Peace Like a River

by Leif Enger
Peace Like a River  
published August 20th 2002 by Atlantic Monthly Press
first published 2001
binding Paperback
isbn 0802139256   (isbn13: 9780802139252)
pages 320
description To the list of great American child narrators that includes Huck Finn and Scout Finch, let us now add Reuben "Rube" Land, the asthmatic 11-...more
date added
03-02-07



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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 5660)



Annalisa
Annalisa rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
07/15/08

Read in July, 2008
recommended to Annalisa by: Amy
Almost more Swede's "Life in the Dakotas" than a story, most of the novel is a well-painted picture of life in North Dakotas for a religious family in the '60s. I wasn't exactly sure what the book was about until the end, but I just enjoyed the scenery. And the beautifully written scenes needed to be strong to get you to the end because of the ambivalent direction. There were moments when I wondered where the adventure was leading me, as in what the point of the novel was, and even a f...more
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Robert Beveridge
Robert rated it: 1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars
01/22/08

bookshelves: finished, owned-and-gave-away
Read in January, 2004
Leif Enger, Peace Like a River (Grove, 2001)

Oh, what has happened to Grove Press? The folks that made their name publishing scandalous novels by James Joyce, Henry Miller, William S. Burroughs, and the like publishing what may be the least controversial novel of the last ten years? It hurts my heart, folks, it really does. Please, Grove, stick to what you know.

It wouldn't be so bad if there were more about this piece of smarmy claptrap to like. I haven't decided whether this is a good thing ...more
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SVK
SVK rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
02/18/08

Read in January, 2005
recommends it for: book groups
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Rebekah
Rebekah rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
06/26/08

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Holli
Holli rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
04/28/08

Read in August, 2005
Great book! Great story! Great characters! I especially liked Swede and her vocabulary, not to mention her epic cowboy poems. I didn’t care that she can write better than I can. And of course, Rube, who is so human, struggling with what is the right thing to do. The feeling of a brother gone bad, wanting to protect him, bring him back into the fold—I know that feeling. And the breathing—even though mine doesn’t get that bad, I could still identify. The book was full of great i...more
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Siria
06/04/07

bookshelves: 21st-century, american-fiction
Read in January, 2007
Whoever typeset this book should be fired, and then possibly summarily shot. I cannot recall the last time I saw so many errors in a book--apostrophes and quotation marks inverted, no spaces left after some of the full stops, and, on one occasion, the e.e. cummings-esque 'multi- p lied' appeared in the middle of the page for no discernible reason.

Such gripes aside, this book is really an excellent read. It is a novel of faith, the kind of novel which I normally find hard to connect with, si...more
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Becky
Becky rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
05/11/08

Read in May, 2008
recommends it for: Melinda Deffenbaugh, Holly Deffenbaugh
Just finished this book. Highly recommend it! It is a very creative story, full of wonderful prose, and characters you come to love, admire and hate. Very interesting spiritual theme running throughout the book. It is clear the author has some understanding of the miraculous! This is certainly not a story that has what we would call a happy ending, but surprises you and on some level it makes sense. And the ending is not even the most important thing - it is walking the journey with these charac...more
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Carrie
Carrie rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
07/15/08

Read in July, 2008
the book is a story told from the perspective of eleven year old reuben, as he tells about the adventures and experiences his family has when they go in search of his older brother, who has been charged with murder.

the story is set in the early sixties, which is hard to remember. reuben and his sister swede are entranced by the old west, and they are constantly comparing their encounters to those outlaws of the past.

you quickly grow attached to each member of the family, even the older b...more
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Tim
Tim rated it: 1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars1 of 5 stars
02/19/08

bookshelves: modern-fiction, rather-be-waterboarded
Read in February, 2008
Where to start with this book. I plowed through it just to see how it ended, but by page 150 I was already disappointed. First of all the character of Swede is so unbelievable. Have you ever met or heard of a nine year old girl who talks and acts like that? It seemed more like she was a thoughtful nun in her early 20's. And the fact that in her spare time she sits around writing lyric poetry about cowboys that mimics their own story just was too much.
Combine that with the character of Reu...more
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Blakely
Blakely rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
07/11/08

