Peace Like a River Discussion (1st 4 chapters)

I'm going to start with a brief digression:

I once went to a presentation by a well-known librarian about what we librarians call reader's advisory. She was telling us how to help patrons find books that they would like to read. For many people the most important thing about a book is the action, the story line. For others, it's the characters or setting. You have to talk to people to find out why they like a particular title before you can recommend something else. When my husband and I were traveling in Alaska we each bought 2 books to read, planning to trade off during the trip. Jim chose a science fiction work by a famous person whose ideas Jim really liked. Now, I like science fiction too, however the writing in this book was just terrible. Jim is himself an excellent writer and readily acknowledged the issue but, as a physicist, he was most interested in the science of the story.

The language in Peace Like a River is what attracted me to the book. I think it is some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read. I didn't realize that it was the language of a book that was important to me until I read this book and went to this librarian's talk. Therefore, I'm going to start my discussion by looking at the language a little bit.

Enger is able to write a descriptive paragraph that tells me what the setting looks like but also gives me a sense of how the place feels. He's able to do it with a careful choice of word and phrase, yet isn't verbose. I don't get bored reading his descriptions. He also incorporates discussion of language itself into the story through Swede and her writing. I'll have more to say about Swede as a character later, but for now I'm just thinking about her use of language. I like her poetry and what it tells us about her. Enger comments on his own use of language when talking about Swede. Here's an example of that:

Swede opened her mouth and couldn't find a word in it. While loving all things Western, I doubt the facts of horse and saddle had ever occurred to her as real; they were simply poetry, though of the very best kind. Hammerhead roan and dancing bay pony and, now I mention it, Texas stock saddle -- to Swede such phrases just loped along, champing and snorting and kicking up clover. And rightly so: Take away such locutions and who's Sunny Sundown? Just a guy out walking.

Enger doesn't just say, "Swede stood there with her mouth hanging open." He turns that simple phrase into a poetic paragraph. That's why I love this book.

Feel free to talk about anything that caught your eye in this book. I'll talk more about character, setting, etc. in another post on another section. For next time read through "A Boy on a Horse", p. 107 in my edition. Should we read for one or two weeks? Let me know what you prefer.