So Brave, Young and Handsome

by Leif Enger

“An almost perfect novel” of yearning, adventure, and redemption in the dying days of the Old West from the bestselling author of Peace Like a River (St. Louis Post-Dispatch).  Minnesota, 1915. With success long behind him, writer, husband, and father Monte Becket has lost his sense of purpose . . . until he befriends outlaw Glendon Hale. Plagued by guilt over abandoning his wife two decades ago, Hale is heading back West in search of absolution. And he could use some company on the journey.   As the modern age marches swiftly forward, Becket agrees to travel into Hale’s past, leaving behind his own family for an adventure that will test the depth of his loyalties and morals, and the strength of his resolve. As they flee the relentless former Pinkerton Detective who’s been hunting Hale for years, Becket falls ever further into the life of an outlaw—perhaps to the point of no return.   With its smooth mix of romanticism and gritty reality, So Brave, Young, and Handsome examines one ordinary man’s determination to risk everything in order to understand what it’s all worth, in “an old-fashioned, swashbuckling, heroic Western . . . [An] adventure of the heart and mind (The Washington Post Book World).

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Book Club, Westerns, Adventure, Literary Fiction, Adult Fiction

316 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 22, 2008

About the author

Leif Enger was raised in Osakis, Minnesota, and worked as a reporter and producer for Minnesota Public Radio for nearly twenty years. He lives on a farm in Minnesota with his wife and two sons.

His writing is a smooth mix of romanticism and gritty reality, recalling the Old West's greatest cowboy stories.

Enger's novel, Peace Like a River, was one of Time magazine's top-five novels of the year 2001 and appeared on several other best seller lists.

His second novel, So Brave, Young, and Handsome also appeared on best seller lists in 2008.

For further details, see the author's Wikipedia page.

Reviews

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peace Like a River, Enger's first novel, had simple, elegant writing and a believable, suspenseful plot that set the author loping comfortably between the literary buttes of Larry McMurtry and John Steinbeck. River felt like a classic before you were halfway through the book. So Brave, Young, and Handsome is set at the same pace, and holds to the same style of writing, and if that process seems now too easily reproduced, or too wash worn to stun us at second sight, the casualness of this appearance holds only until you strike upon a sentence remarkable for its strong characterization, and gracefully evocative of its captured time and place.

If River was a book about faith, So Brave is a novel of family. But themes center also on that great western trope of identity, as defined by family, by action, by location, happenstance, and also by lie. Characters are carefully cast and perfectly named: Hood Roberts, Jack Waits, and Glendon Hale are born in the mind the moment you hear their names. The heart of the novel lay, as with all great stories, with its women, and though held to the perimeter for much of the story, it is their presence - Blue's, Susannah Becket's - that casts a horizon toward which all the men march.

The only regret you'll have is that there are too few pages for characters so rich. But thankfully books like this are not chocolate; they are not a taste from which a person really ever grows sick.

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A stunning successor to his best selling novel Peace Like a River, Leif Enger's new work is a rugged and nimble story about an aging train robber on a quest to reconcile the claims of love and judgment on his life, and the failed writer who goes with him.

In 1915 Minnesota, novelist Monte Becket has lost his sense of purpose. His only success long behind him, Monte lives simply with his wife and son. But when he befriends outlaw Glendon Hale, a new world of opportunity and experience presents itself. Glendon has spent years in obscurity, but the guilt he harbors for abandoning his wife, Blue, over two decades ago, has lured him from hiding. As the modern age marches swiftly forward, Glendon aims to travel back to his past--heading to California to seek Blue's forgiveness. Beguiled and inspired, Monte soon finds himself leaving behind his own family to embark for the unruly West with his fugitive guide. As they desperately flee from the relentless Charles Siringo, an ex-Pinkerton who's been hunting Glendon for years, Monte falls ever further from his family and the law, to be tempered by a fiery adventure from which he may never get home.

