"Peace like a River" A Book From the library Book Club Bag

BookLook December 31

Debbie Balzotti

“Peace like a River”

The first book of the year for book club is a very important selection. The pressure can be intense but I have a solution – a New Year’s resolution solution. Resolve to use the library’s book club kits. Our book club chose to read “Peace like a River” by Leif Enger from the library’s list of book club kits. Each canvas bag contains several paperback copies of the title and may be checked out for 5 weeks by one of the club members. It is a great gift to the book club community. Just stop by the reference desk or go online to reserve the book your group would like to read without the worry about availability. Maybe that person (every club has one who doesn’t read the book) making the New Year’s resolution to read one book this year will do it if you put the book into their reluctant hands? Now you have two resolutions on track for the New Year!

“Peace like a River” was published in 2001 and was a best seller on all the lists including the New York Times. It continues to be a popular novel almost ten years later. Not quite a classic, but getting close to that status. It is a beautifully written novel filled with unforgettable characters. The story is narrated by eleven-year-old Reuben Land. Reuben brought miracles to his little family from the moment of his birth in 1951. When Doctor Nokes gave up trying to get Reuben’s tiny lungs to fill with air, the baby’s father rushed across the room, smacked the doctor to the floor, snatched up the still, grey child and commanded him to breathe. “Mother cried out, Dad turned back to me, a clay child wrapped in a canvas coat, and said in a normal voice, “Reuben Land, in the name of the living god I am telling you to breathe.”

When tragedy strikes the small Midwestern family, they begin a journey in an Airstream trailer that reminds the reader of early western cowboy tales. The oldest son Davy at only age sixteen has been convicted of murder. When he escapes from jail his father, brother and little sister head out to find him shadowed by “the putrid fed” who is convinced that the family will find Davy and then he can arrest him. The adventure has a mystical quality since it is described by an eleven-year-old boy who still believes in fairy tale endings and biblical miracles.

I hope our book club chooses more titles from the library kits. The books are selected by the librarians to provide good reading and good discussion. “Peace like a River” was the perfect choice to start off twelve months of great literature for 2010.