Rating: 
Summary: Mostly Tedious
Review: Maybe I missed something. This book came highly recommended by people whose opinions I trust. I found it tedious. The main character and his father were unsympathetic. Mostly they left me flat. His younger third grade sister had a genius all out of proportion with reality. The first few pages captured me, the remainder left me difting. The writing itself was terrific, but the characters and story line left much to be desired.
Rating: 
Summary: Indifferent but divided on opinion
Review: Others may appeal but not me. I thought was overdone. Now with that out of way my wife loved. Sort of 50/50 split. I'd give 3 stars for effort. Wife give 5.
Rating:
Summary: Where Did Swede Earn Her PhD?
Review: The story of the Land family's odyssey across North Dakota is as much a tribute to Enger's refreshing style as it is a compelling narrative. It's interesting to note that reviewers seem to overlook the character of Roxanna. She plays a pivotal role in healing and restoring the Lands, who were physically and emotionally at the end of their endurance.
Swede's precocious abilities are stretched beyond belief. As an eight year-old, she has been decked out with a vocabulary, poetic mastery, and an insightfulness that is perhaps needed in this story, but not from a third-grader. She's reminiscent of Leah in Pat Conroy's Beach Music, another character whose unbelievable prescience becomes a distraction as the story unfolds.
Rating:
Summary: A Gentle Journey
Review: This story is wonderous tale which carries a gentle bit of mysticism. Told in the voice of the 11 year old narrator, it is part mystery, part family saga. It's funny, sad and thrilling. The prose is light and lush. A good read.
Rating: 
Summary: A Wondrous Place
Review: Peace Like a River is one of the most intriguing books that I have ever read. The story flows with a sense of country and the depth of convictions without prudish piety. The descriptions of landscapes and the insights into human hearts are almost breath taking. It is so beautifully written that I was sorry to finish it.
Rating:
Summary: A Moving Peace
Review: Of the hundreds of audio books I've listened to, this one has to be one of my favorites. Leif Enger has created a story that is both beautiful and compelling as the lives of the Land family unfold before you. Told by the younger Land son, Reuben, I was completely captivated by this young boy's honesty and vulverability as his journey with his family to find his older brother takes one "miraculous" turn after another. Swede's (younger daughter) poetry interwoven into the story adds a dimension one rarely finds in literature. This is a family one easily grows to love and hope for, and while I at first thought Chad Lowe's reading lacked expression, as the story progressed I realized that his solemnity of tone fit perfectly.
Rating:
Summary: Is that guy the devil?
Review: PEACE LIKE A RIVER starts out like a house afire. These two boys try to rape Davy Land's girlfriend during a football game, but Jeremiah Land, the school janitor interrupts, flogging them with a broomstick handle. They retaliate, Davy retaliates. There's a home invasion. Davy shoots them dead, one of them execution style.
At first I didn't think Davy had enough motivation to do what he did. Sure, the boys kidnapped his little sister, but they didn't hurt her much, and when they show up in his bedroom, they're armed with only a baseball bat. There also isn't much exposition involving the two boys. We don't learn to hate them. We never develop a "They got what they deserved" sympathy for Davy.
But that's the point. Enger makes sure we know that Davy did something unforgivable, that he will be an outsider for the rest of his life. And beyond?
A couple of characters in PEACE LIKE A RIVER are unforgettable. Swede Land, the little sister, and very late in the story, Jape Waltzer. Enger loves Robert Service poety, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Zane Gray, and western folk lore. As a result he imbues little Swede with poetic talent. Throughout the story, she's writing an epic poem about this outlaw named Sundown. After awhile, this gets a little old and the poems aren't as good, but she's hard not to love. Jape Waltzer, although he provides a refuge for Davy, is hard to like. I think he's supposed to be the devil. Which leads to the mystical aspect of the story. Jeremiah Land, the janitor, has the power to heal. He even heals the superintendent of schools of facial lesions after he fires him. But he doesn't heal his son, Reuben the narrator, of chronic asthma, and we're kept wondering why until the end.
The middle of the story is slow, really slow. I kept falling asleep. The family sets out to find Davy when he escapes from jail. They travel in an Airstream trailer. An FBI agent trails along behind. They don't have any gas, but that's not a problem with Jeremiah around. The story picks up speed when we meet Davy again and Waltzer. Enger must have had a really good editor. He hardly tells us a thing about how Waltzer and Davy met. Our imaginations take over. The guy has funny eyebrows; he's missing two fingers on one hand. He's meaner'n sin.
There's another slow scene toward the end, after some fireworks, where Enger gets carried away showing off his lyrical writing style in a resurrection scene. I'd be willing to bet he's got a copy of LIFE AFTER LIFE, by Dr. Raymond Moody on his desk somewhere.
Some of this is awfully corny, but well worth your time if you appreciate solid characterization and some nifty description.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Post-9/11 Read...
Review: Peace Like a River is a novel which revolves around the main character, eleven year old Reuben Land, and his family's struggle to locate his brother, who is on the run from the law. While sometimes Reuben's narration is inconsistent in voice and age, it is truly a delight to read, a wonderful mix of humor and pathos for the Land family's situation. Swede, Reuben's sister, is a great female character, echoing Harper Lee's Scout. She's willful, poetic, strong, and engaging--- she alone is enough of a reason to read the book. Some other readers have complained of its messiness, and the novel's unanswered questions, none of which I'll go into, for fear of giving away any of the story. While there do seem to be the occasional loose threads in the novel, overall, its uplifting narrative and hopeful message redeem the novel of all of its minor problems. It is a novel of spiritual awakening and human spirit that quite simply makes you glad that you're alive.
Rating:
Summary: A Soon-to-Be Classic
Review: Beutiful, Poetic, Strength of Prose. A joyous American tale by a new and glorious master of letters.
Rating:
Summary: Obviously a debut novel
Review: Two stars might be a generous rating for a book I couldn't even finish. The plot and premise of the novel were very appealling to me, and I really wanted to like this book. However, the narrator's voice distracts the reader from getting into the heart of the story. Enger's presentation of Reuben constantly takes you out of the story to unrelated and uninteresting tangents. The depiction of sister Swede is unbelievably precocious and also distracting. Davy is the best character in the novel but unfortunately he disappears after the third chapter.
As a reader, I could definitely tell that this was a debut novel, and it wasn't worth it to me to even finish.
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