Who is valdez in peace like a river

View the Study Pack. View the Lesson Plans. Plot Summary. Chapters 1 - 2, Clay, His Separate Shadow. Free Quiz.

Topics for Discussion. Virgil Wander. Prayer is described in many ways, and on many occasions, in Peace Like a River. Reading this book, did you discover anything about the activity of, reasons for, or consequences of prayer? What larger points — about religion and human nature, say — might the author be making with his varied depictions of people at prayer?

Why does Reuben feel this way? What power does he recognize in his own prayers? Discuss the impact prayer has on Reuben, and how it transforms him. How is his waiting resolved? Can this analogy be applied to any of the other characters?

The final miracle in Peace Like a River occurs, of course, when Jeremiah surrenders his life for Reuben. Discuss the truth and falsehood of this remark. How might Roxanna herself be seen as a miracle? What does the character of Roxanna bring to the Land family? What does she provide that the Lands had lacked before her arrival? Where exactly are Reuben and his father? What happens to them? How have these crucial events been foreshadowed, and how are they new or unprecedented? Much of this novel concerns the inner life of childhood: imagination, storytelling, chores, play, and school life.

Do the children depicted here seem realistic? Why or why not? If so, where? Identify key passages or scenes where the characters seem inferior to the landscape, or even at the mercy of it. What do the characters of Jape and Valdez represent in this novel?

Now that you know how well the book is being received, how is the inevitable prepublication waiting affecting your life? Are you about to burst, or maybe even a little frightened? What was your earlier experience in writing and publishing? We sketched out the plot on note cards, one card per chapter, and sent each other chapters through the mail. I read them almost every scene in first draft, and usually based my rewriting on their responses. Q: Setting is so important in this novel. Are there certain personal characteristics that you think arise from the upper Midwest, from Minnesota in particular?

A: Acceptance, probably. I grew up squinting from the backseat at gently rolling hills and true flatlands, where you could top a rise and see a tractor raising dust three miles away. Q: Also, while the book is contained geographically within western Minnesota and the Dakotas, a variety of landscapes are described: the town, the country, and open road, and the nearly mystical place of snow and steam where the family occasionally gathers.

Can you suggest any way s these different places inform the story, or the interior lives of its participants? When I was seven or eight we visited family in Montana, where my uncle showed us a lignite vein that had caught fire years before and was burning still.

Q: Although the narrator tells the story in retrospect, we see the world through the eleven- year old eyes of Reuben. How were you able to capture the wonder, fears, and curiosity of such a young protagonist? A: First, my parents gave me the sort of childhood now rarely encountered. Summers were beautiful unorganized eternities where we wandered in the timber unencumbered by scoutmasters.

We dressed in breechclouts and carried willow branch bows, and after supper Dad hit us fly balls. Unbeknownst to Jeremiah, a tornado approached the town as he cleaned Dewey Hall, the athletic building. Davy is taken away in handcuffs placed in jail. The rest of the Lands visit him the following day, remarking how well adjusted he seems to be. Jeremiah only asks that Swede and Reuben persevere through this tornado. The children stay home from school as reporters gather in town and their once friends desert them.

Davy handles the whole situation without much stress; the newspapers paint him as a protector and he receives lots of mail from girls praising his heroic deed. Jeremiah returns to work and is handed one unpleasant task after another as a form of punishment from the principle.

Reuben is grateful for the extra week off and Swede uses the time to work on her epic Western poem. This book is both sad and hopeful. A little gritty in places without being unnecessarily graphic.

A little too unreal at times A beautiful tribute to faith in God, a theme that is so rarely treated with the respect and depth it deserves. Yeah -- this book is just beautiful. Still one of my favorites. It's every bit as wonderful as I remember. The writing it some of the most beautiful I've ever read reminds me, strangely enough, of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

The characters are so incredibly likable. I loved the themes of miracles, loyalty, accountability, faith. It's a bittersweet story, but for me, the sweet outweighs the bitter.

I loved it, too. Three things that kept me turning those pages: 1. The characters. Eleven-year-old Reuben soon became one of my favorite narrators ever. Loved him and everything about him.

I loved Roxanna as much as the children — and as much as Jeremiah Land, the father, the good-hearted example and anchor of the family … and the book. The writing. The descriptions are terrific; the metaphors are fresh rather than trite. Not this one. That said, there is some violence. But not graphic violence. The message. The book touched on themes of accountability, of perspective, of loyalty.