My Review: Failing novelist and failure of a farmer Monte Becket, Minnesotan manqué, meets Glendon the gangster via the good offices of his son the pathologically friendly, and to the undisguised disgust and reluctant encouragement of his dreary, negative wife, takes off to Mexico with Glendon to see what he can see.

I started this book annoyed. I did NOT like the pseudoformal English that the author posits regular people used a century ago, felt it was such a cutesy way of making the story feel "authentic" and so contrived as to make me want to smack the perpetrator.

I got over it. Glendon the train robber completely seduced me, just like he did the narrator, the narrator's wife, the narrator's son, and so many, many others along his twisty path.

This is a tale about Truth, not truth, and the author shows us that from the get-go with the very narrative voice I found so irksome at first. There is Truth in the world, often to be found shoved behind elaborate scrims of lies, where the facts that tell the truth are woven into the most fantastical beasts of falsehood it's amazing.

Leif Enger knows this, and tells us this amazing and important and underappreciated piece of knowledge in the voice of a man whose grasp of the facts is imperfect but whose knowledge of the Truth guides him and saves him from a wasted, useless life.

Very, very worth reading. I say grit your teeth at the narrative voice and charge into the story full tilt. You will be very glad you got to know these characters. They do remain characters, though; some essential *oomph* is missing that's necessary to launch them into full personhood. Still, they're good readin'. Go to it, unfettered by fear of disappointment.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

[Snotchocheez · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

I can't be a Leif Enger completist after two novels. No! Arrrgh! Alas, this terrific writer only has two novels under his belt in his (fifteen year) career, but I can assure you, when he gets the gumption to write again, I will be there waiting.

Yeah, and no, 2008's So Brave, Young, and Handsome is not as good as his debut, 2001's Peace Like a River, but it's pretty darn good enough, despite a few minor tics (like that seemingly-Wiley Cash-inspired title for starters). It's probably not a coincidence that Monte Becket, our hero, is a one-hit-wonder writer (in the mid 1910s) of (in todays parlance) a well-received YA novel, desperately mired in a bad bout of writers' block (echoing, it seems, Enger's own career arc.) Monte's solution to break the funk (which was, really, my only problem with this book, this setup:) Abandon his loving wife and son, his state of Minnesota Cannon River-adjacent homestead, and go on a.trip with a dicey boat-building alcoholic neighbor, Glendon Hale, to Baja California so that Glendon might apologize to his wife for his misdeeds of the past. Somehow, Monte's wife Susannah agrees to let Monte accompany this strange neighbor to a trip west, if it will jumpstart his foundering writing career with ideas for a new book.

As it turns out, this strange neighbor Glendon has a very checkered past that is slowly revealed as the duo trek to Mexico. (Turns out, he's a train robber and consorter with the legendary Hole in the Wall Gang of outlaws like Butch Cassidy, "Flat Nose" Curry and "Black Jack" Ketchum).. Not long after leaving Minnesota, the road trip becomes a pursuit when Charles Siringo, a veteran, celebrated Pinkerton detective, picks up Glendon Hale's scent in Kansas. Monte gets much more than book ideas on this trip, as he's now on the run with someone presumed armed and dangerous.

Except for the meh set-up, this was a joy to read. Enger, much like he evinced with Peace Like a River, has a seemingly innate gift of storytelling, making his characters zing, the old west locales vivid and richly-detailed, the tension palpable. I must say, Zane Grey-ish old timey westerns are so not my thing, but I can trust Enger to take me anywhere I wouldn't ordinarily go unbidden.

Talent this rich must not languish. Leif, a plaintive plea: Come back, please!!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leif Enger stole my heart with Peace Like a River, holding me captive from the first page to the last. I was afraid he could not pull off that trick again, but he did. After the first few chapters, in which I was beginning to doubt, this book took off and sailed, dragging me along in its wake. It is not serious or wrenching like Peace Like a River, but it is endlessly entertaining, and who wants an author to write the same book twice?

