👶👶👶 Perfect Peace, by Daniel Black

This story was utterly bizarre, yet strangely fascinating. The first quarter of the book was captivating and I was eager to see where the mother's crazy decision would lead. Unfortunately, what could've been an incredible journey through this child's life ended up falling flat.The main characters were endearing; Sol's life lessons, heartwarming; Paul's devastation, palpable. However, due to the sheer number of characters, it became difficult to keep track of them all, & many got lost in the shuffle.

Since the author has a PhD in African American Studies, he gave us an intricate sense of what life was like in the rural south prior to the civil rights movement, which was intriguing. For that reason, I gave it 3 stars. However, the author continually alluded to some major event that everyone would have to be prepared for, making it seem as though perhaps Paul would change the world in some way. Ultimately, it was anti-climactic, and disappointing.

Black, however, did a good job of holding my interest until the end, if for no other reason than to see what the big payoff would be - unfortunately, there was very little. It was, however, an interesting analysis on human frailty.

Read 4/11/13