{"product_id":"perfect-agreement-isbn-9781582435381","title":"Perfect Agreement","description":"Mark Sternum, a professor who teaches spelling and grammar at Boston's McClintock College, is full of droll observations about the rules that govern our language, but he leads a diligent if somewhat detached life. Friends and family try to coax him into deeper involvement, yet he keeps even his lover at arm's length. He screens all incoming calls, including his eccentric sister's \"word pictures\" about the waning days of their comatose mother.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne day, an African–American single mother who has failed the college's basic skills test for the last time accuses Mark of \"prejudgism,\" and Mark is fired. Blown off course, he monitors the ensuing academic skirmish from a distance as his case makes national headlines, and turns his attention instead to the graceful rhythms of a small Shaker community. As the scrambled pieces of Mark's life and the simple ways of the Shakers begin to merge, Mark finds new beauty in his own maddening, blissful dependency on the people in his life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFunny and generous, Downing's seemingly effortless prose juxtaposes cunning portraits of academic functionaries weathering the age of political correctness with the people and values of the last Shaker families in America.\"Downing is better at writing about Shakers than Hawthorne or Melville . . . The feeling for the community and its members ring true.\" —\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003ePerfect Agreement\u003c\/i\u003e is as artfully and solidly constructed as a Shaker table . . . Exquisite.\" —\u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A novel of compassion and wit . . . Downing combines one man's tale of loss and acceptance, the lost rhythms of the Shaker world, and the delights of the English language.\" —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003cb\u003eMichael Downing\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of nine books, including the national bestseller \u003ci\u003ePerfect Agreement\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eBreakfast with Scot\u003c\/i\u003e, which was adapted as a feature film; \u003ci\u003eShoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center\u003c\/i\u003e; and \u003ci\u003eSpring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time\u003c\/i\u003e. A frequent commentator in the national media on Congress and the clocks, he teaches creative writing at Tufts University.","brand":"Counterpoint","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302187684069,"sku":"NP9781582435381","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781582435381.jpg?v=1767734653","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/perfect-agreement-isbn-9781582435381","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}