There are three superb characters, offered up for our enjoyment. They populate the dying West, where the desperados are old, as are the lawmen chasing them. Monte Becket, a man who knows nothing of the West except the imaginings he has put into his surprisingly successful novel; Glendon Hale, a man with a past that he wants to atone for; and Charlie Siringo, a less than scrupulous Pinkerton man, find themselves locked into each other's lives and swept across the rapidly changing 1915 landscape from Minnesota to California . The book is a wild ride, with these three reminding me of the lost art of bronco busting, where winning or losing is always determined by who hangs on the longest.

The West here is a dying culture, where the only cowboys are in wild west shows, and names like Butch Cassidy are beginning to fade with the memories of the men who knew him. It is, also, a tale about redemption; a tale about finding out who you are, or who you can be, before it is too late.

You can’t explain grace, anyway, especially when it arrives almost despite yourself. I didn’t even ask for it, yet somehow it breached and began to work. I suppose grace was pouring over Glendon, who had sought it so hard, and some spilled down on me.

Many of the events of the book would seem ludicrous in isolation and perhaps even in afterthought, but I believed this story and every event in the reading. I was there. I saw it, vividly. I pictured Hale and Siringo with weathered faces and western drawls that identified them as different, as relics, but with a kind of magical character that would be missed in the future from which they would shortly be missing.

I am so glad I took the time out of my planned reading to work in this delightful book. I was sad to relinquish these characters in the end, but I have no problem imagining where they are now, beyond the confines of the book, because the end is never truly the end in this one.

[Patrick Oden · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I said, 'Most men never have the chance to be both things at once, the hero and the devil.'

'That is ignorant. Most men are hero and devil. All men. That is what ruins it with wives.'

'She wanted just the hero?'

'Bad men or good she would've had me either way. She couldn't endure both, however. She said to pick one and to be that thing only so that she might trust me until the day of Jesus.'"

There is a perspective in some ancient cultures about in-between places and times. Dawn and dusk, which lie between night and day. The seashore, that lies between water and land. Halloween, that time in which the spirit world and the physical world are perilously close. During these moments, in these places, it is both and neither all at once, indistinct and undefined. So too human life encounters these moments in identity. People are often caught in this nebulous middle, seeming one thing and another all at once. Sometimes this is being caught between their actions and their ideals, or their sin and their virtue. They are half-people of a sort, unrealized and unformed, without an identity of their own.

Some stay in this place their whole lives, never becoming, and never discovering themselves for who they really are. Others cast off from the dock, refusing to settle any longer for what was, and yet not yet knowing who they can or should be. It is a journey of becoming a whole person.

So Brave, Young, and Handsome is this story told of three primary characters, with a few others thrown in along the way. It is a road story telling of a physical journey that brings out the metaphysical of each of the characters, but not in a mushy, spiritualistic, heavy-laden way. And that's what is so brilliant about the book. It's not philosophy. It's a great tale in the tradition of great American writers from decades past.

This is a book about in between times and in between people drawn with immense clarity and insight, while retaining a direct and sparse prose. Enger tells us of an era and certain characters, a story not a message. It is in this story, however, that we see so much of real life as it so often is: in between.

We are between the old and the new, the good and the bad, the honest and the false, the artist and the laborer, the young and the aged, the adventurous an the prosaic. The characters hope, but don't know how to find this hope. What they do is carry on, having tasted something of who they know themselves to be they won't let themselves go back. As Enger says in his acknowledgments, "Sometimes heroism is nothing more than patience, curiosity, and a refusal to panic."

What I like so much about Enger's work is that it is so hopeful. Absolutely honest, mind you, there's no false hope to be found here or sentimentalism seeking to manipulate our emotions. These are real people, faults and all. But unlike so much contemporary literature and film Enger doesn't feel a need to obsess with corruption or ruin. His is a book that shows people who are not handsome, or young, and rarely brave. But they want to be, and be such in ways that matter to them, not to others around them. They are seeking wholeness for themselves.

Not all succeed. Some do, but not in the expected ways.

"For at the same time he lost everything--the very direction of his own steps--he won the thing he held most precious he wouldn't approach it in words."

