Peace Like a River

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

Jeremiah Land, a faithful and sometimes miraculous man, is raising his three children alone in Roofing, Minnesota in the early 1960's when a couple of rabble rousers make the Land family a target for violence. Davy, the eldest brother, takes up arms, and ends up in jail, while Reuben and Swede decide they'll do anything to protect Davy from prosecution. When Davy escapes prison and heads for the Dakota hills, Jeremiah, Reuben, and Swede take off after him. Readers can only hope and pray for a happy reunion of the family.

Readers will be hard-pressed to not find a character they can identify with or believe in. I highly recommend this novel, and also try *Plainsong* by Kent Haruf. The tones are very similar.


Into the Mystic   October 23, 2001
Lee Armstrong (Winterville, NC United States)
26 out of 27 found this review helpful

What a joyful, powerful and well-told tale! This book is so well written, it seems to flow like a river. I enjoyed the calmness of the way the story was told. Since it was related by a grown Ruben about childhood events, we feel the loving way the story unfolds. The chapter near the end "Be Jubilant, My Feet" is one of the most beautifully written pieces about a journey into the mystic that I have read. I particularly enjoyed the certain calmness of Jeremiah's faith that anchors the story and characters. This made the story real for me: the way faith doesn't keep you from hardship, but sees you through it. My only quibble is about what isn't in the book -- what kind of mother would leave her children to marry a posh doctor and not return when they are otherwise orphaned? I loved the sense of journey in this book, that life is a path peopled by wonderful folks like sister Swede and Roxana. I believed the minor characters such as the bullies whose demise ignite the action, Mr. Lurvy the mooching salesman and Mr. Holgren the pompous principal. Each of these are perfect small town portraits. The sense of place in the Dakota badlands transports you there. "Peace Like a River" is truly a special book, one you will not want to miss.


Every reader should give Leif Enger a hug for this book!   May 26, 2002
Matthew Krichman (Durango, CO)
26 out of 27 found this review helpful

Is it a copout to simply say that this book is perfectly written? It seems trite to say that, and yet this is as close to perfection as writing gets. I confess that I often worry, when I am in the early pages of a good book, that the author will eventually commit a fatal error - be it an ill-advised plot twist, an illogical character development, a stylistic lapse - and the book will fall to the realm of mediocrity. After all, the fact that an author produces 100 pages of exceptional work is no guarantee that the next 100 pages will be equally as good. But Peace Like A River was so masterfully written that it seemed guaranteed from the first page to fulfill its promise. Absorbed in Lief Enger's prose, I felt as safe as a newborn in his mother's arms.

Chosen as this year's Book Sense Book of the Year, yet inexplicably overlooked by more prestigious literary awards, this is certainly one of the best first novels every written. Set against a beautifully painted backdrop of the badlands of North Dakota, it is the story of the Land family and their search for moral redemption. Jeremiah, the father, performer of frequent inexplicable miracles and good deeds; Reuben, the 11-year-old narrator, whose chronic lung problems make the simple act of breathing a central task in his life; Swede, the 9-year-old daughter, prolific writer of epic poetry; and Davy, the independent, confident 16-year-old who is jailed for a crime for which the moral justification is easy to accept. When Davy escapes from jail, his family journeys in search of him. Each, in his own way, struggles with the painful dilemma of whether to protect their fugitive loved one or help the authorities track him down. It is a powerful tell of love and of the seemingly infinite gray area between right and wrong.

Lief Enger deserves more than just a prize for this novel. He deserves a heartfelt hug from every reader who is captured by the power, beauty, and feeling of human redemption that he has produced.