Perfect Agreement

by Michael Downing

Mark Sternum is full of droll observations about the rules that govern our language. A professor who teaches spelling and grammar at Boston's McClintock College ("An odd job for a college professor," he is told, "but no one else seems to be doing it"), he leads a diligent if somewhat detached life. Friends and family try to coax him into deeper involvement, but he keeps his lover at arm's length and screens all incoming calls - including his eccentric sister's "word pictures" about the waning days of their comatose mother.
Then Rashelle Whippet, an African-American single mother who fails the college's basic skills test for the last time, accuses Mark of "prejudgism," and he is fired. Blown off course, he monitors the ensuing academic skirmish from a distance as his case makes national headlines.
In the midst of this mess, his lover decides to move out of town, an anonymous supporter E-mails him daily advice, and his father, Thomas, a photographer famous for his pictures of the Shaker communities that once thrived in America, turns up for a visit. Mark is particularly surprised by this last turn of he had believed his father was dead.
The mysterious Thomas moves in and begins a tale about Sister Celia and the Negro Jesus who visited the Shakers more than a hundred years earlier. In spite of himself, Mark is mesmerized by the story, which offers him the chance to understand, finally, his father's lonely passion for the Shakers.

Genres: Fiction, LGBT

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Ron Mohring · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel that interwines the perils and vicissitudes of political correctness in academia with an intriguing tale about the last of the Shaker families in America? That tosses in delightful mini-lessons on grammar and usage? That features a somewhat hermetic gay protagonist? Hell to the yes, I'm there. I've read this novel three times in ten years, and I'll read it again. Downing is an awesome writer.

[Arianna Dagnino · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you get past page 66 you will start discovering the full beauty of this book.
It has the small pace of “revelations”…
I wish I had read this book in the Shakers’ slow-time mode. It deserves to be read at a slow pace. All those well-crafted sentences, all those unexpected word combinations, those mesmerizing visions and inconvenient truths (especially about academic life and the scourge of tenure-track privileges) need careful savoring. It deserves more.
Mark – the protagonist, the narrating voice, the spelling/grammar teacher – believes what his mother taught him: “We are handed the facts of our lives. We’re artists, son, and it is up to us to turn those sad facts into something we can live with, to make them mean something good.” (156)
Do not miss this quote either and the way it portrays love in a nutshell: “Two bodies buoyed by a current they cannot control” (151)

[Redshirt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like this book was an advert for Shakers. The story felt like it dragged in places and confounded me with its abrupt transition between "today" and "then." The author's fantastic turn of phrase peeked through often, distracting me from the content of the sentence. With no separation of paragraphs, it felt like a long slog. With each chapter ending with a relevant grammar lesson, it felt like enjoyable schoolwork. I particularly liked how the homosexuality was handled as well as how realistically loneliness was described.

[Geo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kim lent me this one & it’s an interesting puzzle of a book. Several plot elements weaving backwards and forward exploring the themes of family and relationships, all within the framework of the last days of the Shakers as a touchstone. Ambitious narratology that’s just a tad too frustrating of this reader’s expectations; I’d love to give it all five stars, but........

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

exactly the kind of story I love, but the writing without paragraph breaks was exhausting to read. Three stars is generous.

[Readersguide · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.

[Tom Cowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh!

[Beverly · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were several story streams in this novel and the author couldn't quite hold them together. I got so bogged down in the story of Celia, who was dropped off in the Shaker village as a child and later sees a "Black Jesus" that I stopped reading. The author also seemed to be discharging a personal passive/agressively tinged feeling about political correctness and race relations. (The protagonist is a college rhetoric instructor accused of racism for failing a black student.) I don't know why I had this on my reading list.

[Sarah Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this little book. It is witty, interesting, and full of information about the Shakers. I never did any research on this very interesting group of people, but I enjoyed learning about them. Additionally, each chapter of this novel is concluded with a short grammar lesson that manages to make you laugh & remind you of those important rules that you learned in elementary school.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I'm going to visit the Shaker Village in Hancock next month and thought it would be fun to read a book that is related. The story was good and the spelling tips sprinkled throughout were great. I'm a good speller, but didn't remember lots of the reasons why we spell the way we do.

[Nicholas George · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the writing (and idea) of this novel are impressive, it just didn't connect with me in the way the author intended. The political correctness angle seems forced and even dated, and the Shaker sub story also comes across as too obvious an analogy for the protagonist's troubles. I did like the lessons in spelling -- those would make an entertaining pamphlet on their own!

[Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this so much more than I did. There is a really interesting story about failing a student at the beginning, and I wanted to latch on to the Shaker tidbits with much more gusto. In the end, this was just way to “artsy” of a book for me to stay engaged in. I could barely finish. I liked Still in Love so much more than this!

[Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book, mostly because of the interweaving story lines. And of course, the main character is gay, so that automatically made me happy. But I really liked the Shaker subplot, combined with the grammar subplot, and then the whole part about Paul. It was good.

[Marvin · Rating 1 out of 5]

A confusing story about an English professor caught up in academic politics that somehow (it was never clear to me) recalled his father's life among the last of the Shakers (in a book with a Grant Wood painting on the cover!). I almost quit several times, but stuck it out.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked Downing's book, "Breakfast With Scot" so much I wanted to read more of his writing. "Perfect Agreement" is a funny little book; a story within a story, with semantic lessons to boot. Very smart, and very witty.

[Carolyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book, while cleverly written, was awful. Usually, I try to skim through books that I just don't care for, but I finally gave up. I don't care enough about the main character and his plight with his father (the shaker part) or getting fired or his being gay. BORING AS HELL.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skipped all the parts about the Shakers, but enjoyed the rest.

[Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was left utterly confused. I love the idea of any story about a teacher, and the subplot was nice, but it lost me. If I had to summarize this book I'm not sure I could.