It is a story of real life. Not gritty, corrupted, malformed caricatures. Real people, or at least characters who are desperate to become real people, who learn what it is to be a real person.

With all this depth and insight it might sound ponderous. But it's not. It's very gentle and easy-going. It moves along at a varied pace, with enough movement to never seem tiresome and enough twists to never seem predictable. My only slight irritation is that sometimes Enger jumps ahead a bit and is so eager to bring a slight twist that he breaks the moment with unnecessary foreshadowing, sort of a "you'll love what comes next!" moments. I wish he just let us experience the story as it happened a bit more. But this is a minor qualm and he does even this within the contexts of a fitting narration.

It's a brilliant book, in craft and theme and insight. It's the best work of contemporary fiction I've read in a very long time and guess it will be my favorite book of 2008.

[Jolie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, I wanted so much to like this book...I loved Peace Like a River, and would recommend that one wholeheartedly. And I was prepared to love this one, too, but just...couldn't.

I did love Monte Beckett at the beginning--his angst over writing 1,000 words a day in order to turn out a follow-up to his unexpected bestseller. I loved that one of his throw-away stories sounded much like the plot line for Peace. I found all his characters at the beginning of the book to be intriguing and likeable.

And then, the rest of the book happened. Or didn't happen. It meandered and wandered and people came and went, and there was very little that made me desire to keep reading. In fact, I slogged along, hoping that there would be grace and purpose at the end. Of course, Leif Enger's prose is still lovely, although somewhat spare and plain, keeping with his setting, I suppose. But sadly, not one I'm aching to read again moments after closing it. No, this one I closed with relief for having finished it. Finally.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

So Brave, Young and Handsome was a beautiful tale by one of my favorite contemporary authors and such a masterful storyteller, Leif Enger. I have an affinity for the early, rough and tumble, nitty gritty exploration and development of the American West. This author can spin stories from an earlier time reminiscent of the likes of Larry McMurtry or John Steinbeck. This is basically an old-fashioned road trip where all of our basic beliefs and values come in to play. This is a book that will keep you enthralled throughout this beautiful and often heartbreaking journey. I will be looking forward to his next book.

"The Cowboy's Lament"

We Beat the drum slowly and played the fife lowly
And bitterly wept as we bore him along
For we all loved our comrade, so brave, young, and handsome
We all loved our comrade although he'd done wrong

[Francisco · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure it's worth while me telling you what this book is about. Because this is one of the books that is more about the how (or maybe even the why) then the what. I would have a better shot of conveying what the book is about if I told you that it was like the smell of an orange or one of those gurgling brooks you happen upon unexpectedly in a hike. If you like sentences and how they sound when you listen to them and what they don't say when you stop to think about them, then you will enjoy spending time with this book and may even come out the better afterwards. If you have any experience with how difficult it is to make something look easy, you will appreciate what the author does here (and maybe curse him just a little for it). If you have been struck by sheer grace once or twice and then spent the rest of your life standing in different places waiting for it to make you its recipient again, maybe just one more time, you will understand this book and the tenderness it brings, its lively peace.

[R.F. Gammon · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s ironic that an author who wrote a runaway bestseller and then took ten years to get another book out is writing a book about the exact same scenario.

I definitely fear that this book suffers because of peace like a river. From a lesser author, this would be a marvelous book. The problem with both this book and Virgil Wander is that I have read Peace, and later I Cheerfully Refuse demonstrated that Enger still has that touch. It’s very difficult to review his work objectively. Le sigh.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

The term "Heartbreaking work of staggering genius" gets bandied about a lot these days, but in this case it's very well earned. As I knew it would be. The man who wrote the sublime PEACE LIKE A RIVER could not possibly write a bad grocery list, let alone a bad book.

