t say enough about these characters. paul is really the least interesting character. his brothers – especially king solomon, bartimaeus, and mister – are so heartbreaking, each in their own way. and emma jean. well, you can imagine what a complex character she must be. you kind of want to hate her for what she so selfishly did, but you also can’t help sympathizing a little.
eva mae and sugar baby win award for excellence in supporting cast.
i feel like this is a scattered book report, but this is what came out of me today. i could dress it up in yellow ribbons and call it beautiful and special, but i have learned my lesson from this book. this is all i have today. the book is much better than my review of it, and you should read it.
ta-daaaaa!!
