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 [close] 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-year-old boy at the center of Leif Enger's remarkable first novel, Peace Like a River. Rube recalls the events of his childhood, in small-town Minnesota circa 1962, in a voice that perfectly captures the poetic, verbal stoicism of the northern Great Plains. "Here's what I saw," Rube warns his readers. "Here's how it went. Make of it what you will." And Rube sees plenty. In the winter of his 11th year, two schoolyard bullies break into the Lands' house, and Rube's big brother Davy guns them down with a Winchester. Shortly after his arrest, Davy breaks out of jail and goes on the lam. Swede is Rube's younger sister, a precocious writer who crafts rhymed epics of romantic Western outlawry. Shortly after Davy's escape, Rube, Swede, and their father, a widowed school custodian, hit the road too, swerving this way and that across Minnesota and North Dakota, determined to find their lost outlaw Davy. In the end it's not Rube who haunts the reader's imagination, it's his father, torn between love for his outlaw son and the duty to do the right, honest thing. Enger finds something quietly heroic in the bred-in-the-bone Minnesota decency of America's heartland. Peace Like a River opens up a new chapter in Midwestern literature. --Claire Dederer [close]
date added	03-02-07 edit book

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Annalisa rated it:

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 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 few where my interest was waning. But I knew all the loose ends would tie up and I'd be left with a good story and a thoughtful message and then it would all make sense. Enger did not disappoint.

We are left with much to ponder from this novel, even from the onset. When is self defense murder in your heart and when is it protection of your family? How is a legal system depended on intent ever supposed to accurately decipher a man's (or woman's) heart? Is it better to let misdeed continue, even escalate, than retaliate? Or do you wait until a ticking time bomb explodes and then feel guilty you did not intervene? I didn't realize until this very moment that both of those scenarios play out for the same character. Even gun control and hunting issues, particularly with minors, wandered through my head. And what of other people's misfortunes? When is it appropriate to intervene and risk your own happiness? And when do you let the path of others' lives fall naturally?

There are plenty of religious questions to contemplate as well. Do you believe in miracles? I for one wanted to find scientific explanations for 11-year-old witness accounts and then felt guilty to not show more faith. Why are miracles, or even faith, or luck, more predominant for some people than others? Why must some suffer burdens of life and others escape consequences of their own actions? I do not have a problem with the message that life is not fair because eternal justice is not metered on earth time. Even what we consider "suffering" is necessary for personal progression. It's not punishment. We have our reward in character strength and they have their reward in character destruction.

There is also a message of God working in mysterious ways. This family sets out on this journey to salvage one family member and ends up changing gears for a different family member. Davy wasn't the cause of the journey, but neon signs guiding them to a different purpose, and with some foresight, that purpose was very much needed. Oftentimes our lives are that way and we must listen to those redirectional signs.

What I did almost have a problem with was the message of sacrifice. Not that I find it unnecessary, but I wasn't sure this particular sacrifice (the one in the climax) required so much. I didn't find this miracle any more taxing than the others, and quite similar to the superintendent's, so why does Enger have to throw in a different outcome for a poignant message? Then again, I had that same moment of disbelief when the dad walked off the truck. Plus I am not a worker of miracles and I do not know the cost of their power. So I let it go, because I did find the whole scene incredibly beautiful, and you had to know that miracle was coming. And it had to be something big or it would have taken place already.

I enjoyed the characters and their relationship with each other: I respected the father's patience, faith, humility, and the way he let his children learn for themselves instead of micro-managing their growth. I enjoyed the moments in the novel where Ruben called himself out on his pride and said he didn't want to go into details. As the narrator, I loved how Enger made him humanly weak and painfully aware of his shortcomings, and for that I found him incredibly strong, even during his pity party when I wondered why he hadn't played the prodigal son's brother more often. Confident, articulate Swede: such a vibrant character. I loved her poetry and how her fictitious outlaw retold and forecasted events for her own outlaw brother.