Though I do wonder if there is anything autobiographical here. The narrator, Monte Becket, is a writer. A former postal worker, actually, who wrote a novel on a whim and had it become a runaway bestseller. And now he sits, day after day, writing words and discarding them. His publisher is anxiously waiting for his next book, and he's ashamed to admit that he's written the beginnings of nearly a dozen, and discarded them all. And so, plagued by writer's block, he heads out to Mexico with his odd duck of a neighbor . . . and ends up aiding and abetting a number of people and a number of crimes, and living life as he hadn't before. This book is a gorgeous anomaly: a western written by a post-modern writer. Spare sentences, short chapters, odd turns of fate, and yet it unspools like a yarn worthy of Zane Grey. It reminded me of combination of ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE and TRUE GRIT, with a healthy dose of ALL THE PRETTY HORSES.

So, in short: It's fabulous, you should read it. Then, if you haven't, read PEACE LIKE A RIVER. Two, that's right, TWO Heartbreaking Works of Staggering Genius.

(A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS is also very good.)

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1915, Monte Becket is a writer living in Minnesota with his wife and son. He has had one hit book but has been unable to write another. He meets aging outlaw Glendon Hale and agrees to join him on a journey to find Hale’s ex-wife. Hale has regrets about leaving his wife years ago. They travel west and meet Hood Roberts, a young man who is impressed by Hale’s outlaw status. Glendon is being chased by a former Pinkerton man, Charlie Siringo (a real person). The storyline follows the adventures of this trio, as their paths converge, diverge, and converge again.

It calls to mind the end of the Old West, where outlaws have had their day and are now retiring or dying off. They lead lives of criminals on the run through uninhabited lands or sparsely populated towns. The writing is atmospheric. It is unusually character-driven for a western adventure, with Monte reflecting on his relationship with his family as he writes them letters during his travels. It is a novel about friendship, redemption, and finding one’s path in life.

[Amelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's here! Finally, after almost 6 years, the second book by Leif Enger! He wrote Peace Like a River - my all-time #1 favorite!

I liked it in the end. It's no Peace, but it was a good story. I couldn't feel the characters as deeply as in Peace ... I wish we had more time with Redstart and Hood, less with Siringo. But, the overall themes were ones I could get behind: true love endures, forgiveness is sweet on both the giving and receiving end, there is a fine nobleness in voluntary justice, and relationships, art, work, and the beauties of the earth are the things that can give you the most lasting happiness.

I would recommend this to Celeste (before you read Peace ... and give yourself some time in between the two), and anyone else who likes a good, relaxing story with a pace like a lazy part of the Mississippi River. It kind of has that feel to it.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crud, crud, crud. I meant to write my review of this when I finished it, but now it's been several weeks and a bunch of books in between. Still the story has stayed with me. While I can no longer recall a specific eloquence of phrase, the overall flavor of the story, with the wonders of the early 20th century: train travel, Wild West shows, outlaws, Pinkertons, sharpshooters and cheap penny novels. The basic story is one of an aging train robber, Glendon Hale, seeking redemption from the love of his life. His traveling companion is the willing, but somewhat stagnant writer, Monte Becket, author of a one hit wonder, a swashbuckling western novel called MArtin Bligh.

Their travels, adventures are a marvelous tale of the time, itself. Add to it the characters they meet, interact with and seek, and the story achieves a wonderful richness -- a journey on which it was quite pleasing accompany these two.

[Therese · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fell in love with the author’s writing with Peace Like A River, and the storytelling in this book was equally superb. Set in 1915, the story is about an average guy that has an idea for a novel, which becomes a huge success, but despite his best efforts, he just can’t seem to crank out the next one. While feeling a failure, he befriends a old train robber, becomes intrigued with the man’s quest to return to and make things right with the wife he abandoned years ago while he was on the lam, and feeling invigorated for the first time in a long time, decides to leave his own family behind while he hits the road and joins him on his adventure. All the while being chased by an old ex-Pinkerton who’s vowed to himself not to let this one go. A great road trip across the Old West, along a journey of self-discovery.

[La Crosse County Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally published August 2008

In his new book, So Brave, Young, and Handsome, Leif Enger beautifully blends friendship and adventure in a tale rivaling those featuring Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. It is a story of a wonderful time gone by where outlaws look like winking Santa's and stories are as big as the West.

