Pete’s Pick
December, 2019
Peace Like A River
Leif Enger
Grove Atlantic Publishing; 2001
Introduction
This is author Leif Enger’s debut novel in 2001. It was listed as Time Magazine’s Top Five Books of the Year. It was the Christian Science Monitor, the Denver Post, and the Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. This novel is an amazing journey through family relationships, tragedy, adventure, and ultimate hope in the face of all the circumstances life can throw at us.
Author
Leif Enger was born and raised and still lives in Minnesota. Before writing this, his first novel, he was a writer with Minnesota Public Radio. He has wanted to write fiction since his teens. This first novel received wide acclaim as did his second, So Brave, Young, and Handsome. He has written a total of four novels to date.
Story
The opening scene in the novel is the dramatic birth of the narrator of the story, Reuben Land. When he is born his lungs refused to work. The doctor gave him up for dead, but Reuben’s father, Jeremiah Land, prays earnestly and aggressively to God to put breath in his son. Miraculously, it happens. After this opening event, we move into the story through the eyes of 11-year old Reuben. He has a 9-year old sister Swede who he is very close to, and an older 16-year old brother Davy. His mother passed away several years earlier. The family lives in Roofing, Minnesota. The father, Jeremiah, is a school janitor at the only school in town.
As Reuben tells us the story, we learn that his father is a man of great faith who prays often and sometimes vigorously—like he’s carrying on an animated conversation with God. We learn that Reuben idolizes his older brother Davy. His younger sister Swede expresses herself by writing poetry and often through poetic storytelling that she creates in her mind and puts to paper. Reuben is in awe of her ability to express herself as he often finds himself tongue-tied. Reuben suffers greatly from asthma and some of his episodes of asthma figure prominently in the story that evolves. As the story progresses, we are told of or experience several instances in which miracles appear to happen as a result of Jeremiah’s prayerful interventions. An incident happens at the school where Jeremiah is janitor. Several boys in Davey’s class see Davey’s girlfriend Dolly go into the girls locker room during a football game and they enter the locker room and accost her. Jeremiah, working nearby, hears the commotion and goes into the locker room to investigate and encounters the boys harassing Dolly. He breaks up the encounter and finishes his work of closing up the school. The boys who were caught in the locker room didn’t take kindly to Jeremiah’s intervention. Several days later they tar the front door of the Land’s home and then a few days later kidnap Swede for several hours. Davey does not react well to any of these harassing episodes. The boys have promised they are going to get back at the family. In one amazing scene, the boys show up at the house late at night and get upstairs to the bedrooms. They enter the bedroom where Davey and Reuben are in bed and they had a bat they were going to use. Unfortunately for them, Davey was ready and had a handgun in bed with him. As the boys entered the room, Davey tells them to switch on the light. As they do, Davey fires and hits the first boy, then gets out of bed and shoots the second boy. The story then follows Davey’s arrest and trial for the killing of the two boys. After being convicted and sentenced to prison, Reuben and Swede try to dream up some way to break Davey out of prison, when all of a sudden they find out that Davey has broken out of prison. The remainder of the story tells of the family’s search for their son and brother, a search that takes them into neighboring North Dakota in the wintertime. The episodes describing their experience are a fascinating journey through the minds of an 11- and 9-year old trying to make sense of their lives. It is also a remarkable journey through the experience of Jeremiah Land, a man of intense faith who believes that God is in control of our lives and circumstances. It is a remarkable story told through amazing word pictures, through fascinating poetic storytelling, through miracles resulting from prayerful supplication to God. The end of the story is incredibly intense, and yet is a great postscript emphasizing the power of hope and faith.
Evaluation
I found this novel an amazing journey in old-fashioned story telling. I loved the way Leif Enger is able to paint word pictures. His use of words reminds me of the powerful way Pat Conroy wrote his novels on one hand, and yet also reminded me of the power of skillful story telling demonstrated by Garrison Keillor in A Prairie Home Companion radio broadcasts from Minnesota Public Radio. As a person of faith, I also appreciated the lessons in the story of the power of giving everything to God, no matter how joyous or how difficult the circumstances. If you enjoy a good story, this book will scratch that itch.