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Summary: A Must Read.
Review: No matter what your taste is, you will love this book. A wonderful story beautifully told. Reminds me of Holden Caulfield and his sister in "The catcher in the rye". It's one of those books you can't put down, and stays with you for a long time.
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Summary: Add to your personal library...
Review: Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Poetry in fiction. Peace Like a River reads with such lilting beauty that I often found myself gasping at the sheer gracefulness of his prose. Reuben, Davy, Swede and Dad Land often reminded me of Atticus, Gem Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird with their devotion to one another despite their imperfections-oh, that every family was like the Lands. A book that you will treasure long after the last page is turned, Peace Like a River an excellent choice to add to your personal library.
-Traci DePree, author of A Can of Peas
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Summary: Clever and thoughtful
Review: Read this one! I don't normally care for folksy prose but Enger won me over in about 50 pages. By the time I read 250 pages, I was thinking it could be a classic. Enger has a wonderful knack for expressing thoughts that aren't easily verbalized. He resists the temptation to overstate while offering wonderful insights into the thought processes of children. It is cleverly written and often funny. The end was disappointing to me as it caused me to think, "That wouldn't have really happened" on a couple of occasions. Nonetheless I highly recommend the book and look forward to Enger's next.
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Summary: Exceptional
Review: This book was exceptional, even though it did not have a happy ending for all. There was a supernatural quality to the father's faith, reminiscent of Alice Hoffman, but one could almost believe that it was real. For someone who is not religious, this novel evoked significant emotion and was thought provoking. When I finished it, I was sorry there wasn't more to read. Mr. Engler's style was straightforward and was true to the narrator.
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Summary: Faith, love and family
Review: In writing the title to this review, I am bothered by the platitudes it represents but that still is what this book is about. Enger has us think about the meaning of these universals all in the context of a fascinating story about a fascinating family, a family whose members stay with the reader a very long time. A wonderful gem which deserves to be getting much wider attention.In my book group, several readers were disturbed because the voice is not that of an 11 year-old boy and his sister is clearly incredible. For me, I thought this is the way an adult talking about events when he was eleven would talk and it is also how he would remember and explain things in his own mind. And that, of course, is the point: did these miraculous events occur as he relates them or is this just a boy's way of dealing with the events of his young life? As Enger says, make of it what you will.
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Summary: Compelling characters and story line
Review: This fiction story was one of my favorite reads for the whole year. It is a strangely compelling story... a little like Gap Creek, in that it seems to ramble along slowly, as far as the plot goes, but it somehow magically draws you into the story and the characters with a "can't put it down" force.
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Summary: One of the wonderful rare finds
Review: This book touched me so deeply - the beautiful writing made me smile over and over again in joy and awe, and the characters! Wow. I treasure a good read, and this was certainly one. I feel like a better person for having read it...you'll have to read the book to understand why.
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Summary: It touches your heart and soul...
Review: I started reading this book eagerly and somehow I lost a bit of interest as it entered its mid-point. I stuck with it and later got mad at myself for having ever doubted how wonderful it is and not having paid much attention to some significant details. I did go back and started re-reading it and was not dissapointed. The purity of love that shines through this novel takes your breath away. The narrative is so clear and crisp (and I am not a native English speaker). You live every event vividly, and at times, painfully. It once more reminds you that life does not need to be perfect and that we need to love and support our dear ones in spite of their actions. And that can be very, very difficult at times.
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Summary: Immerse yourself in the river of this book!
Review: The title drew me in and I wasn't disappointed. From the flow of the words to the aliveness of the characters, I loved this book. Enger's delight in reading and writing and imagination and history frames this story. Choices are wrestled with, decisons are made and consequences follow and the Land family stand solid with love. I eagerly await Leif Enger's next book.
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Summary: Enger's Masterpiece
Review: In Peace Like a River, Leif Enger creates a masterful novel. In the story, a family in Minnesota chases their elder son, Davy, who shot two men and broke out of jail. The father is able to do miracles while making them seem commonplace; Rube, his younger son, who is astmatic and came close to dying at his birth, narrates with varyingly harsh and beautiful portrayals; and Swede, the only girl, writes poetry and juggles words with amazing proficiency. Although this book deals with the themes of faith and family, it avoids having the message "just stick together and everything will be all right." It is realistic, with a healthy dose of both triumph and despair, and promises to linger for years after its first reading.
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