Have you ever finished a book that was so good you didn’t want to pick up another for awhile? As if to bask in the glow of the one you just put down...That’s how I feel about Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River (Grove/Atlantic), which I finished at around 1:30am after about a 5-hour marathon read of the final chapters. I’ve never been much of a fan of the reviews that publishers quote on bookcovers, but a critic from the San Francisco Chronicle does sort of hit it on the head on my edition’s cover: “Peace Like a River serves as a reminder of why we read fiction to begin with.”
Exactly right; published in 2001 and set between Minnesota and the Badlands, Enger creates characters that are real – even though men can’t levitate (as one of Enger's does) and 6 year-olds can’t write epics with perfect rhyme and iambic meter (again, one of his does) – and plotlines that are fantastical, heroic, tragic, and romantic. All at once!
Read Peace Like a River. Read it if you like historical fiction and modern fiction, heroic characters and characters who are flawed. If you like characters who reach out and grab you and villains you can’t stand.
Read Peace Like a River if you want a book you can’t put down.
3 comments:
Thanks for the great book recommendation! I added this one to my growing list. I think the best recommendations come from avid readers like you. Happy (more) summer reads!
Update: I finished this book last week thoroughly enjoyed it! and now Doug's picked it up and is enjoying it also. I loved Enger's unique and vivid phrasing of the things we all experience... feelings, people's reactions, events and natural surroundings. Reminded me of your own vivid and sensitive style of writing! I look forward to your next book recommendation!
You're not the first to flatter me with the comparison to Enger's style. Truth be told: as I read I kept seeing aspects of his technique and style that I would want to emulate. Definitely a great tale-spinner.
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