There are no perfect characters in this book. By “lovable” characters, I don’t mean “endearing” I mean characters that the reader grows to understand and love. Still, it’s a real pleasure to read about lovable characters. The best fiction helps us understand human nature, and unlikable characters are necessary for that. Perfect is one of the rare character-driven novels in which the plot is well-paced and full of surprises.Īs I’ve said before, I have no problem with unlikable characters in literature. The reader may or may not anticipate the way in which these two lives end up intersecting ( I didn’t!), but that doesn’t matter - the beauty of this book is in the characters.
Joyce tells two stories, in alternating chapters: the story of Byron, a young boy whose innocent childhood comes to an end when something happens on an ordinary morning on the way to school, and the story of Jim, a middle-aged man whose life is crippled by obsessive-compulsive disorder. I adored this lovely novel, and have been thinking about it ever since. On New Year’s Day (which is always a wonderful day to stay home in pajamas), I finished reading Rachel Joyce’s Perfect. The only problem is that bears are not literate, and I like to spend my hibernation time reading. If I am reincarnated as an animal, I would like to be a bear. Enjoy.” Thank you, Common Good Books, for giving voice to what I have always thought: the worse the weather, the better the day.
Paul, Minnesota, showing a digital thermometer reading -14 degrees, with the caption, “Dear Rest of the World, in Minnesota we call this ‘book weather’. Yesterday I saw a Facebook post from Garrison Keillor’s bookstore in St. It’s currently -15 degrees in Chicago - and that’s at noon, with the sun shining.
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