Rating: 
Summary: Lowe blow
Review: This is a likely a great book to read, but let me say that the audiobook version read by Chad Lowe is horrendous. Lowe's geeky, "awe shucks" voice makes every character sound weak and pathetic. He especially makes the narrator sound like a feeble whiner and the father comes off dull and spineless. It created for me a situation whereby I was not able to identify with any of the characters. The story itself is great, although I felt the plot lingered on far too long than it needed to before it came to resolution. The beginning is great, but then seems to get lost in the story of side characters and other tangents. I will admit that it may have been my irritation with Lowe's dorky voice and my desire for the story to end quickly. Read the book, loss the tapes.
Rating: 
Summary: A story lost in time
Review: Though this story takes place in the 1960's it has the feel of a book that is lost in time, so far removed from The Beatles, Viet Nam and anything but "groovy" it ranks as a winner in it's own category. Roofing, Minnesota is a small town in the middle of America and the Land family is about to feel the aftermath and turmoil of a violent act that will take one of it's members on a run for his freedom. In the back of the reader's mind is the not so questionable guilt of the runner.The main characters are unforgettable and grow close to your heart paragraph by paragraph. Jeremiah Land is an extraordinary man with a gift from God that will simply amaze and entertain you. I found myself thinking, "How could that be?" Reuben is our narrator, and his 11 year old asthmatic son, was a miracle from birth, when his father took him in hand after 10 minutes of death, and holding him up demanded he live and breath. Swede the younger daughter writes stories and poetry like an angel and Davy who is at the center of the controversy will all have you entranced. Beautifully written, with a peace that runs through it true to it's name PEACE LIKE A RIVER will have you engrossed with the lives of it's characters from start to finish.
Kelsana 2/26/02
Rating: 
Summary: Gorgeous prose, an engaging narrator, a fabulous debut
Review: The narrator of this breathtaking, stand-out debut novel, Reuben Land, is unable to breathe at birth and is declared dead ten minutes before his father bursts in, takes him up and commands his lungs to work. Reuben, then, is sensitive to the miracles that serendipitously attend his father and nurses a sorrowful resentment that those wonders should be squandered on mending a torn saddle or healing a bad-tempered man when Reuben's lungs are still in need. A severe asthmatic, Reuben has never enjoyed the luxury of an unconscious breath. Looking back from the vantage point of adulthood, Reuben narrates the momentous events of 1962-63 when he was eleven. His poetic, disarming voice, rich with the cadences of rural Minnesota, comes straight from the heart, captivating the reader from the first page. The middle child, Reuben admires his older brother Davy for his fearless confidence and skill and his younger sister, Swede, for her fearless intelligence and will. Reuben himself has numerous fears ( the creepiest being the dream gnome who steals his breath), but keeps most of them to himself. Their father, Jeremiah, is a man of scrupulous honesty, even temper and deep faith, whose wife left him when his faith undercut his worldly ambition. (This abandonment is one of the book's few flaws - the reasons are inadequate and, weirdly, the children seem to have no feelings about her whatsoever.) The story begins when Jeremiah, the school janitor, rescues Davy's girlfriend from a locker room assault by two schoolyard bullies. The boys swear revenge and events escalate until the pair invade the Land home and Davy shoots them dead. The newspapers laud him as a hero defending his family, then later turn on him as a villain who murdered two underprivileged boys. When Reuben, puffed up for the audience and also mindful of his father's exhortation to be honest, presents evidence at trial which seals his brother's fate, Davy breaks out of jail. Eluding the sheriff's posse, Davy becomes a hero again, the romantic outlaw of simpler days. Swede, steeped in the lore of the Old West, is beside herself with joy and begins to compose an epic poem of his exploits on the old typewriter she got for her ninth birthday. Only Jeremiah seems low, tormented by his love and fear for his son and his internal agonies over right and wrong. In the depths of winter a sign - an airstream trailer bequeathed to Jeremiah by a traveling salesman - sends them on a quest, a journey west to find Davy. The kindness of strangers is offset by the dogged presence of the FBI agent who has sworn to track Davy, a man both sinister and friendly. But at last they seem to lose him in a blizzard where they find refuge with a rawboned woman who brings something to their lives they didn't know they were missing. As the story proceeds Jeremiah must weigh his chance for happiness against his duty. His torment and his joy, though only dimly understood by Reuben, provide a strong, unsettling undercurrent. For Reuben, too, is growing beyond pirates and storied outlaws, to learn the very real power of evil in the world and, in the end, to make his choice. The story builds to a powerful, emotionally complex climax, but ends on a fantastical note, which feels more histrionic than satisfying. Despite this (not minor) disappointment, Enger's first novel is a thing of beauty. Enger's exceptional talent with language and character make this adventure, romance, and moral coming-of-age story one of the best novels I've read in a long time.
