A review by cassiakarin
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

5.0

Is there any more soul satisfying than a rich and joyously tearful ending? This story carried me along at the pace of my own childhood. Comfortable in curiosity like in a summer treasure hunt, but faster than can be grasped like the first sight of the hidden prize. The youthful expressions, feelings, and regrets of childhood were ever present, and ever relatable in this story. I felt as though I could walk through it in my old sneakers and in my cut-off jean shorts without embarrassment. Yet there was a profundity of depth and of mystery that even my adulthood sat up straight for. At no point did I feel like the story "dragged on." At no point was I certain what was going to happen, though the narrator was not covert in how he retold his memories. And the ending... Those last two chapters...I whimpered, and frequently paused to sturdy myself against the counter, close my wet eyes, and brace my lower lip for the impact of powerful and dreadful hope.
I have had only a few mightily profound moments encountering an urgency to reach the land that Reuben describes in these chapters, but in his poetic telling they all came back alive to me. C.S. Lewis' vision is very present, as is St. John's, and J.R.R. Tolkien's too. The end of this story is so worth the journey. The heaviness of my own chest in its ending is so worth the breathlessness. The simplicity of breathing itself brings miracles now nearer because of this tale.