- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Grove/Atlantic (Aug 1 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 087113795X
- ISBN-13: 978-0871137951
- Product Dimensions: 23.7 x 16.1 x 2.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 499 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (244 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #477,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
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
From Publishers Weekly
Dead for 10 minutes before his father orders him to breathe in the name of the living God, Reuben Land is living proof that the world is full of miracles. But it's the impassioned honesty of his quiet, measured narrative voice that gives weight and truth to the fantastic elements of this engrossing tale. From the vantage point of adulthood, Reuben tells how his father rescued his brother Davy's girlfriend from two attackers, how that led to Davy being jailed for murder and how, once Davy escapes and heads south for the Badlands of North Dakota, 12-year-old Reuben, his younger sister Swede and their janitor father light out after him. But the FBI is following Davy as well, and Reuben has a part to play in the finale of that chase, just as he had a part to play in his brother's trial. It's the kind of story that used to be material for ballads, and Enger twines in numerous references to the Old West, chiefly through the rhymed poetry Swede writes about a hero called Sunny Sundown. That the story is set in the early '60s in Minnesota gives it an archetypal feel, evoking a time when the possibility of getting lost in the country still existed. Enger has created a world of signs, where dead crows fall in a snowstorm and vagrants lie curled up in fields, in which everything is significant, everything has weight and comprehension is always fleeting. This is a stunning debut novel, one that sneaks up on you like a whisper and warms you like a quilt in a North Dakota winter, a novel about faith, miracles and family that is, ultimately, miraculous.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
FROM MY FIRST BREATH IN THIS WORLD, ALL I WANTED WAS A GOOD SET OF lungs and the air to fill them with-given circumstances, you might presume, for an American baby of the twentieth century. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
FROM MY FIRST BREATH IN THIS WORLD, ALL I WANTED WAS A GOOD SET OF lungs and the air to fill them with-given circumstances, you might presume, for an American baby of the twentieth century. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointed,
By Diane "dianemax" (Newfoundland, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Peace Like a River (Paperback)
I had heard great things about this book and bought it because of the fanfare regarding it but I have to admit that I was disappointed.I won't review the plot here again, it has been told enough times. I realized going in that the book had religious themes and miracles were involved, which was fine with me. I do think miracles can happen, they're usually on a smaller scale though and the average person just happens to miss them. Either way, the premise of the story was a good one but for me it also fell flat. The book is written through Reuben's point of view and we are able to see all of the tragedies that happen through his eyes. As a result of this, I would assume that the miracles we are told about are as Reuben himself sees them. It may not actually be what is going on around him, but how he perceives it. I think that his character is the only true one in the novel. He has good qualities and flaws but it is through Reuben that we see the good in everyone. He is the one who still believes in miracles. The other characters in the book just did not come together for me. I felt that we had no true insight into Davy's character at all. Even the ending was a disappointment to me.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing but appreciated the turns of phrase & use of verbs,
By
This review is from: Peace Like a River (Paperback)
After reading such positive reviews about this book I bought it and am truly disappointed. There is no need to review the plot since so many others have already done a fine job of doing so.The premise of the story was certainly good enough but the telling really fell way below what I had expected. One redeeming factor that I really must credit the author with is his excellent use of verbs. A lot of writers could take lessons from his excellent use of interesting verbs. He's also got a very adept hand at turns of phrase throughout the book. For me, this was the only thing that kept me reading. Otherwise I would have shut the book and picked up something far more satisfying. One very annoying thing I found as I read through this novel was how unbelievable Reuben's voice was. Since the entire novel is written through Reuben's point of view, that made plodding through as difficult as wading through a pool of molasses. I also found a lot of places where the author had written paragraphs and, in places, pages of totally superfluous text. Text that had nothing to do with developing characters, leading plot, or enriching the novel in any way. Other than Reuben and Swede, the other characters in the novel were not developed enough for me. Characters such as Davy (the older brother) and their father were important to the plot yet they were mere shadows on the page. When I finished this novel, I was disappointed and upset that I had wasted all that time on it. As a textbook on excellent use of verbs and a study of turns of phrase, it is a winner; as a great read, it doesn't reach the finishing line.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Just let it take you,
By christina baldwin (Whidbey Island, WA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Peace Like a River (Paperback)
Interesting to read the varied comments on this book... I suspended all concern over the realities of the girl's voice and just loved her for herself... and as a writer, I wanted to underline Enger's turn of phrase over and over... his writing made me suck my teeth with appreciation... I just gave this book to a friend from North Carolina inscribed, "Just to prove that occasionally a true northerner can write with the regional luciousness of a true southerner..." I am also recommending this book to friends with asthma, and to those who love them because of Ruben's inner description of life with his lungs... And finally, I don't know what all worked in his writing (I'll reread it in search of the alchemy), but at the end, sitting in a hotel room I broke down and wept at the sense of redemption and family love. I just kept reciting, "Thank you.. this helps my heart... thank you for the story."
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