Elderly Glendon Hale is just an old boat builder; he doesn’t rob trains anymore! He wants nothing more than to go in search of his wife, whom he abandoned in Mexico decades ago when running from the law.

His naïve neighbor, Monte Becket, agrees to leave his comfortable porch in Minnesota and tag along on his quest. Barely a day out-of-town, Glendon is recognized as a bank robber, and the pair become accidental outlaws running cross-country with a Pinkerton man hot on their trail.

Set in the early 1900s, the road trip is full of splendid surprises. Surprises like a sixty pound snapping turtle, an elephant, a flood, a Tahitian orange orchard, one beauteous lady sharpshooter...What more could you ask for? Murder? Romance? Relentless villains? It’s all in there!

The improbable situations in which these two fumbling fugitives find themselves will amuse and delight you.

So Brave, Young, and Handsome is funny, touching, and improbable but absorbing. It has been compared to Lonesome Dove (Larry McMurtry) and Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen).

All of these books, as well as Enger’s bestselling first book, Peace Like a River, can be reserved for pick-up at any branch of the La Crosse County Library in West Salem, Onalaska, Holmen, Campbell, or Bangor.

Find this book and other titles within our catalog.

[Carol Bakker · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can’t explain grace, anyway, especially when it arrives almost despite yourself. I didn’t even ask for it, yet somehow it breached and began to work.

My husband and I are on a Leif Enger tear. Some folks binge on Netflix shows; we binge on Enger. We've turned the author's name into a noun. Are we going to Enger tonight? And we talk. We find symbols (one character shares a loaf of bread with another, Curt says 'communion'), discuss plot points, make predictions, express our surprise and wonder and pleasure. And ask questions of ourselves that the book raises.

On a recent road trip, after we finished So Brave, we sampled three titles I had queued up. No, no, and ...no. So ... we began So Brave again and enjoyed the first two hours a second time.

These characters are flawed. Seriously flawed. But Enger made us care about them and the consequences of their choices.

I choose my next read randomly — a book from my shelf, or from the library, another book by an author I like, a book lent to me by a friend, etc. It was strange — beautifully strange — that a book I just finished (This Is Happiness) had such a similar and unusual plot line as this book. They both deal with an older man wanting to ask for forgiveness from a woman he had hurt earlier in life. I saw patience and persistence, humility and yearning in both characters. An ache to be able to express how deeply sorry he was. It was a wondrous juxtaposition.

[Larry H]

I absolutely loved Leif Enger's first novel, Peace Like a River. He's a terrific writer. So needless to say, I was really looking forward to reading his follow-up novel. And I loved much of it a great deal.



Living in Minnesota in 1915, Monte Becket was a one-time successful novelist hoping inspiration will strike him a second time. Eking out a humdrum existence, one day he befriends Glendon Hale, a vagabond outlaw who wants to head to Mexico to find his one true love, whom he abandoned to flee lawmakers years before. So Monte accompanies Glendon on this journey. And an interesting journey it is.



Once again, Enger's writing is fantastic. For the most part, the characters he created, especially Monte and Glendon (and their brief companion Hood Roberts), have stuck in my mind. The only reason I didn't like this book more (and in fact got fairly frustrated during a middle stretch) was the character of Charlie Siringo, the one-time Pinkerton guard on the hunt for Glendon. I found his character a little too unbelievable, and was tremendously irritated by the hold he seemed to have over every character in the book, minor or major. But once I made it through that span of pages, the book regained its heart, and captured me once again.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll admit, I was disappointed, especially at first.
This is not Peace Like a River. And I struggled to get to liking the characters as much and as quickly as in PLaR. But about halfway through the book became less of a drag to read, and more interesting for its’ own sake.
And by the end, well, I feel like there are themes to dig into, and I’m not even sure what they are!
Love? Manhood? Redemption? Purpose of life?
Read it, and then discuss it with me.

