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Patience? Or something else?
I'm pretty sure it was Brad Whittington who encouraged me to Leif Enger's debut novel, Peace Like A River. And it's a good thing it was Brad, because based on the title and cover alone I'm not sure I would have ever picked that one up.
I don't know a lot about Enger. But it does seem like I heard somewhere along the way that his sophomore effort was going to release years ago...several years ago. Every so often, in yet another fit of rampant procrastination, I would consult amazon and check the release date.
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Gooberific Novice Author Alert...when So Brave, Young, and Handsome did finally release, I ordered a copy from amazon along with a copy of my novel. I wanted to see my book next to his in that 'customers who bought' this book also bought that book column. And it worked too!
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Anyhow, I'm about 80 pages into the latest Enger effort and the experience is better than I imagined. Quite by accident, I'm finding I don't sit down to read the book, but rather sit down to savor it. And I'm pretty sure that has something (everything?) to do with the amount of time Enger took to write it.
Again, I don't know the man. He could have spent those ensuing years between novels learning shuffle board or trying to figure out how to make Slinkies climb stairs.
What I do know is that the prose is pitch perfect. And this is not what I would consider my kind of novel--not by a long shot. Yet every word of every sentence feels right at home, grounded, settled, even nestled. In the hands of a lesser writer (me?), I can't help but think that telling this story would slip into contrivance or melodrama. But so far, Enger's only crime is calling me back to the book when I should probably be doing something else.
Anybody else reading this one? And what do you think?
I am about 2/3 of the way through the book. It is an amazing book. The prose transports me into the world of these characters. It’s like uncovering an American myth, and each sentence is constructed by a master of language.
– Jim Sanders · May 12, 2008, 2:06PM
I finished it a few weeks ago. Gotta say, I had a mildly different response. Which was…“Seven years and this is the best story he could concoct?”
Which is not terribly generous I realize, but I was really surprised by the “autobiographical” and generally uncreative overtones of the beginning. To me, the weight of the “second novel syndrome” hung heavy on this novel.
I felt like Enger struggled to find a story he could write to follow-up PLaR and instead, he found some characters he wanted to follow. And so that’s what we got. Story be damned.
He does put together some nice sentences though.
– Dave L · May 13, 2008, 9:50AM
Yeah, I can’t say that I totally disagree on the story part. I did recently hit a lull in that regard.
But the word choice and sentences (the things I tend to gravitate to first) still amaze me. Also, I have no idea how historically accurate his use of language is. But the voice and language are commanding enough that I’m buying it!
I’m a little over mid-way through. So we’ll see how it goes..
Thanks Jim and Dave for chiming in.
– michael snyder · May 13, 2008, 11:55AM