Rating:
Summary: Miracles do happen...
Review: I almost want to tell Leif Enger to just stop with what he's got. The lyrical writing, the exciting yet calm plot, I just don't see how you can get any better than *Peace Like a River.* This was one of the most enjoyable novels I've read so far this year. 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Save Your Money!
Review: This book is utterly boring, and the reader adds to the monotony. Perhaps any reader would have similar problems with this subject matter. The author strains to find unusual adjectives to modify almost every noun. Many of them are laughable; not funny, just laughable! The tiniest event takes page after page of detail writing. You will see what I mean when you finally come to the end. It drags on and on! Sorry, but that is how both my wife and I evaluated it.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: I enjoyed this book because it was well written and the story was interesting. The thing I liked the most about it was the way the author portrayed the characters' relationsihp with God. It was done with restpect and acuracy. Usually Christians are not portrayed as intelligent thinkig people, but rather as fundamental wacko's. In this book you understand how the characters really feel about God and it's lovely to see the way they put God first in their everyday life and thoughts. It's well done and a pleasure to read.
Rating:
Summary: A Treat to Read!!
Review: This book is wonderfully written-such a joy to read. So many times I am disappointed in endings, but not with Peace Like a River. This book is satisfying through and through. Leif Enger has such an exquisite gift with words. He can turn a phrase like no other. As I was reading this book, I kept finding passages that I just had to sit my family down and read to them aloud. They enjoyed them as much out of context as I did in. What fun! What heart and soul in this incredible book.
Rating:
Summary: Such pleasure. From an Author with such talent.
Review: This book is so lovely from the first sentence that you will have to put it down (reluctantly) once in a while in order to reconnect with reality. I didn't give it 5 stars because it is not Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, or Lonesome Dove. But, gosh, it is sure beautifully written. Enger's use of the English language, both to place his reader in the setting, and to place the characters in the heart of the reader, is prodigious. I am an atheist, but I accepted the miracles. Now, THAT is writing. Enger's writing is so precise and quiet that you care deeply about these people, even before you realize you know who they are. It's been a privilege and a pleasure to participate in the reading of Peace Like a River. No hack writing here. Read this book.
Rating:
Summary: wholesome, yet. . .
Review: peace like a river is a trotting, wholesome book, and were it not for the hammered out writing, i'd be tempted to say something silly like: "a book the whole family can enjoy." enger's writing is poetic, flowing along like water, and the story cruises well, too. the only problem, really, is it's wholesomeness--a bit like an aproned granny handing out cookies to the t-ball team. at times the characters appear too good, too lofty. and swede, a nine-year-old homer, seems a bit, oh, far-stretched.
but why then, ben, the four stars? you ask. because it works. and, geeze, this dude can write. don't get me wrong, the story is grand, and my what a villain mr. waltzer makes.
read on, i say; buy it, i say--it's a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Plains poetry
Review: This is more than a novel. It is thoughful verse, lyrical storytelling, as you briefly follow a North Dakota family in the 60s, getting to know them through the eyes of a young boy as he sees his older brother shoot and kill (justifiably you think) two boys breaking into the family home. Then as the older brother goes on the lam, Rube, the younger one describes the family's cross-country journey to find him. If you loved Steinbeck, you'll find these characters and story equally worthy. These are common folk all doing uncommon things. Or so you think, until you realize this is what happens around us every day if we take the time to see it.
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