Read in January, 2005
recommended to Blakely by: Terry Myers
recommends it for: Garcia Marquez fans
I saw Leif Enger speak last night promoting his new book, So Brave, Young & Handsome at Elliott Bay. I would not say I was disappointed, but I do feel a change in my enthusiasm for this author. I love the narrative and characters in his first book, Peace Like a River, and Swede made me sure the author had some real-life muse to model her after. I asked him about it and he replied that she was a gift, and modeled after no one. He has no daughters, no sisters. This is poetic, but I had a hard...more
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Mimi
Mimi rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
06/13/08

Read in June, 2008
I don't know where to start! "It was ok" (should I mark 2 stars?) I don't regret reading it though.

(someone from my book club: when you read it please mark the 2 sentences that I think are wrong or I want the grammatical explanation. This has bothered me for my last 9 "English" years. Something with "would of". I think it should say "would have" but 2 sentences say "would of" instead. What am I missing???)

Review: Some of the sentences an...more
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Katy
Katy rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
01/19/08

Read in May, 2007
This might be my favorite book.

I love the writing style. Randy and I read it aloud and that was perfect because there are so many quotable moments.

Here's a review I found that describes it better than I can:

"A rich mixture of adventure, tragedy, and healing, " Peace Like a River is "a collage of legends from sources sacred and profane -- from the Old Testament to the Old West, from the Gospels to police dramas" (Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor). In...more
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  1 comments

Nancy
Nancy rated it: 2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars
07/14/08

Read in July, 2008
There were things I really liked about this story but more things that I didn't...Overall I would say that the general story was good, but the details of plot and character interaction were random and disjointed. I loved the father's faith, the world would be a far better place if we all had faith like that to see beyond the coincidences of life and know that God is in the details. Here is a quote from the beginning of the book which gave me food for thought.

"Let me say something about ...more
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Alaina
Alaina rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
08/02/08

Not the sort of book I usually read, though the dialect of the young narrator captured my interest and maintained it through to the mildly unsatisfying finish.

The narration follows a family of three lovable children being raised by a sensible and lovable single dad. They are what the Brady Bunch might have been had the handsome fellow not met the lovely lady.
We gather round and warm ourselves by Reuben Land's tales of his tender interaction with his brother and sister and the miracle-wor...more
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Heidi
Heidi rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
02/01/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in January, 2008
This was a very compelling story. It only took me a week to read this 300 (or so) page book which is a miracle considering my clingy baby. It's about a family - father, 16 year old boy named Davy, 11 year old boy (the narrater) named Reuben, and nine year old girl named Swede. After the father catches some boys harassing a girl, the boys and Davy get in a series of altercations which leads Davy to kill them both. After his trial but before his most definite conviction he goes out on the run. The...more
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Brett
Brett rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
06/17/08

Read in June, 2008
I just finished this book which was highly recommended to me by my wife and friends. You'ld think that I would have been more into this book since I can relate to the narrator, being a life long asthmatic, and also the Father in the story is who is a very faithful and spritual man, like I want to be.

I think my struggle to get into the book at first has to do with the style it is written in. It's very poetic and stylized with the use of figurative language in abundance. Being an English Ma...more
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Danielle
Danielle rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
05/26/08

bookshelves: fiction
Read in May, 2008
recommended to Danielle by: Carol Poulter
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. After reading the reviews here I thought I would hate it for sure..."schmaltzy" just doesn't appeal to me. But I didn't find the emotion of this book over the top. I thought the plot was both interesting and thoughtful, and completely aside from that, the writing was excellent. I've read much more poorly written books with thinner plots to complain about this one.
I found Enger's writing style to be delightful and beautiful. The narrat...more
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Evanmillar
Evanmillar rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
06/09/08

Read in June, 2008
I really loved this book. One of those books that doesn't grab you with the plot line, but with the characters and the insights. I almost felt the urge to take out a highlighter as I went and mark it up like it was scriptures. Here were some of my favorite lines:

"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."
...more
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~Clare~