This is my first experience with Leif Enger, but I have heard such wonderful things about Peace Like a River that I thought I would give this one a chance. I picked this audiobook up at the library so we could listen to it as we were driving to my son's college graduation. I've found that audiobooks really help to pass the time when you are trapped in a car!

The main character, Monte Becket, has written a very successful novel, but now finds himself struggling as he tries to continue his writing career. When Glendon comes into Monte's life, he starts to re-evaluate everything that has become important to him. He feels that maybe he is starting to head down the wrong path so he decides to take a journey across the Wild West with his new friend Glendon.

There are many things that happen along their cross-country trip that strengthen their friendship and test their loyalty to each other. I think the part of the journey that I recall most vividly is when they were travelling down a river on a raft and encountered a snapping turtle. Some unruly characters decided that they would take control of the raft for themselves, but with the help of the snapping turtle that did not happen. If you use your imagination I think you will get the idea!

Since Monte left his family at home in Minnesota to follow Glendon across the country, he takes special care to write a letter to his wife from almost every town that they stop in. While writing these letters, Monte finds himself reflecting on his life and relationship with his wife, thinking that they have somehow grown apart over the years. Along this journey Monte learns what is missing from his life and what he must do to bring back the man that his wife first fell in love with.

I really was hoping that I would enjoy this story more than I did. I loved the fact that while Monte was off trying to figure out his life that he remained loyal to his wife and family. He could have just disappeared off the face of the earth and made many immoral decisions knowing that his wife would never know, but he didn't. I didn't really enjoy this one as an audiobook, but I may have enjoyed it better had I read it. I had a real hard time staying focused on this story and I think the narrator actually made me tired, so please keep in mind that my rating pertains to the Audiobook. ( )

For the most part this was a good story. The ending was kind of easy to see coming from page one. But my biggest aggravation with the author's writing style came in his need to constantly ruin his own plot line. To say that he over used foreshadowing is an understatement, he flat out would tell you key parts of the upcoming plot line which would have been better to discover when they actually were happening than to read about 20 pages before they happened. For instance, "How would I know he was indeed to take flight, and very soon, and that it would be I, and not Redstart, who went with him?" If lines like this had not been unnecessarily thrown into the plot line, the book would have had better surprises. But instead just as soon as you made a guess as to what would happen 50 pages from now, he would just tell you instead of letting you find out on your own. It was almost like having someone there making comments about a book that they already read but you are just starting, and thereby ruining the whole story for you. ( )

In 1915 Minnesota, Monte Becket, a novelist, joins Glendon Hale, an outlaw intent on reconciling with his family, whom he had abandoned more than two decades earlier, but on their journey Becket leaves his own family behind and Glendon Hale is pursued by Charles Siringo, a relentless former Pinkerton agent.

I had a hard time with this book. Much of the book didn't ring true to me. Most of the characters and many of the situations seemed contrived. By the end of the book, I didn't really care what happened to any of them. ( )

An interesting character study in the guise of a western adventure tale. I thoroughly enjoyed it. ( )

It is 1915 and the days of the Wild West are almost over, but the oddball characters in this rambling story don't seem to know it. Becket is a washed-up writer who, instead of going back to his old job, decides to accompany his newfound friend Glendon on a trip to Mexico in search of the wife he had abandoned years before. Glendon turns out to be a wanted outlaw--which makes their trip a lot more challenging, or one might even say, life-changing.

Set against a stark background, this book is written in Enger's beautiful prose and has a fine cast of characters who slowly reveal themselves following their own quests. There is humor as the pursuer becomes a sidekick, along with gunfights and a story of friendship and perseverance. It may not be another Peace Like A River, but it is a very worthwhile read. ( )