Introduction

A friend of mine recommended Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. He is a copyeditor, and his statement to me when he recommended it to was that it felt like Enger had labored over every word, sentence, and paragraph. That intrigued me, since he is someone who frequently parlays in words.

And he is right.

This is a beautifully written book.

It is rare a day when someone’s writing actually inspires me to sit down and write; but such is the case with Peace Like a River.

Rating

9.5 out of 10 – this would have been a 10 out of 10, except for two reasons:

Enger has a scene that takes place in a spiritual realm – after two of the characters are shot. I am a Christian, and after reading Peace Like a River, I think Enger may be as well (if he is not, he demonstrates a remarkable command of the religious life). I’m not convinced it works, and I think the story would have been more powerful without it (or, at a minimum, a modified version of it).
I desperately wanted more information about Jape Waltzer. Enger creates a compellingly eerie villain, but we don’t get enough of his story. I’m not looking for a separate chapter, but there were some unanswered questions (which sort of played to his eeriness), but a little more detail would have been nice.

All that being said, I am loathe to provide any book a perfect 10, but this one gets as close as I’ll probably ever get. Well done Leif Enger!

Additionally, I would add that the character of Swede was masterfully written. It’s always dangerous to write a writer into a story; but Enger does so with admirable skill and beauty.

Genre

Fiction

Setting

Midwest America during the dustbowl (1930’s), with some throwbacks to the “old west”

Summary

[taken from Amazon]

Enger brings us eleven-year-old Reuben Land, an asthmatic boy in the Midwest who has reason to believe in miracles. Along with his sister and father, Reuben finds himself on a cross-country search for his outlaw older brother who has been charged with murder. Their journey unfolds like a revelation, and its conclusion shows how family, love, and faith can stand up to the most terrifying of enemies, and the most tragic of fates.

Quotes

[taken from GoodReads]

“Yes, yes sir—routine is worry’s sly assassin.”
― Peace Like a River

“Be careful whom you choose to hate.
The small and the vulnerable own a protection great enough, if you could but see it, to melt you into jelly.
Beware those who reside beneath the shadow of the Wings.”
― Peace Like a River

“So thoughtlessly we sling on our destinies.”
― Leif Enger, Peace Like a River

“You know how it is—you grow up with a story all your life, it can transmute into something you neither question nor particularly value. It’s why we have such bad luck learning from mistakes.”
― Peace Like a River

“Sometimes heroism is nothing more than patience, curiosity, and a refusal to panic.”
― Peace Like a River

“Fair is whatever God wants to do.”
― Peace Like a River

“I remember it as October days are always remembered, cloudless, maple-flavored, the air gold and so clean it quivers.”
― Peace Like a River

“Real miracles bother people, like strange sudden pains unknown in medical literature. It’s true: They rebut every rule all we good citizens take comfort in. Lazarus obeying orders and climbing up out of the grave – now there’s a miracle, and you can bet it upset a lot of folks who were standing around at the time. When a person dies, the earth is generally unwilling to cough him back up. A miracle contradicts the will of the earth.”
― Peace Like a River

“Once traveling, it’s remarkable how quickly faith erodes. It starts to look like something else–ignorance, for example. Same thing happened to the Israelites. Sure it’s weak, but sometimes you’d rather just have a map.”
― Peace Like a River

“Fresh peach pie can lift a bullying reprobate into apologetic courtesy; I have watched it happen.”
― Peace Like a River

“Hope is like yeast, you know, rising under warmth.”
― Peace Like a River

“Someday, you know, we’re going to be shown the great ledger of our recorded decisions-a dread concept you nonetheless know in your deepest soul is true.”
― Peace Like a River

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger