I learned how to not spend so much time on an epilogue (how everything ends up in the end). Before I read Peace Like A River, I made detailed epilogues to stories and I didn't know how to not provide this waterfall of information to the reader without making the story feel complete. The author for this book found a way for the reader to glimpse the future with little tidbits of information sprinkled throughout the story. The story was actually the speaker looking back on his memories, but the way it was told made the reader feel like it was present day, except for the times he disclosed the future, "'It makes all sorts of difference,' Swede said. She's a professor now, have I told you that?" (105). This lessens the amount of information that the reader receives in the epilogue/wrap-up. Also, I learned that it's useful to have a story inside a story. Before, I thought small stories inside stories were just a distraction from the main plot and simply annoying to readers. But the author of Peace Like A River used a story inside the book to contrast and compare what was happening in the plot. This also revealed the inner thoughts of the family as all of this took place around them. So, the speaker's sister is writing a story about Sunny Sundown, a righteous cowboy, that has ups and downs similar to their predicament that she shares with the speaker, "The sheriff next morning was first to awake / And he called his men to the chase, / For a dream had suggested their quarry sought rest / In the hay in the barn on the place... But when they crept into the building to spy, / Gone horses, gone lady, gone outlaw, goodbye!" (161). This symbolized when the family slipped away from a federal agent. This little poem continues throughout the entire book and helps to add humor and provides insight to the stress (or sometimes lack thereof) in the family's household. Lastly, I learned that mixing the ordinary and the impossible doesn't have to be central to the plot, sometimes it's just there. I used to think that miracles and the impossible had to propel the plot to be in a book, but in Peace Like A River miracles are sometimes just a nice convenience that gives the book a little magical realism. For example, when the main character's father walked on air, "I stood there... while Dad paced over the edge. And did not fall. He went on pacing--God my witness--walking on air" (17) and when their soup supply didn't run out one night, "Was I the only one who noticed how many bowls were served, how the pot was replenished as though from a well, how there was somehow enough again and again to fill the ladle?" (47). Then, the speaker adds a little mischievous "Make of it what you will" (47) to act as if the reader has a choice in acknowledging the miracle. This magical realism lets the book be something readers can relate to, while also including an element of fantasy that makes it different from mundane everyday life.
Also, I learned that it's useful to have a story inside a story. Before, I thought small stories inside stories were just a distraction from the main plot and simply annoying to readers. But the author of Peace Like A River used a story inside the book to contrast and compare what was happening in the plot. This also revealed the inner thoughts of the family as all of this took place around them. So, the speaker's sister is writing a story about Sunny Sundown, a righteous cowboy, that has ups and downs similar to their predicament that she shares with the speaker, "The sheriff next morning was first to awake / And he called his men to the chase, / For a dream had suggested their quarry sought rest / In the hay in the barn on the place... But when they crept into the building to spy, / Gone horses, gone lady, gone outlaw, goodbye!" (161). This symbolized when the family slipped away from a federal agent. This little poem continues throughout the entire book and helps to add humor and provides insight to the stress (or sometimes lack thereof) in the family's household.
Lastly, I learned that mixing the ordinary and the impossible doesn't have to be central to the plot, sometimes it's just there. I used to think that miracles and the impossible had to propel the plot to be in a book, but in Peace Like A River miracles are sometimes just a nice convenience that gives the book a little magical realism. For example, when the main character's father walked on air, "I stood there... while Dad paced over the edge. And did not fall. He went on pacing--God my witness--walking on air" (17) and when their soup supply didn't run out one night, "Was I the only one who noticed how many bowls were served, how the pot was replenished as though from a well, how there was somehow enough again and again to fill the ladle?" (47). Then, the speaker adds a little mischievous "Make of it what you will" (47) to act as if the reader has a choice in acknowledging the miracle. This magical realism lets the book be something readers can relate to, while also including an element of fantasy that makes it different from mundane everyday life.