[Cathryn's thread title: Why Can't We Write Something Like This?]

I've just finished reading LEIF ENGER, "Peace Like A River", and while I felt no need to shake my fist at the heavens shouting "agghh" because Kushner could write something brilliant like "Angles in America" I am envious and covetous of Enger's ability to produce the kind of novel I hope that someone LDS could someday produce. "Peace Like A River" is about the kind of faith that produces miracles in the lives of ordinary and even flawed people. Without a bit of preaching it persuades the reader to at least wonder what it would be like if they, like the narrator, believed.

Ruben Land is the novel's asthmatic protagonist. His father, Jerimiah, is a true believer in the King James Bible and possessed of a Brother of Jared sort of faith and the ability to exercise that faith to bring about large and small miracles, mostly healings. Add a brother who lures two teenaged predators to his home in order to murder them, a little sister who confronts life by composing cowboy epics in rhymed verse, an air stream trailer, burning seams of coal and a few other unusual but fully believable characters. Whenever I raved about this book to friends they would ask, "What's it about?" I would start to relate the plot and it sounded weird to me, too, but don't let the weirdness keep you from reading it.

There seems to be no desire to mask the religious nature of the story and the straight forward storytelling seems to appeal to many; it's sold well and won awards. The fictional Ruben frequently tells us that he doesn't expect the reader to believe his tale but he is compelled to tell it as he knows it. Maybe that tone is what makes this so successful and what LDS storytellers need to learn how to do. I can't help but compare "Peace" to NORMAN MCLEAN "A River Runs Through It". Both relate religious life and thought as an essential part of the story in a matter of fact way. The best example I know of, in Mormon literature, which integrates someone's religious struggles into the story is "Brigham City", but I think the writing in "Peace Like A River" is far more beautiful. (Of course BC is a movie and PLAR a novel, sort of like comparing apples and oranges and not exactly fair.) Too many of our LDS novels seem want to end with a baptism, conversion or at least repentance. We so much want to convince and convert the world that the greatest amount of our literature is dressed up missionary tracts.

Mormon audiences might have a problem with the religious faith of the father in this story producing the miracles that the character Ruben witnesses and receives. I think many LDS people would be unwilling to acknowledge that a non priesthood holder could produce genuine, from the Lord results. I would have reacted that way a few years ago but I've spent the last ten years rubbing shoulders with Arkansas church goers (non LDS) and found many to be deeply committed to Christ, full of faith and some of the finest folk I've ever known.

Since early childhood I've gauged my favorite books by how they make me feel. When I get a good one I have a warm, full, satisfied feeling in my midsection. I think it's exactly how I felt when as an infant I was fed, dry and warm and cared for. I've become more sophisticated in my evaluation of literature over the years but once in a while I can still find one that produces that feeling. It feeds my soul and I translate that feeling into my first, best comfort. "Peace Like A River" feeds me. I hope that we could somehow get this caliber of literature produced, heck, I think that Deseret Book would even sell it.

Cathryn Lane