false 227571 19 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, <I>Peace Like a River</I>. 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. <p> 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 school custodian who wife abandoned him, 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. <I>Peace Like a River</I> opens up a new chapter in Midwestern literature. <I>--Claire Dederer</I> 3332231 2001 Peace Like a River total:10554|5:3519|4:3896|3:2289|2:675|1:175| 10554 41571 13906 2111 5 8 false false Thu Aug 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 30 17:58:25 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 25 13:55:17 -0700 2008
I loved it, too.

Three things that kept me turning those pages:

1. The characters. Eleven-year...more...]]> 5 4 false false Sun May 11 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 23 23:07:57 -0700 2008 Sun May 11 22:00:45 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 3 false false Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Mon Apr 28 11:00:10 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 28 11:01:31 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 4 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jan 19 12:03:33 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 19 23:30:06 -0800 2008
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 heal...more...]]> 4 3 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Jun 04 14:16:01 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 04 14:16:25 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 4 false false Wed Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu Mar 13 07:11:46 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 16 20:09:58 -0700 2008 2 2 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 26 12:08:54 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 14 19:20:33 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 2 false true Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Mon Feb 18 16:40:06 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 18 16:40:06 -0800 2008 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, ta...more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Jul 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Feb 12 14:08:46 -0800 2008 Tue Jul 15 20:21:15 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 2 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Tue Jan 22 10:55:46 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 22 10:55:46 -0800 2008
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 hurt...more...]]> 2 2 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 28 19:48:24 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 28 19:55:46 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 2 true false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 11 09:21:27 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 11 09:36:19 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 3 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 29 11:42:47 -0700 2007 Wed Nov 14 10:26:37 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Dec 26 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 29 11:32:54 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 29 11:37:19 -0800 2008
Very few books of indeterminate enthusiasm can survive such a rep. As good as it was, I didn't find Swede's writing believable. There were too many allusions that just didn't fit in the vision of a ...more...]]> 0 2 false false Tue Mar 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 25 20:33:12 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 18 19:51:18 -0700 2009 This book made me cranky.
It is beautifully written, almost poetic. It reminds me of the style of "How Green Was My Valley." There's a strong, wise father figure. A boy coming of age. An older brother who makes a dubious choice. A shocking death. ...more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Sep 01 10:03:12 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 01 10:10:31 -0700 2008 Peace Like a River, there is this:

"Peace Like a River serves as a reminder of why we read fiction to begin with: to commune with a vividly, lovingly rendered world, to lose ourselves in story and language and beauty, to savor what we don't want to ...more...]]> 3 1 false true Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 22 21:51:17 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 14 00:07:05 -0700 2008
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, Jeremia...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Apr 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue May 06 15:50:19 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 20 08:05:58 -0700 2008
Davy...
I wonder about Davy. When did he come to his agnostic views? Where did he lose his hope & then his faith. Did his mother pack it in her suit case when she le...more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Jul 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 19 21:23:58 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 15 14:19:59 -0700 2008
the story is set in the early sixties, which is hard to remember. reuben ...more...]]> 4 1 true false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 31 21:39:19 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 01 18:58:06 -0800 2008 more...]]>