Title: Perfect
Author: Rachel Joyce
Publisher: Random House
Star rating: * * * *
So I finally finished turning the last pages of Perfect, and my mind is buzzing with thoughts. If you've already read Part Two of my Christmas Book Haul you'll know that I received this title while knowing very little about it. Initially I found Perfect to be one of those books that took me a while to really engage with but, by the time I was halfway through, I couldn't stop turning the pages. In fact I spent an entire day in my pyjamas specifically to finish reading the book; and it was worth it.
The privileged eleven year old Byron Hemmings is the voice for many chapters in the novel. The plot begins by focusing on two seconds that were to be added to time in England during 1972, and we soon learn of Byron's fixation on the consequences of their addition. Indeed, this fixation ignited a chain of events that caused his life to alter in inconceivable ways. It began with an irregular movement in the ticking of his watch, and a collision with a little girl and her red bicycle. 'If only James had never told him'.
I personally found that the chapters set in 1972 were the most interesting for me to read, particularly in terms of characterization. I warmed greatly to Diana, Byron's mother, and her emotionally abusive relationship with her husband Seymour often pained me to read. James, Byron's best friend and the individual that informed him of the two seconds, was another character that I enjoyed following as the story progressed. Although James was often in the sidelines to begin with he played an instrumental role in 'Operation Perfect' and the unfolding of the book's events.
I also found it really interesting that many of the characters were from an upper class background. It gave them an alternate outlook on life, one that was often highly pressurized and a direct contrast to many of the characters that were encountered in other chapters in the novel.
Perfect uses a split narrative and those chapters that did not occur in 1972 took place in the present day, and through the voice of a middle aged character simply named as Jim. His struggles are clear from the very beginning, but it is not until I finished the book that I fully understood them, and his link to Byron Hemmings. I found that I didn't really engage with the characters as well in these sections of the novel, but their inclusion was definitely vital and enhanced my understanding of the story, although I didn't realise this in the beginning!
I definitely recommend Perfect to anyone that enjoyed Joyce's previous novel 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry'. For me a bit of perseverance was required, but the deeper I progressed into the novel the more gripping I seemed to find it. Because of this, I have given it a four star rating out of five.
