Peace Like a River: A Novel

Leif Enger becomes a lightning rod for praise and blame in "Peace Like A River". Judging just from the reviews on this site, you can either wax rhapsodic about his tale, or just view it as contemporary claptrap. Leif Enger, in his first novel, couldn't be more Minnesotan. Raised on Minnesota farm, he lives as an adult on a farm in a quintessential small town of the hinterland, with his wife and children. For most of his adult career, prior to the release of "Peace Like a River" he worked for Minnesota Public Radio (which also begat Garrison Keillor). Like Keillor, Enger looks for beauty in the simple way of life around him, and roots it in the family. But other comparisons do no justice to either man. So, too, has Enger's novel been compared to "To Kill a Mockingbird", mostly because the narration is through the eyes of a child, who is telling the story as an adult. Symbolism and the discovery of one's parents' true nature are themes for Enger, as much as they were for Lee. But Enger does strike out into new territory with "Peace Like a River" -- he captures the charm and folk wisdom of the Minnesota "tall tale", and sets it in a relatively contemporary setting - 1962 in the heartland. More successful at weaving Christian mysticism and the appearance of miracles into his narrative than say, contemporary writers such as Dean Koontz, Leif Enger brings a true talent for rich prose and unsettling questions to his tale. Synopsis of the plot: Born an asthmatic, Reuben Land's first miraculous event was finally beginning to breathe after several minutes of stillness, when his father, Jeremiah, orders him to breathe in the name of the living God. Reuben is raised by his father, with older brother Davy and younger sister Swede. Abandoned at a young age by their mother, Reuben and his siblings grow up in a way that many children who feel abandoned do - they develop skills and thoughts far more mature than is normal for their age. In this family, most of the precociousness is drawn in 9-year old Swede, who commands language and vocabulary far above that of most adults. Swede's interest in all things western form the story's backdrop, as she writes lyric poetry with a larger than life character, Sunny Sundown. From Reuben's point of view, his early life, is as a spectator, watching his dad perform miracles and overturn the laws of nature. It is left to the reader to divine whether the miracles do occur, or are just what they are in the viewpoint of a small boy who witnesses over and over how Jeremiah pulls his family together with faith and love. In a search for Reuben's older brother, Jeremiah confronts obstacles and seemingly performs feats which make the obstacles disappear. Are they really miracles, or do they feel as such to a scared, eleven year-old boy? It is evident that Jeremiah's strong belief in God and his ability to connect to God to protect and provide for his family are the driving force behind the Land family's ability to find Davy, and to find comfort in the circle of a woman named Roxanna. In the tale, Enger also draws a villain named `Jape', like Koontz's villains, almost a caricature of Satan. What comes to prevent the most tragic of fates, and lends a remarkable conclusion to the tale, is best left to the reader to pursue. Enger adds rich texture to the tale by the quality of his prose. He can invoke memories from me of the land and the beauty and fear of a child when coming of age. His faith is simple and strong, and from it he envisions the miracles that Jeremiah performs to keep his family together. Forces of nature (blizzards, fires) conspire to give you the feeling that you are truly being transported to the wild west, a land where people need to come to terms with how to live around what nature puts in their path. And, like Harper Lee, Enger is able to get inside the mind of a child, and put forth a child's vision and wishes into contemporary terms as they focus their desires through toys and activities. Less of an adventure story than a tale to reinforce the value of a strong family, I think Enger's novel is somewhat miraculous in and of itself, a surprising journey into emotions you felt as a child, and have since forgotten. It feels as though there is at least some of the autobiographical in Enger's novel. Read it, delight in it!

I am an avid and eclectic reader, and this is one of my very favorite books. Leif Enger takes his time and brings forth a beautiful story with rich characters and writing that is even better on re-reading. Jeremiah Land lives his life according to a different story. He is a true hero armed with joy, patience, life, and healing rather than physical strength used to bring harm. There are so many layers, and I love experiencing it all through the lens of the flawed and humble witness, Ruben. I could go on and on. This is a book that makes me want to write, which, after reading this review, you may think a dangerous and ill-advised undertaking. Beautiful prose, rich characters, and a life-giving story, a book I have loved and shared over and over.

Leif Enger's stunning debut novel, "Peace like a River," is part hymn, part epic myth and part lament to an American past in which individual virtue and steadfastness of faith elevate men and women. Enger has described a world of faith, one in which an asthmatic child savors religious truth, tangible miracles and ironclad trust in a father whose love for his children is eclipsed only by his devotion to his God. The characters who populate "Peace" become living symbols while at the same time gracefully engaging us in their physical, moral and spiritual struggles. The physical environment of this bighearted novel is uninviting. Wintry Minnesota and North Dakota provide appropriate physical challenges to the Land family, which must adapt to a crucial decision made by the oldest son Davy. That decision, to pursue a violent, but just, resolution to two miscreants who terrorize the Land family, compels Davy to flee and the remnants of his family to pursue. This quest, both temporal and spiritual, is the heart of the novel, and the author probes themes of family coherence, justice, truth, redemption, and faith with quiet, perfect timbre. Enger is a magnificent writer, whose narrative abilities alone make "Peace" worth reading. However, it is his characterization of the Land family which transforms his novel. The narrator, Reuben Land, an eleven-year-old asthmatic boy, defines our perspective and never permits his adult recollections of the events of his childhood to interfere with an authentic, often painful, recounting of his participation in the central action of the novel, the discovery of his "outlaw" brother. While Reuben discounts his own ability to understand and interpret events, he never underestimates the talents of his sister, Swede, who emereges as an enormously sympathetic young woman. It is Swede's penchant for poetry, symbolism and subtelty that enriches our understanding of the enormous pressures and conflicts the children experience basking in the presence and shivering in the shadow of their father. Much like the novel, Jeremiah Land has a "foundation...laid in prayer and sorrow." Through Swede's eyes, he emerges as either a full-blown Homeric hero or the living embodiment of a champion of justice of the Old West. Readers will recognize his afflictions as similar to Job, and Jeremiah gains stature as he is seemingly purified by God's many painful tests of his faith. From the onset of the novel, readers glimpse the impossible occurring through Jeremiah's intervention. He literally breathes life into his newborn son; he survives a tornado; during prayer, he walks on air. These miracles pale in comparison to the one he hopes to achieve with and through his family as they search for Davy. A major triumph of the novel is Enger's unwillingness to permit his writing to become predicatable or saccharine. Instead the bulk of the novel forces readers to either suspend their own disbelief or submerge their own skepticism. In a moving afterword, Leif Enger pays homage to his father, who "believes in vivid narration," and his mother, "who writes better letters than anyone since the Apostle Paul." The author is a living representation of the values he extols in his parents. "Peace like a River" deserves the widest audience. Its unabashed belief in the integrity of the human spirit, its bighearted acceptance of the possibility of miracles and its loving evocation of family love and truth intermingle. This is a novel worth reading, savoring and sharing.