Perfect Agreement - Couverture souple

Downing, Michael

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1582435383 ISBN 13 : 9781582435381

Editeur : Catapult, 2009

Synopsis

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.

One 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.

Funny 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.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Michael Downing is the author of nine books, including the national bestseller Perfect Agreement; Breakfast with Scot, which was adapted as a feature film; Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center; and Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time. A frequent commentator in the national media on Congress and the clocks, he teaches creative writing at Tufts University.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Catapult
• Date d'édition: 2009
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1582435383
• ISBN 13: 9781582435381
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 286
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible