63. Peace Like a River
Rating: ☆☆1/2
Recommended by: Kay Lynn Hartmann
Author: Leif Enger
Genre: Fiction
312 pages, published August 14, 2002
Reading Format: Audio Book
Summary
Peace Like a River takes its title from the lyrics of the hymn “It Is Well with My Soul.” Set in 1962, the book is narrated by Reuben Land, an asthmatic eleven-year-old, and tells the story of his older brother Davy and younger sister Swede. His father, Jeremiah is a school janitor and a deeply spiritual Protestant who occasionally performs miracles which are only witnessed by Reuben. When two delinquents are prevented by Jeremiah from molesting Davy’s girlfriend, they attempt revenge by kidnapping Swede but return her unharmed. Davy kills them after provoking them to enter his home, leading him to be tried for manslaughter. At the trial, Reuben is the only eyewitness to the killing and though determined not to betray his brother, he gives a compromising testimony that ensures the probability of a conviction. Before the conclusion of the trial, Davy escapes.
Quotes
“Fair is whatever God wants to do.”
“Sometimes heroism is nothing more than patience, curiosity, and a refusal to panic.”
“Real miracles bother people, like strange sudden pains unknown in medical literature. It’s true: They rebut every rule all we good citizens take comfort in. Lazarus obeying orders and climbing up out of the grave – now there’s a miracle, and you can bet it upset a lot of folks who were standing around at the time. When a person dies, the earth is generally unwilling to cough him back up. A miracle contradicts the will of the earth.”
“Let me say something about that word: miracle. For too long it’s been used to characterize things or events that, though pleasant, are entirely normal. Peeping chicks at Easter time, spring generally, a clear sunrise after an overcast week–a miracle, people say, as if they’ve been educated from greeting cards.”
“Be careful whom you choose to hate. The small and the vulnerable own a protection great enough, if you could but see it, to melt you into jelly. Beware those who reside beneath the shadow of the Wings.”
“It is one thing to say you’re at war with this whole world and stick your chest out believing it, but when the world shows up with it’s crushing numbers and its predatory knowledge, it is another thing completely.”