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 … 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.
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I recommend this book. It was definitely a page turner!!
Excellent book, surprising story. As a mother, I cannot fathom what would possess a woman to raise her seventh son as a girl and how she thought she would actually succeed over time. The fallout from her decision occurs years later. Raises questions about the impact of nature vs. nurture, children are not blank slates when they arrive on the planet.
This book started out okay but lost me fairly quickly.
This would be a great book club book. It reflects on many issues. Symbolism running through book lends it another depth.
Good description of life in rural poor south and how people were affected in all aspects of their lives.
Good reading and very thought provoking. Growing up in the South in those days was hard
Haunting not in the spooky sense but in the disquieting feeling. I loved the book and th characters and couln’t put it down.
Just finished and it was very moving and sadly rang true as a part of the past of a black family in America at tha time.t
I thought this was a awesome book,. I wanted to know more about the author and his writing ability. To say the least I kept on read this man’s books and loved them all. This Perfect Peace should be a movie.
A great book with unbelievable characters and story line. Daniel Black is n amazing story teller.
Page turner! Parents don’t always get the children they want at birth, so mold them and make them who you want them to become!? This book is a great and easy read because of the plot that kept me as a reader interested in wondering when would the mother’s secret be exposed and what would be the repercussions of this unbelievable secret.