Davy was the one character I struggled with: his charismatic control vs his unrepentant darkness. At times he scared me (what was he capable of?) and I still do not know whether I liked him or not. He reacted completely opposite to danger first with planned violent extremes and secondly with impulsive disastrous stupidity. While both were courageous, they contradicted and neither solution made me respect him. I am not sure he was worthy of this cross-country rescue, but could understand his family's desire for reunion. I kept wondering what the conversation between father and son would be. Did he intend to encourage his surrender or aid his escape? It didn't really matter to me whether he was caught or not. Both endings would not have surprised me and somehow disappointed me. Do we encourage running from the law or watch a family pay for not wanting to be victims? I wondered what message Enger was leaning toward, but it turns out that was not the point of the book after all. A well-written, thought-provoking, moving novel....less

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Robert rated it:

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 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 or a bad thing yet (I'm grudgingly leaning towards the former). Enger's writing style allows for long lapses in anything actually happening. Just when I'm ready to throw the book against the wall, however, he perks right back up again and things start going well for a few pages, then it's back into the depths of... well, the void. That's about the only way I can put it.

Reuben Land is an asthmatic eleven-year-old (or, at least, he is in the novel; one of the more amusing things I'm finding about most reviews is that they seem to have skipped over the fact that he WAS an asthmatic eleven-year-old at the time of the novel, but he's telling the story as an adult, which makes the comparisons to To Kill a Mockingbird, Huck Finn, etc. specious at best) with a father who can perform miracles, a sister who's a writing prodigy, and a brother who's your basic teenager in the small-town American Midwest in 1962. After Reuben's father stops two town thugs from raping a girl, they seek revenge on the family. The teenager's reaction to this is what sets up the rest of the novel; it's probably not a spoiler any more, but I won't say anything just in case.

The plotline with Davy (the teenager) is by far the most interesting thing about the novel. When Enger is writing this, his prose rises off the page and compels the reader to keep going. Unfortunately, it's a minor point in the general scheme of things; Enger seems far more interested in writing an episode of Seventh Heaven where the family's father is actually Jesus. Except Seventh Heaven, for all its many many faults, has more wit, more compassion, and less preaching than does Peace Like a River.

I was willing to give this mess two stars, mostly because Enger can write well when he tries, and a couple of his characters are perfectly drawn, but then I got to the ending. Of all the endings I would have projected for this novel, Enger took the most predictable, most syrupy-sweet, most clichéd ending he possibly could, then tried to pass it off and something epic and grandiose. Even if the rest of the book had been perfect, the ending is such a miserable failure that I'd recommend skipping the whole novel, unless you seek out smarminess and predictability.

The purpose of a great novel is to challenge the reader, make the reader think, open the reader's eyes and make the reader look at things from a new perspective. All in all, I can't say I've come across another book this year that fails so miserably in all those capacities as does Peace Like a River. * ½ ...less

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SVK rated it:

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.

It's good, but not as good as people say. It’s no To Kill a Mockingbird.

Synopsis
Reuben Land tells his family story. How he was born without lung capacity and his father told him to breath—the first of many miracles by his father. Little sister Swede is a budding writer, taken with poetry of the west. She’s writing an epic poem about Sunny Sundown, originally hunting the untouchable, he becomes a sympathetic outlaw. Their older brother Davy lives the outlaw life,...more It's good, but not as good as people say. It’s no To Kill a Mockingbird.

Synopsis
Reuben Land tells his family story. How he was born without lung capacity and his father told him to breath—the first of many miracles by his father. Little sister Swede is a budding writer, taken with poetry of the west. She’s writing an epic poem about Sunny Sundown, originally hunting the untouchable, he becomes a sympathetic outlaw. Their older brother Davy lives the outlaw life, molding Swede’s outlaw sympathies & disillusionments.

The story begins as Jeremiah Land, father and high school janitor, breaks up a locker room attack. High school jerks Tommy Basca and Israel Finch had attacked Davy’s girlfriend. The boys seek revenge on the Land family, briefly kidnapping Swede, etc. One night Davy does some act of vandalism to lure their retaliation. That night he waits, when they arrive, Davy shoots them both dead.

Davy goes through a trial by jury. Things are looking grim when Davy breaks jail and takes to the hills by horse. The kids are overjoyed, father content. The Lands eventually inherit a new Airstream and take to the Badlands pursuing Davy. They are followed by federal agent & nemesis supreme Martin Andreeson.

The Lands are held up by a snow storm and take rooms with Roxanna, a gas station owner, deserted by her husband. Jeremiah and the kids fall in love with Roxanna. While there, Reuben sees a far off horse—Davy. They begin to meet at night in Davy’s secret hide-out shack. Davy lives with outlaw supreme Jape Waltzer and his daughter/wife Sara.

Reuben spills to Davy & Waltzer that Andreeson is talking in town, getting closer. Soon after, Andreeson disappears and is assumed dead. Reuben’s guilt overcomes him and he spills about Davy to family and feds. The real hunt begins, and the hideout is found, but empty.

