Does the author seem to have a friendly, unfriendly, or some other type of relationship with the audience? Why do you think so?

I think that Leif Enger has a very friendly relationship with the audience. He wants to share Reuben's miracles with his audience. Enger speaks from Reuben's point of view and he always sounds like he really wants the audience to understand and side with Reuben. Reuben is a young, asthmatic boy who believes in miracles and is nice to his sister. I think that Enger's choice to make his hero this likable was an attempt to bring the audience in and make them want to have a friendly relationship with the content of the book. Now that I think about it, however, I can't imagine a scenario in which an author would have an unfriendly relationship with the audience. If I am reading a book and I feel like the author is being mean to me, I am going to stop reading it. That reminds me of the beginning of The Hobbit that we looked at in class a while ago and noticed that J.R.R. Tolkein used lots of tools to put his audience on his side. That is what Enger did also, by creating a character whom the audience finds endearing and friendly.