And, of course, of faith — of finding peace by relying on God. It dealt with hard topics, but the characters — well, Reuben, anyway, and likely Swede, too — grew stronger from their experiences because of their faith or, probably more likely, the faith of their father. View 2 comments. This is a wonderful tale of the strength of family during hardships and struggle.

The oldest child of Jeremiah Land - Davey gets into a fight with the local thugs when they break into his home and threaten the safety of his younger siblings. One of the two is killed and suddenly Davey is up for manslaughter. He hits the road, leaving his family with no clue where he's gone and how bad things will get if he is discovered.

If you can't stomach religion then maybe put this one aside as it has a heav This is a wonderful tale of the strength of family during hardships and struggle.

If you can't stomach religion then maybe put this one aside as it has a heavy focus on the faith of Jeremiah and the miracles they witness while on their travels to find Davey. As they say the journey is the destination - so it isn't so much the search for Davey as the things the family discover, the people they meet and the difficulties they overcome. If you like stories set in the Southern states, where family is stronger than the law then this one is for you.

View all 23 comments. Aug 14, Snotchocheez rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Curiously enough: Bible-thumpers, card-carrying NRA members, and the rest of us bookworms. How do I write this to persuade the uninitiated how great Peace Like a River is without seeming like a freak? A cursory glance at the synopsis should've had me running for the hills.

At its core, its about good old-fashioned family values, faith read: religion , and "miracles" read: divine intervention. I don't like old-timey Westerns, I'm not much for precocious kids telling stories, and, well, as for the faith and miracles thing, this "Doubting Thomas" subscribes more to Jon Krakauer's school of thought:: "Faith is the very antithesis of reason".

And, so, with the latest contender for a spot on my top ten, Leif Enger's stunner makes four novels with spirituality at their nexus. Go figure. Peace Like a River is not exactly plot-heavy. There's certainly a plot here, but it's one you'll want to drink in as the story and atmospherics envelop you. It's a story set in the early 's in the cold, barren farmlands of Western Minnesota, and the even colder, even more barren Badlands of the Dakotas of the Land family: narrator Reuben, an asthmatic fellow relaying the events of the book in retrospect; father Jeremiah, a mostly-ambitionless, schoolhouse janitor and ultra-pious disciple of God and conduit to, or source of many of the aforementioned miracles ; Reuben's younger sister Swede, whose poetry serves as parallel allegory to the actions of their older brother; and Davy, whose actions to defend his girlfriend and sister from a pair of thugs land him in jail Indelible characters particularly Ruben, Swede and Jeremiah, as iconic as Scout, Jem, and Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird unforgetable dialogue, vivid you-are-there scenery, and a story to keep you turning the pages till the wee hours yet slow enough to savor every sentence are all components of a near-masterpiece.

I urge you all to give Enger's ! Highly recommended. View all 27 comments. He was praying, rounding the block for the fifth time, when the air quickened. He opened his eyes and discovered he was running—sprinting across the grass toward the door. And for several years, they are a happy family of five. Their number drops to four when their mother leaves. And then there is an event that sets off another event, which lands Davy in jail.

This is my second novel by Leif Enger, having recently read his newest novel which was published just three days ago, Virgil Wander, which I also loved, but I confess, I loved this one even more. View all 53 comments. May 23, PattyMacDotComma rated it it was amazing Shelves: aa , fantasy-folk-myth-super-magic , fiction-adult , historical-fiction , aa-col , favourites-adult.

I'd read as much Twain as the next boy. What more could I possibly want? Oh yes, a small hint of magic, which we might believe but couldn't prove. He accepts, for example, that his older brother Davey is a strong hero, learning to be a good hunter.

He accepts that his little sister Swede is tough and strong-willed. Your breaths are sips, couldn't blow out the candle on a baby's cake. I'll lack a word, and she'll dump out a bushel of them. She has also become enamoured of Zane Grey paperbacks and fancies herself a cowgirl and a poet, so of course Reuben is her rapt audience, spurring her on pardon the cowpoke jargon.

The men who worked the Redtail Mine were fed up with the boss. They swarmed around his office door like blackflies round a hoss. He'll starve our very children, boys, while he himself gets fat!