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

So Brave, Young and Handsome: A Novel is a very interesting read. It's got so many layers and nuances. Set in 1912,the narrator is a Minnesota postal worker who wrote a fabulously successful novel, quit his day job, and hasn't been able to write anything since. He befriends with an old guy who builds boats, and leaves his wife and son to spend six weeks helping his new friend find his long-lost love. It quickly becomes apparent that Monte is either a very poor judge of character or that he is the most unreliable of narrators.

Monte's adventure traveling in the West show us an early 20th century that is changing rapidly. His buddy, Glendon turns out to have been part of Butch Cassidy's Hole in the Wall Gang. He's being pursued by a former Pinkerton detective, Charlie Siringo. Both men are clearly from a bygone era. Horses have pretty much been replaced by cars. Wild West extravaganzas are dying out. Even small Western towns are much more civilized than the Old West frontier outposts.

Reading this book was a pleasure. It was so vivid and poignant. However, it had a lot of complexity that would make it a good subject for serious literary analysis. I highly recommend it.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eloise rec'd:
rollicking, the words and rhythm captivated, made me pause and enjoy, read it twice
---
Well, she's certainly not wrong! I'm not reading it for the specific plot, or even for the specific characters. I'm reading it for the beautiful writing, and the way the author makes me feel like I'm actually enjoying something of actual Literary value.

How can I explain? Motivations are what unfold, not events. Histories are revealed, not secrets. There's tragedy, and humor. Peril, and joy. The characters are very different from each other, and from most readers... but they also represent the everyman.

Short 'books' and 'chapters' (or are they chapters and sub-chapters?) keep me turning the pages, but at the same time I take breaks and ponder the bit just read. I will indeed plan to read it again.
---
Done. Yep. Alrighty then.

"In times of dread it's good to have an old man along. An old man has seen worse."

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a Minnesota man, the narrator, Monte Becket, in 1910 who had written a 'western' that made his name familiar to many but now feels that he somehow did not deserve the accolades of family, friends, and the world. One day he looks through the mist at the Cannon River running by his home where he lives with beautiful wife Susannah and 8 year old son, Redstart to see salvation in the form of failed man, Glendon Hale, rowing into view. They meet Hood Roberts, a young mechanic who wants to be a cowboy on their road trip through a land that is changing forever but will always be the west.

For all of us who want to meet our quota of a thousand words a day as did Monte Becket but are composing letters by the hour,only to make them into kites and fly them up to God, this story gives us hope.

[Book Concierge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook narrated by Dan Woren.


Monte Becket has had one greatly successful novel published, but he cannot seem to write another book. He lives with his wife, Susanna, and son on a farm in Minnesota, and keeps promising his publisher that he’s working hard on the next novel. Then one day he notices a man rowing a boat while standing up. Spurred by his son, Monte befriends Glendon, and the older man confesses to regret at abandoning his wife some two decades previously. When Glendon decides that it is time for him to go back to Blue, he asks Monte to come along, and with Susanna’s guarded acquiescence, Monte agrees to go along.

I was caught up in the road trip. The story takes place in 1915, when automobiles were scarce, and more people lived in the rural area of America. As Monte and Glendon head West and South, the landscape virtually becomes a character in the novel.

I really like the relationship between these men. Glendon is an admitted outlaw, and even spent some time at Butch Cassidy’s Hole in the Wall retreat. But that was decades ago, and he’s spent years in relative hiding, building boats and living simply in a converted barn. Monte is drawn to Glendon, but disturbed when he learns the truth of his new friend’s background. And yet … when push comes to shove, his loyalties lie with the Glendon he has come to know on this journey.

Enger gives the reader a relentless pursuer in Charles Siringo – a former Pinkerton detective who is determined to track Glendon down and bring him to justice.

In many respects it reminds me of the old traditional Westerns. And I think it would do well translated to film.

Dan Woren does a marvelous job of performing the audio book. I almost felt as if I were listening to a master storyteller around a campfire. Part of this is Enger’s way of writing the tale, but Woren’s narration really brought the story to life. I really liked the way he voiced the many characters, but particularly Monte and Glendon.

[Cheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I knew Enger would have a hard time writing a book as powerful as Peace Like a River, and well, he didn't. But, but--his second book is crafted much the same as the first: metaphorical, each word carefully chosen, the characters obviously well-loved and intimately known by their maker, a richly drawn setting. The story, though, isn't appealing to me, I think because it's a romantic western set in 1914 and because the chain of obstacles and resolutions in the plot just aren't plausible.

I know what you just said, outloud: "You think Peace Like a River is plausible?" Yes, actually, I do, and the story's events and outcomes and characters are true and organic to the world Enger creates. So Brave--I'm sorry to say this because I love his writing--is contrived. I did like it, though not as much as I hoped I would. He's an incredible talent as a fiction writer--I'm waiting anxiously for his next book.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

A writer, Monte Beckett, meets his neighbor, Glendon Hale, a lovable train robber and along the way they meet up with Hood Roberts, a young mechanic. Monte gets six weeks from home life to travel with Glendon. They are pursued by Charlie Siringo, a former Pinkerton agent. The book turns on Monte becoming a willing hostage and at the end Glendon turns himself, willingly. From about p. 150 on, I felt like I was following the exploits of a dumbshit. I didn’t believe anyone would do that. The book had charm to it, but it did not hang together.

The characters were stock-lovable; a rouge who shot people in the face, a steadfast, beautiful, knowing wife. When I think of people being shot in the face I think of the scene from “No Country for Old Men” when Wells is shot in the face by Shigrr. “All that Wells had know and remembered,hit the wall and slid to the floor.” I don’t think that is particularly loveable or endearing.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was terribly disappointed in this one - both of Enger’s other novels were strong five star books for me, so of course I had high hopes going into this one.

I really enjoyed the beginning, where we meet Monte Beckett as he is (somewhat ironically) struggling to write his second novel. I liked his practical and loyal wife, Susannah, and his curious and brash son, Redstart. I would have loved to settle in with Enger’s writing (still stunning in this book) and their family for the duration.

But Monte befriends an ex-bandit and finds himself swept up in adventure. This is probably a poor comparison, but The Odyssey came to mind: our hero off on adventure and then trying to get home, bouncing from one set of characters and quirky circumstance to another. One would catch my interest, but then I’d be swiftly pulled away and plopped down somewhere not as good. Repeat.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good stuff. I like the ending on this one better than Enger’s first. The solid, true-crime-feel held through to the end. Enger has a way of using bright thick words that surprise. For those who are interested here is what Idaho feels like. The characters were fascinating and engaging. I think Charles Siringo was the best. As far as bad guys go, he is at the top: complex, subtle, creepy. Glendon is a close second as far as best character and he has lots of interesting surprises as well. Highly recommend this one.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Peace Like a River and Virgil Wander but I could not get fully engage with this one. Not sure why. I liked the premise well enough. Just fell flat.

[Sharon Weinschreider · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leif Enger’s writing is so beautiful and full of grace!

[R.L.S.D · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 "Say what you want about melodrama, it beats confusion."

In which a Minnesotan author plunders the American inheritance of Western mythology for tropes and images to revitalize his imagination. This book is a little too much a meta fiction for my personal tastes, but the setting weirdly unites the poles of my own experience - from Mexico to the Midwest, and thence (after a detour on the East coast) to the Sangre de Cristos where I expect to cowboy for the rest of my energetic days and then be buried in a cemetery I have already visited.

I am unconvinced by the structure and pacing of this novel, which reads at times like a bit of Cormac McCarthy fan fiction, but I love Enger's masterful turns of phrase and his cast of elegantly observed side characters. Early in the book for example, an older woman holds the spotlight for one dinner scene simply because Enger takes for granted that women are people with keen intellects and thoughts of their own.

A meta commentary on the artist's quest for inspiration and a meditation on images of violence and penitence in the West - more interesting than beautiful but worth the read.

[John Damon Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enger is admirably and consistently a wife guy. And it is never so evident as it is here.
Also it's a good Western.