Monday, January 25, 2010

Did the book come to a satisfactory closure for you? Why/not?

Peace Like a River did not come to a satisfactory closure for me. I finished reading and was not happy with the outcome. I thought it was horribly unfair for the father to die. I thought it was horribly unfair that Roxanna had been married to the father for only three months when her husband died, and she was left to take care of Reuben and Swede all by herself. I didn't like it that Davy continued to be an outlaw and could never really be with his family ever again. The only thing I was satisfied with was that Davy would let Reuben run into him every once in a while. Except, he never let Swede find him, which I also thought was horribly unfair. I am the youngest sibling, and if my sister was estranged from our family and only ever met with my brothers I would be very upset, so I can relate to Swede in that regard. I was also unsatisfied with the fact that Jape Waltzer shot the father and Reuben, then ran away and was never found. I understand that Leif Enger couldn't just write a happy ending where everything good happened, that wouldn't be realistic or effective, but I still found the end of the book unsatisfactory.

2 comments:

  1. 1/27/10--happy new year!

    Peace Like a River is one of our AP government teacher's favorite books, and I loved it so much that I gave it to my mom also. I hope you enjoy it--great reading!

    By the way, is this Riis also a photographer?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes he is, that's one of the main reasons people have heard of him. His ability to use flash photography before it was widespread was a huge asset for him while writing How the Other Half Lives because he could take pictures in the tenements that got absolutely no natural light.

    ReplyDelete