A messenger had brought him word that made him feel his age: Valdez, last night—the third straight month! Thus begins the long saga of Sunny Sundown and his quest to hunt down the evil Valdez as well as find himself the love of a good woman, and all the other delights this young girl can dream up. The main story is peppered with stanzas, not all in the same rhyme, and they are a delight. New characters appear as Swede takes out her frustration and impatience with the family's stalled quest in verse.

Not Swede, but Reuben ends up on horseback, terrified. There's a separation from ground and a hopeless union with the animal as down you go—can't hear a thing but gravel clatter, absolutely can't steer.

The mare laid her ears back, splayed her front feet, set haunches to earth, and slid. Swede would have loved it! Enger makes sure you understand who and what these people are. Buxom and businesslike on her doorstep, once she had you inside she became the woman you wish had lived next door all the days of your childhood. She was short, round, bright. At the age when most women begin putting up their hair, she wore hers long, for beauty, and it was beautiful—black and woolly, her very own buffalo robe.

It was fitting, that march; there was something about Mrs. DeCuellar that reminded you of a bass drum. A practical build, big up top, one of those men you realize why it's called a chest—you had the feeling he had all the tools he needed in there and all in working order and daily use. You give the horse their head, lie back, and hang on!

This is from the film where Jim is the only one who can turn the mob and bring them in. Yes, I know this is long, but it' s not required reading. View all 36 comments. Feb 10, Cindy Rollins rated it it was amazing Shelves: , reread , audio , audiobooks. Just as beautiful as before. I enjoyed Chad Lowe's narration this time around. Deeply moving, organically told tale with lovely character development.

View all 3 comments. Mar 13, Jessica rated it it was amazing. I'm rereading this again for a book club I'm hosting. It is one of my all-time favorite books because it has GREAT writing, a wonderful message, a twisting plot and has laugh out loud parts. When people ask me for a book to read, this is the first one I recommend. View all 5 comments. Sep 08, Zoeytron rated it really liked it Shelves: public-library. Having just finished this author's Virgil Wander , I was keen to read more from him.

Reviews from a couple of GR friends convinced me to pick this up. I admit the spiritual flavor was a tad more than is my preference, but I was already invested in the characters and the story. Oh, and the writing. Dang, I loved the writing.

A seemingly bottomless pot of potato chowder, 'a peevish wind', a river of horses, manes flowing, the sounds of an 'awakening barnyard'. It is astonishing to me that Having just finished this author's Virgil Wander , I was keen to read more from him. It is astonishing to me that I have been reading on this book for over a week. It wasn't from lack of enjoyment, that's for sure. It's a story that is meant to be savored, certainly, and that must have been what I was doing.

The talent of this storyteller cannot be denied. May 15, Angela M rated it it was amazing. One of my all time favorites! View all 19 comments. Apr 19, Sara rated it it was amazing Shelves: borrowed-from-library , literary-fiction , magical-realism. I laughed; I cried. Real tears that streamed down my face and came from my heart. I loved each of these characters, invested in them, rooted for them, felt their pain both physical and emotional , and feared for their bodies and their souls.

Leif Enger is a superb writer. I love books that are told from the point of view of adolescents when the writer is able to tell the tale without being overly dismissive or have the character be overly clever. Reuben Land is as balanced and clueless as Scout I laughed; I cried. Reuben Land is as balanced and clueless as Scout Finch.

His little sister, Swede, is more perceptive, and it is because Reuben tells us this story with all the honest he can muster that we know that. He wavers between what is right and what is wrong, as indeed we all do, and especially when the welfare of those we love is in our hands.

He makes wrong decisions, right decisions, and costly ones, and we labor with him over what he should do and pray that he chooses well. We watch the decisions of others with the same kind of apprehension and come to understand that every man and woman, boy and girl, is making decisions every minute of the day and gambling that, in the end, something beyond and above us has control and will put things right.

Does this make her sound beautiful to you? Because she was--oh, yes. One day you hear it--a strange song, yet one you know by heart. I believe I have had that kind of moment of realization. BTW, for all you flawless beauties out there, it can go the other way as well. Who knew better than I that such holy stuff occurs? Who had more reason to hope? If you have lost your ability to do so, this book might make you believe in miracles after all.

I did not think it an accident that Jeremiah Land is called for the Biblical prophet Jeremiah, who was chosen by God as a leader of his people.