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Product Description
"Mark Sternum is a vanishing breed: the grammarian. His love of order extends into his meticulously constructed life, but love and family, he learns, can't be made to agree as easily as subject and verb. One summer, he suddenly finds himself a not-entirely-unwilling outcast of the impossible world of academic political correctness, and his attention turns to the lost world of the Shakers. Filled with satirical takes on modern manners, masterful evocations of the Shaker line, and the beauty of their core belief that work is a gift, Perfect Agreement is far from a simple gift. Here is where Downing's genius at weaving story lines becomes apparent as he gracefully integrates Mark's story with the sometimes heartbreaking tale of the Shaker Celia...exquisite." --Newsday
Amazon.com Review
Over the past decade Michael Downing has acquired a small but passionate readership. His 1987 novel A Narrow Time was praised for its insights into the psychology of fear and guilt, and his 1990 Mother of God shocked critics with its portrayal of dysfunction in the perfect American family. In Perfect Agreement Downing has combined these themes to tell the story of Mark Sternum, a gay man who loses his job as a professor and rediscovers his father, whom he had long presumed dead. Downing's writing is beautiful and astute, and his ability to unravel the human heart and allow us to see--and feel--its innermost desires is astonishing.
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