Perfect Peace
Daniel Black, 2010
St. Martin's Press
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780312582678
Summary
The heartbreaking portrait of a large, rural southern family’s attempt to grapple with their mother’s desperate decision to make her newborn son into the daughter she will never have...
When the seventh child of the Peace family, named Perfect, turns eight, her mother Emma Jean tells her bewildered daughter, "You was born a boy. I made you a girl. But that ain’t what you was supposed to be. So, from now on, you gon’ be a boy. It’ll be a little strange at first, but you’ll get used to it, and this’ll be over after while."
From this point forward, his life becomes a bizarre kaleidoscope of events. Meanwhile, the Peace family is forced to question everything they thought they knew about gender, sexuality, unconditional love, and fulfillment. Chance is a mixed breed Pit Bull. He’s been born and raised to fight and seldom leaves the dirty basement where he is kept between fights.
But Chance is not a victim or a monster. It is Chance’s unique spirit that helps him escape and puts him in the path of Adam. What transpires is the story of one man, one dog, and how they save each other—in ways they ever could have expected. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Kansas Ctiy, Missouri, USA
• Raised—Blackwell, Arkansas
• Education—B.A., Clark College; Ph.D., Temple University
• Currently—lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Daniel Omotosho Black is a native of Kansas City, Missouri, yet spent the majority of his childhood years in Blackwell, Arkansas. He was granted a full scholarship to Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia, where he majored in English. He was awarded the Oxford Modern British Studies Scholarship and studied abroad at Oxford University, Oxford, England.
Upon graduation from Clark College (magna cum laude in 1988), he was granted a full graduate fellowship to Temple University in pursuit of a Ph.D. in African-American Studies. Completing this phase of his academic career in 1993, with Sonia Sanchez as one of his dissertation advisers, Dr. Black returned to his alma mater in order to help establish the tradition of top-notch scholars who publish and remain at historically Black institutions.
As a tenured associate professor, he now aims to provide an example of young African Americans of the importance of self-knowledge and communal commitment.
Omotosho, as he prefers to be called, is the founder of the Nzinga-Ndugu rites of passage (or initiation) society — a group whose focus is instilling principle and character in the lives of African-American youth.
Novels
Black is the author of four novels, including They Tell Me of a Home (2005), The Sacred Place (2007), Perfect Peace (2010), and Twelve Gates to the City (2014). (Adapted from the author's website.)
Book Reviews
A high-spirited, compassionate look at everyone's longings for perfection, both inside and out.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Black effortlessly conveys Paul's agony over his inner shame and what the world sees on the outside. It's painful to see how his father also struggles to accept as a son the child he had once adored as a girl. For the Peace family, the end of Perfect is akin to the death of a loved one.
San Antonio Express-News
Black explores the fateful decision of Emma Jean Peace to raise her seventh son, Perfect, as the daughter she has always wanted.... While the rural South backdrop is overly familiar and the dialogue is painfully hoary, Black manages a nuanced exploration of sexual identity and social structures without elevating his characters to angels or martyrs.
Publishers Weekly
Black courageously delves into such sensitive issues such as sexuality, racism, and family dynamics and enchants readers with strong pacing and Southern imagery. Those who enjoy rich and complex works of literary fiction will be provoked to discuss this novel's many layers. —Lisa Jones, Birmingham P.L., AL
Library Journal
Black builds toward the point when Perfect discovers that she's a boy, but seems confused about what to do with his character after this astonishing revelation. At the same time, the author offers a nuanced portrait of an insular community's capacity to absorb difference, and it's a cold reader who will be unmoved by his depictions. Original and earnest, informed both by human limitation and human potential.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Emma Jean’s decision seems to be unjustifiable. However, is it possible to understand why Emma Jean does what she does? Who is really to blame? Without having healed from her own childhood abuse, can she really be held responsible for her current psychological well-being?
2. How does Gus’s emotional fragility contribute unto his abuse of Paul? How is he contradictory in this respect?
3. How do Perfect’s brothers both help and hinder his transform into malehood/masculinity?
4. What is the role Sugar Baby plays in Paul’s spiritual evolution? Although they speak infrequently, Sugar Baby’s impact on Perfect Paul is indelible. Why?
5. What are the places in the novel where Emma Jean’s love for her children is made obvious? Cite examples of her being a dedicated, nurturing mother.
6. What role does the church play in the social construction of gender in Swamp Creek? How does the church/church rhetoric "enslave" its members around issues of gender/sexuality?
7. Most readers are surprised by the revelation of Mister’s sexuality. Why do you think readers don’t suspect him?
8. Eva Mae loves Perfect Paul, regardless of his gender identification. Why isn’t Paul attracted to her, especially with all she’s done to love and protect him?
9. The Jordan River is personified, such that it assumes a life of its own. How does the Jordan assist Swamp Creek residents in dealing with their communal and personal issues? Is it a "kind" character or a "mean, wrathful" one?
10. When Emma Jean begins to hear The Voice, it sounds like her own conscience at one point and, at other times, it sounds like her mother, and at other times it sounds like something Omniscient. What is the role of The Voice and how does it lead to Emma Jean’s ultimate cleansing?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)