Peace Like a River
Ratings44
Average rating3.9
It was due back to the library, so I had to hurry! 3.5 stars. Took a while to get into, but then I got a lot more engaged (especially once I started skipping over Swede's unrealistic poetry and cowboy stories). Also, a lot of this is set in the North Dakota Badlands, and once upon a time Matt was considering taking a job in North Dakota and BOY HOWDY am I glad that did not pan out! The descriptions of snow, ice, being cold, cold rooms, horses tromping through crusty waist-high frost, being buried in quilts to no effect, plows not being able to get through six feet of snowfall in one night... I would not have survived there.
Anyway, I enjoyed the story of Reuben, Swede and Davy, Dad and Roxanna.
When so much of a story is fantastic, and it all falls apart in the final thirty pages. : I'm still giving this novel four stars for all it did in the preceding pages: Great characters, riveting story, excellent pacing, wonderfully drawn settings. I don't normally recommend skipping the end, but I'd be tempted to make that suggestion on this one.
In a lot of ways this book reminded me of To Kill A Mockingbird, it wasn't so forth coming with a social message like To Kill A Mockingbird, which is perhaps why I would say it's not quite on that level but still a very, very well written book that really drew me into the lives of this small family.
This book is just an incredible story and extremely well done. I loved the first person narrator and the characters were great. The audiobook was incredible. The story was a bit slow moving and not entirely captivating for me. It's one of those books that I appreciate more objectively (definitely agree with it being a modern classic!) than I love it subjectively.
I really liked the detail in the writing of this story. However, I also feel it was way too long. I liked the religious link. However, I didn't like some of the “miracles”. I did like the ending. It was very different and interesting. If I was a more religious person, I probably would have given it a better rating. Probably not a book I'd recommend to most people.
This was a beautifully written book about family, storytelling, miracles and the importance of the journey.
