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This novel had perhaps one of the oddest premises for a contemporary novel I have read yet. Perfect Peace by Daniel Black is a novel that pushes the boundary of acceptable parenting and works to challenge ideas regarding identity and gender roles in the 1940's, but did I like it? Well, yes, and no.
I really liked the situation that this book presented. A boy who was raised as a girl for 8 years and then forced to be a boy was a premise that kept me reading...for the first few chapters of the book, waiting for the ball to drop, metaphorically speaking, And while I was waiting, I really enjoyed the book. I liked how it was able to draw me in with Black's ability to tell a story, and describe a scene. I think that the early chapters remind me a little bit of To Kill a Mockingbird in that they tell a story of life in this predominantly African American community in the south, and I really enjoyed that. I lied how we got a look at each person in the novel through a third person limited omniscient narrator. This allows us to see why the characters do what they do and males their choices understandable, if not always agreeable.
The downside came when I got past the point when Perfect was revealed to become Paul. I just didn't find it as interesting. I found the stories of Paul's brothers to become grading and let the story drag. I also cannot truly remember one small portion of dialogue or remember one character from this novel. In the end, I think the problem with this novel is that I remember the situation more than the actual novel itself, which isn't a bad thing, it just doesn't lend itself to an excellent book. I think you'll like this novel if you can handle such an odd premise. Feel free to give it a try, I think it just didn't work for me. I give this novel, a three out of five.
