Let me begin by saying that this is just my experience in "audio-reading" Richard Paul Evans newest book. This is really not a description of the plot or the characters, but my reaction to the novel. I listened to the entire book over the weekend during my commute to work, which was 6 CD's and unabridged.

In short, if you liked The Christmas Box, you will probably like A Perfect Day. Honestly, I could end there, but I won't.

I personnally did not "get" The Christmas Box. It seemed trite, too short, and didn't touch me emotionally. I apparently am not the target of Evan's first and most famous work--I have not lost a child. And I don't particularly care for his style of writing. And my jealousy clouds my view because I don't understand why others love this books. Okay, I got that out of the way.

I can best describe A Perfect Day as a fictional quasi-autobiography. It is about a writer writing about a writer, which I feel is an overused cliche. It's been done way too many times to be fresh. (My favorites are Og Mandino's The Greatest Miracle in the World and the films House of the Long Shadows and Throw Momma from the Train.) But writers write about what they know, right? And what do they know more about than writing?

A Perfect Day seems to be an abbreviated and slightly different version of Evans's own experience in getting The Christmas Box published, with a fictional love story placed over the top of it. And for the most part, the story works. But this book is basically a romance novel, but I never really get emotionally involved with the characters. I never really feel that they would do what they do because of emotion. I feel that I'm being told what they feel rather than being shown.

The characters seem shallow and the plot contrived. The one character that I would like to know more about is Michael, an all-knowing, mysterious character whose introduction far into the story finally attracted my attention and I wanted to know more about him. This side character is the only one that I end up caring for in the story and I think Evans could have capitalized more on his role in the novel.

In the story A Perfect Day is the novel written by the main character, Robert Mason Harlan, and is a story about his wife and her father, the story of which is briefly alluded to in the first few chapters. I think I would rather read that A Perfect Day than the one penned by Evans.

My recommendation is that if you like Richard Paul Evans, then by all means get this one. You'll like it, too. If I hadn't bought it on audio tape and wasn't listening to it (which is easier, in my opinion), then I may not have finished it. I'm glad I did finish it, because the conclusion was somewhat rewarding, kind of in A Christmas Carol kind of way.

I would also like to solicit a review by someone who loves Richard Paul Evans. I'm sure that review would be much different than mine and I would be highly interested in reading it and trying to understand why others would like this story more than I did.

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Darvell Hunt
October 27, 2003