This article is about the novel by Leif Enger. For the song written by Paul Simon, see Paul Simon (album)
| Peace Like a River | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Leif Enger |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel Drama |
| Publisher | Grove/Atlantic Inc. |
| Publication date | 2001 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 320 pp |
| ISBN | 9780802139252 |
Peace Like a River (2001) is a best-selling novel by Leif Enger, who took the title from the lyrics of the hymn "It Is Well with My Soul", which was performed at his wedding. Enger wrote the novel to amuse his family, taking story suggestions from his children and giving the lead character asthma to encourage one of his sons, who also has asthma.
A film version written by Kathy McWorter was scheduled for release in 2009, but has since been delayed until 2011.[1]
Contents |
The novel is narrated by Reuben Land, an eleven-year-old boy suffering from severe asthma who lives with his unusual family in a small Minnesota town in 1962. His mother abandoned the family years before. He is among three children: his older brother Davy, who is sixteen years old when the story begins; and his younger sister Swede eight years old, a lover of the Old West and an imaginative writer and poet. His father, Jeremiah, a school janitor, is a man of faith who quietly performs miracles – one of which is to bring Reuben to life after his lungs failed to inflate when he was born. Reuben is the only one who ever sees or notices these miracles; he concludes that he is meant to be a witness to them.
The Lands' quiet lives are disrupted by two young troublemakers, Israel Finch and Tommy Basca, who attempt to molest Davy's girlfriend in a locker room (she is saved by Jeremiah's intervention). They then begin harassing the family with intent to intimidate, e.g. kidnapping Swede and taking her for a ride before returning her unharmed. Finally Davy vandalizes their property in a deliberate attempt to provoke them to break into the Lands' home. When they do, he shoots and kills both of them. Davy is arrested and tried for murder, along the way experiencing the fickleness of public opinion, which swings back and forth between support for him, a brave young man defending his home and family, and the dead boys, misunderstood kids who were killed for no good reason.
As the only eyewitness of the killing, Reuben is a star witness at the trial. Unfortunately, though determined not to betray his brother, he allows his sense of theatricality to overtake him and gives a compromising testimony, ensuring the probability of a conviction. That night, however, before the conclusion of the trial, Davy escapes from jail, steals a horse, and is away before the local law enforcement can find him. The hunt eventually escalates to the federal level, with a federal agent named Martin Andreeson vainly asking the family for information on Davy's whereabouts (since they know no more than he).
Jeremiah becomes ill with pneumonia, leaving Reuben and Swede with the responsibility of running the household by themselves until his recovery. After Jeremiah is recovered, they find out that Tin Lurvy, a rather annoying traveling salesman whom Jeremiah has shown hospitality to in the past, has died and left them his Airstream trailer. They take this as an opportunity to go and find Davy. They go first to their friend August Schultz's farm after receiving a discreet post card hinting that Davy might be there. When they arrive, they find Davy has come and gone, but was going generally to the west. From there they continue on the road, venturing into the West. As they search, they continually try to avoid Martin Andreeson and other federal agents.
Traveling with no real plan, the family eventually stops at a service station out in the country to buy gas. They find that the owner is a recently widowed woman named Roxanna, who invites the family to stay with her on her farm. They are unexpectedly happy there, as Roxanna begins to be almost a mother to the children and love begins to develop between her and Jeremiah, and end up staying a long time. Eventually, Jeremiah begins to formally court Roxanna. Meanwhile, Reuben discovers accidentally that Davy is staying nearby, with fellow hideaways Jape Waltzer and a girl known simply as Sara.
He visits their retreat in the mountains several times, being forbidden by Davy to tell the family. Waltzer claims to have "bought" Sara from her father in Utah and raises her with the intention of one day marrying her. Waltzer also appears mentally unstable, abusing Sara and forcing eccentricities on others. Eventually, Andreeson catches up with the family again and informs them that he is hot on Davy's trail and knows he is in the area. Jeremiah, after much prayer, eventually concludes that he is obliged to cooperate with the lawmen. Reuben, though initially horrified, eventually admits to himself that Davy had committed a "grievous wrong".
Eventually, after concluding that Jape Waltzer will kill Andreeson when he finds them, Reuben tells his family, and agrees to lead a search party to the hideout. During the search, at one point he has second thoughts and deliberately misleads the searchers, causing them to cross dangerous terrain where a horse stumbles and one of the party is injured. Despite this, the posse eventually reaches the cabin where Jape and Davy were staying, only to find it abandoned. They find Andreeson's discarded fedora, leading them to believe he has been killed.
The family returns to their home in Roofing, Minnesota, where Jeremiah marries Roxanna and the family settles in, though Swede refuses to forgive Reuben for not telling her he had been seeing Davy. One night, three months into the family's arrangement Davy appears at their home with Sara, claiming that Jape had decided the time had come to marry Sara and so Davy had escaped with her. The family agrees that if he must get back on the road, Sara can live with them. The following morning the family walks outside to see Davy off only to find Jape Waltzer waiting outside patiently. He fires a rifle once, hitting Jeremiah in the side. When Reuben runs forward after his injured father, he is shot squarely in the chest.
The next chapter is a sequence in which Reuben is in a heavenly country, where his breathing is normal and he can run freely. He meets his father there, and together they come to a river flowing toward a city where they can see many people congregating. Reuben experiences an overwhelming desire to go to the city, but finds that only his father can go at present. Jeremiah tells him to take care of the family and to tell Davy what he has seen. Reuben awakes to find his father dead and himself still breathing even though his lungs had been shattered, and his asthma has even been cured.
In the epilogue, Reuben marries Sara and they have children, a daughter and at least two sons. They live happily with their children on a farm. Swede becomes a novelist. Reuben takes annual hunting trips in Canada, and sometimes sees Davy there in a certain small town. He ends by restating his role of witness, and his intention to eventually return to the heaven he has seen.
The religious themes running throughout the novel are overt. Miracles play a central role not only in plot development (Reuben's birth and death stories, moments during their traveling when they are miraculously undetected by state troopers and when their car doesn't run out of gas), but also in seemingly less consequential parts of the story. The crack in Swede's saddle is fixed, the superintendent's face is healed of its scars, Jeremiah walks on air while praying. These seem to demonstrate that the miraculous is all around for those who have eyes to see such things. In this sense, it is important to note that it was only Reuben who had noticed, and he had to inform Swede of their father's miraculous acts. And yet the miraculous was not a power to be used and manipulated at will. Reuben reflects at one point that his father had not healed his asthmatic lungs.
Love of one's enemies is another of the religious themes. Jeremiah responds to the superintendent who mistreats and humiliates him with grace and forgiveness. The obnoxious traveling salesman Lurvy is accepted into the household. Jeremiah even comes to terms with the family's sworn enemy Mr. Andreeson, the federal investigator who is on Davy's trail. This eventually transforms Reuben's attitude toward the investigator as well. Love and forgiveness win over revenge. Davy's continued life on the run from justice, while having a certain romantic charm to it for those intrigued with stories of western outlaws, misses out on the fullness of life that is enjoyed by the rest of the family—even in the face of tragedy.
Reuben the narrator emphasizes repeatedly the role of the witness. This conjures up the parting words of Jesus to his disciples in the book of Acts, "You will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8). Reuben has not argued for or defended his beliefs with philosophical propositions. He even admits that doubts sometimes come to him. But the reality of his experiences trump those doubts. He concludes the matter by saying, "Is there a single person on whom I can press belief? No sir. All I can do is say, Here's how it went. Here's what I saw. I've been there and am going back. Make of it what you will" (p. 311).