So Brave, Young, and Handsome: A Novel

Leif Enger is back. His "Peace Like a River" is such a phenomenal book, and while this one doesn't quite measure up to its predecessor, it presents us once again with some down-to-earth but often colorful and complex characters who get caught up in events that frequently escalate. I sometimes wondered why the main character kept pursuing his neighbor--not sure that was well-developed enough. Yet it is a point that would be good for discussion, and perhaps that is Enger's reason for not pointedly stating it. It also stirs up consideration of the wanderlust that may exist in many hearts. Enger's narrative is again wonderful and beautifully wrought. It was often a pleasure just to read the beautiful way he put words down on paper. This is one author I will look for again.

Enger's novel is full of a memorable characters caught up in unusual circumstances. I love Enger's writing and am pleased I found his work. I am recommending his books to all my family and friends this Christmas. His writing has a way of capturing you and you are mesmerized until the end of the story. His way with language and syntax is masterful. As a reader and writer, I have learned that twist of phrase is often surprising and gratifying. Anyone who reads his novels will be enriched by them.

Leif Engel is a skilled, perceptive writer as any reader of his novel, Peace Like A River, will attest. The subject of this novel --a one-time successful writer on an apparently random journey west from Minnesota to California with unusual companions--did not really draw me. Remembering the pleasure of Enger's previous novel, however, I got on board and was rewarded by a most rewarding reading experience.

The real value of the novel is not so much the plot featuring a struggling author and family man who takes off on an impetuous journey with an eccentric neighbor who has previous criminal history. The neighbor has become a skilled boat maker so the first part of the journey features water-based adventures. There are also intermittent train escapades and a long journey in an old Packard joined by a young boy companion with cowboy aspirations. The trio become the objects of a quest by a former Pinkerton man who is a a major force in the story, allowing neither a shooting injury nor a stroke to deter him from his quest for justice. As intriguing as the plot, the. appeal of the novel lies iin the author's ability to draw the reader 100% into the unfolding saga.

The climax takes place on a California fruit orchard property owned by a charismatic couple who add depth to the drama. The author's wife and son have joined him and are starting a new life at story's end. One is left wondering if the multitude of experiences during his journey will stimulate the author's literary creativity.

The characters are a unique blend of well recognizable traits despite despite the rough garb of their embodiers. The ever-changing natural scenery emerges as an actor as interesting as the human characters. Floods, fires, heat and cold all play a role in the novel's appeal. The author writes simply but elegantly, creating a fascinating, memorable journey.

Initially, I found this book just interesting enough to keep reading, but unrewarding, and I almost wondered if the book was intended for young adults. As relationships deepened between narrator and neighbor, then narrator and pursuer, I understood why Enger is considered a good writer. Enger is concerned with good and evil, and freindships which transcend easy categorization. The lesser characters are well drawn and colorful. The narrator epitomizes the well meaning man who is sometimes too weak to live by his ideals, but resists cynicism. The novel is in part a coming of age story, although the narrator is older and more settled than the usual subject of such stories.

Question about a plot detail: why did Hood kill the tracker, rather than take less drastic action? Actually, was the tracker a gunman, or just hoping to find and grab the animals, I inferred the latter.

A sentence I liked: “He did not seem to struggle against death, nor did he appear surprised. Death arrived easy as the train; Hood just climbed aboard, like the capable traveler he was.”

It's inevitable that "So Brave, Young and Handsome" will be compared to Leif Enger's first novel, "Peace Like a River." And that first book, published in 2000, is an incredible story that's received well deserved acclaim.

Yet as much as I liked "Peace Like a River," I liked "So Brave, Young and Handsome" more. In fact, the second novel helped me understand the first novel better - an outcome I wasn't expecting.

It's Minnesota, 1915. Monte Beckett is a writer with a highly successful first novel, a shoot-em-up western, who finds he can't write a second novel. Nothing works. Everything he sends to his publisher is turned down; everything he writes is unsatisfying. And then Glendon Hale comes rowing down the river by Monte's house, and he's rowing while standing up. And Monte's life fundamentally changes.

Eventually, with his wife Susannah's blessing, Monte leaves to accompany Glendon to Mexico, to look for Glendon's first love. Along the way, Monte finds out that Glendon was an outlaw. And he's still being chased down by the authorities.

Like "Peace Like a River," Enger's second novel is about a journey, but also much more than that. He raises subtle questions about the nature of good and evil, and heroes and villains. The reader comes to root for the outlaw and despise the ex-Pinkerton agent chasing him. But what great characters Enger creates in the process!

Ultimately, "So Brave, Young and Handsome" is a story about storytelling - how stories are written and change, how even "factual accounts" are often anything but. And it's a delight to read.

I found this to be one of the most irritating books I've ever read. The protagonist, in spite of multiple negative experiences, continues to plod forward without ever learning a thing. I've read other books by this author, and Peace Like a River is one of my favorite books. This novel seemed to never know what it was meant to be, kind of like the main character I suppose. Truly disappointing.

Swede, the little girl in PEACE LIKE A RIVER who wrote Robert Service-inspired poems, made that book what it was. At the beginning of SO BRAVE, YOUNG, AND HANDSOME I thought we might be in store for another young hero in Redstart, the narrator's mischievous son, but he quickly disappears from the story.

Another candidate for the Swede role was Hood Roberts, the young auto mechanic turned bronk-buster, turned outlaw, but just as we get to know him a little, he's gone as well.

The closest we come to a compelling character is Charles Siringo, the former Pinkerton detective (Based on the real-life outlaw, Pinkerton detective and author). The narrator, author Monte Becket, befriends an old outlaw and boat-builder named Glendon Hale, and for some reason agrees to accompany him to California to apologize to Hale's former wife, Blue, whom he had deserted as a young man. About the only motivation Leif Enger supplies is that Becket is suffering from writers' block, and his wife urges him to go. Almost immediately a porter on the train recognizes Hale as a train robber who killed a man. Siringo, who has been tracking Hale for thirty years, is soon hot on Hale's trail.

As far as I could tell, Hood Roberts, who accidentally kills a man during a brawl, is supposed to be a sort of alter-ego for Glendon Hale. He's in love with the idea of being a cowboy and is quite good at it until he breaks a man's neck defending a friend. Siringo takes a detour, shanghaiing Becket in the process, and begins to hunt Roberts down. Monte Becket takes a liking to Hood Roberts, mainly because he reminds him of his son Redstart, but Becket is such a milktoast the most he can come up with is firing a warning shot when Siringo has Hood and his Mexican girlfriend cornered.

There are also parallels between Glendon Hale and Siringo. Both abandoned their lovers as young men. Both were outlaws at the Hole in the Wall, Butch Cassidy's hideout. The difference is that Hale still loves his wife; Siringo loves himself as his numerous memoirs show.

Enger doesn't seem to know what kind of book he wants to write. Is it about redemption? Is it a quest novel? Is it a coming of age novel centering on Monte Becket? Apparently the title has to do with Glendon Hale, not Hood Roberts, as Hale never stops growing and has a sort of happy/unhappy resolution to his character arc. In case you're wondering about that title, it's from "The Cowboy's Lament" a song Enger loved as a child. And that's as close to the charm and mysticism we found in PEACE LIKE A RIVER as we're going to get.