Time passes. Roxanna and Jeremiah marry and move to the Red Farm outside of the Land hometown. Davy visits one day with Sarah, who he’d rescued. Waltzer arrives with a vengence, shoots Jeremiah and Reuben, leaves. Reuben has a next world experience and meets his dad who “sends him back”. Of course, Reuben should have died, but there’s a miracle, his lungs are fully restored as well.

Life goes on. Reuben marries Sara and, on occasion, runs into Davy in remote places. That’s about it.

...less

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Rebekah rated it:

06/26/08

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I am really torn as to know what to say about this book. I've thought about it over and over again, and I think I've finally figured it out.

First of all, I have so many reasons to love this book. There are some struggles with reading it...like when you realize that the Father, Jeremiah Land, has so few things so right with his life. He leaves behind his dream of being a doctor and becomes a janitor because God tells him to; his wife leaves him; his son shoots two teenagers because Jeremi...more I am really torn as to know what to say about this book. I've thought about it over and over again, and I think I've finally figured it out.

First of all, I have so many reasons to love this book. There are some struggles with reading it...like when you realize that the Father, Jeremiah Land, has so few things so right with his life. He leaves behind his dream of being a doctor and becomes a janitor because God tells him to; his wife leaves him; his son shoots two teenagers because Jeremiah defends a girl's honor; he loses his job; he ends up having to turn against his son in order to help the "putrid fed" find him; and in the end, he dies from a gunshot wound that shouldn't have killed him. What a horrible life. It hurts because he's so close to God...why would God have allowed all of these calamities to take place, and still required so much of Jeremiah? But eventually, I came to the realization that much good came out of it. Because of everything that happens, Roxanna is able to be "saved" and have a better life, and so is Sara. And, if nothing else, Reuben is able to gain an understanding and testimony of God because of what his father goes through.

Also, how awesome is the part when Roxanna hears Jeremiah's "prayer" concerning whether or not he should help Andreeson? It tore my soul apart. I know I have had times in my life like that...when God asks you to do something that seems completely impossible and unjust; and when people, even your own family members question and accuse you about it later, all you can say is, "I did it because God told me to." And for some people, that just won't be enough.

Okay, but really, what's up with Jape Waltzer? That character ruined the entire book. I think there was a lot of potential there, but he just went to far. In my opinion, he's too weird and creepy and crazy, to the point where he is unrealistic. I think this book needed a bad guy, but one who was believable. I like that he shows up at the end and just starts shooting everybody. I can take that much. But buying Sara as a daughter/wife? Feeding sausages to the pig Emil? He crossed the line; and a book about God needs to be realistic in every sense so that the miracles are understood to be miracles, in my opinion.

Enough said. Conclusion: three stars for Peace Like a River....less

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Holli rated it:

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 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 imagery. I especially liked the line about searching his brain like opening every drawer of a bureau. I didn’t see the end coming, but it was inevitable. I can’t wait for Enger to write another novel.

Amazon.com's Best of 2001
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-year-old boy at the center of Leif Enger's remarkable first novel, Peace Like a River. Rube recalls the events of his childhood, in small-town Minnesota circa 1962, in a voice that perfectly captures the poetic, verbal stoicism of the northern Great Plains. "Here's what I saw," Rube warns his readers. "Here's how it went. Make of it what you will." And Rube sees plenty.
In the winter of his 11th year, two schoolyard bullies break into the Lands' house, and Rube's big brother Davy guns them down with a Winchester. Shortly after his arrest, Davy breaks out of jail and goes on the lam. Swede is Rube's younger sister, a precocious writer who crafts rhymed epics of romantic Western outlawry. Shortly after Davy's escape, Rube, Swede, and their father, a widowed school custodian, hit the road too, swerving this way and that across Minnesota and North Dakota, determined to find their lost outlaw Davy. In the end it's not Rube who haunts the reader's imagination, it's his father, torn between love for his outlaw son and the duty to do the right, honest thing. Enger finds something quietly heroic in the bred-in-the-bone Minnesota decency of America's heartland. Peace Like a River opens up a new chapter in Midwestern literature.
...less

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Siria rated it:

(review of isbn 0552999350)

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 rated it:

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 rated it:

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 rated it:

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 rated it:

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 rated it:

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 rated it:

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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Nancy rated it:

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 rated it:

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 rated it:

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 rated it:

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 rated it:

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 rated it:

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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