Customer Reviews

So Brave Young & Handsome Export ed

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Monte Becket should have been happy, with a doting wife, adventuresome little boy, and a place by the river. Not to mention a bestselling novel to his credit. But something's missing and he can't seem to write a second. Then Glendon Hale shows up--courtly, charming, talented, and a self-confessed rascal--a man who walked out on his wife, the love of his life, many years before. Now he envisions a quixotic journey of redemption--to find his lost wife and apologize--and he asks Monte to go with him. So begins the road trip to end all road trips. Monte gets in deeper than he ever expected, and soon runs afoul of Charles Siringo, the detective/bounty hunter who has been pursuing Glendon for many years. Will they ever find the long lost Mrs. Hale? Will Glendon receive forgiveness? Wlll Monte ever make it home again? Or will both men end up in jail? Or worse?

Of course, I won't tell you what happens, only that this trip becomes longer, darker, and more costly than Monte could ever have dreamed. And that both men suffer and lose a lot, and that they end up touched by an odd kind of grace.

Leif Enger is an amazing writer. He brings this improbable yarn to life so richly, so delightfully, that you keep turning the pages, want to or not. He has an absolutely stunning gift for making his characters real and this absurd adventure profoundly believable. I enjoyed Enger's first book--Peace Like A River--but this one is much better. You simply have to drop what you're doing and get a copy. Now. I recommend it highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

Generally, you're either a fan of Leif Enger's first novel, "Peace Like a River", or you hated it. Narrated through the eyes of a child, in the Midwest in the early 60's, "Peace" dabbled in religious mysticism. There's no denying, however, that "Peace Like a River" turned into a juggernaut. Having been picked at least 15 times as the subject for a "One Book Reading Promotion" subject, Enger's work of mystical redemption has been read by communities from Massachutsetts to Pasadena, California. An employee of Minnesota Public Radio (ah, to walk in the footprints of Garrison Keillor!), Enger gave birth to his first novel, which was published in 2001. To his amazement, the book became one of Time's top 5 novels of 2001, and Enger was drawn (reluctantly?) into the life of a full-time writer. It has taken 7 years for his sophomore effort to come to print.

"So Brave, Young and Handsome" is almost an ironic twist on Enger's second cast of characters.

In this book, narration is for adults, and the adult in question, is an author who used to be a postman and gave it up for the life of a full-time writer. Becket cannot seem to write a second novel, although he doesn't lack for trying. Since his success was in writing the western, when his neighbor Glendon Hale proposes a junket out west (in pre-WWI America), Monte Becket goes, with permission of his spouse. They are seeking the past love and abandoned wife of the mysterious Hale... by train, by riverboat, by car and on foot, the duo make their way to California to find out what happened to Glendon's love, to seek his redemption. Along the way, the book's best character, the ex-Detective Charles Siringo (straight out of the musings of Larry McMurty) begins his single-minded pursuit of Glendon, the crook who got away.

Playing Sancho to Glendon's Don Quixote has its drawbacks, and the author takes a short but illuminating trip into what happens when the duo meets Hood Roberts - down on his luck and perhaps presented as Becket's own Sancho.

I'm enamored of Enger's incorporation of Siringo, who is non-fictional, an author in his own right and a Pinkerton agent at this time in history, into the story. Siringo was a pioneer of the "undercover cop" method, and infiltrated the Butch Cassidy gang, later a pivotal character in why Butch and the Kid emigrated to Bolivia to avoid capture. Basing his writing on such a colorful real-life character seems to breathe life into a story that might have otherwise bogged down. Enger has a lighter touch in this novel than in "Peace" and the small ironies and joking moments that pierce the heart of his travelogue as he brings it to its hopeful ending, are much welcomed.

You'll recognize the beauty of some of his prose, especially when surrounded by homespun simplicity that is the backdrop of Enger's Midwestern roots. Indeed, his prose is what makes this rather ordinary plot into a fine read:

"You can't explain grace, anyway, especially when it arrives almost despite yourself. I didn't ask for it, yet somehow it breached and began to work. I suppose grace was pouring over Glendon, who had sought it so had, and some spilled down on me."

With a worthy follow up to an amazing first novel, Leif Enger continues to show promise as a great American contemporary novelist.

First, I was not a big fan of "Peace Like a River" so I came to this with less than an open mind. I ended up truly enjoying it.

The narrator is a postman turned author. He wrote a best-selling romantic action western. He quit the post office to become an author. Unfortunately, despite starting seven new novels, he can not duplicate his best-selling feat - few books get finished and none published.

He then befriends a mysterious new neighbor and the fun begins. Although he can not write another romantic western, he lives it - or at least as close as one can during the Taft administration long after the west was won. All of the action comes from following the neighbor who, he comes to learn, has had a rollicking past. He then gets swept away by a charismatic Pinkerton detective and new adventures follow. All while romance in the old western style plays along.

The writing is clean and crisp, although it dragged a bit in the middle (nothing to make you want to put the book down). The story is believeable as told, even if it does, purposely, have elements of the spaghetti western or dime western set in the 20th century. The premise of the western when the west is not only done but out of the public's imagination in favor of industrialization and urbanization is clever and amusing.

The characters are terrific and memorable, particularly the neighbor. His past deeds are not revealed until the pair is on the road, and then it only comes out in bits and pieces. There are some very good supporting cast members who enhance the narrator's travels as well.

This is a very enjoyable and amusing novel. There's a bit of Zane Gray, Don Quixote and Buffalo Bill all rolled into one and Enger makes the mixture work for a book easy to recommend.

"So Brave, Young and Handsome" is a novel about three men who are none of these things - failed author Monte Becket (who is the least brave of the three), retired train robber Glendon Hale (no longer as young as he was), and aging detective Charles Siringo (not young or particularly handsome as the book proceeds). While they may not be brave, young and handsome, they are interesting and well-drawn characters, amiable companions during a novel of medium length.

Like "Peace Like a River," a significant part of the novel takes place on the road, as Becket and Hale travel by boat, car, foot and horse from Minnesota to California, in search of the wife Hale hasn't seen in 30 years. They are pursued by Siringo, written as the classic tenacious and omniscient detective, Terminator-like in his dogged pursuit of Hale, the one who got away years ago. However, the pursuit is not the entirety of, nor the point of, the novel, nor is this an adventure or genre novel. At its core, it is the story of two men at the end of their lives, and a middle-aged man who is caught between them.

While not as playful as, and without the supernatural elements of, "Peace Like a River," "So Brave, Young and Handsome" manages to deliver an interesting, literary story with a light touch. At times, I thought that Enger wrote Monte Becket as a quasi-autobiographical character, particularly in describing Becket's difficulty in following up his unexpectedly-popular first novel.

Those who loved "Peace Like a River" will not be disappointed in "So Brave, Young and Handsome." Indeed, I would recommend this novel to anyone who likes good writing. You will be pleased with this even as a blind purchase. If you don't want to spend the money, seek this out at your local library. You will be glad you did.

So Brave isn't a bad book by any stretch of the imagination. In some ways, it manages to be a good book. But it's mostly just pleasantly passable. It's that TV show you "watch" while you do your work, that kid you don't mind playing with when your best friends aren't around, that pizza you get because it's conveniently across the street as opposed to that really good place that takes so long to deliver. It doesn't really bore you or annoy you or make you swear off this particular author, but in the end you sort of wonder why you bothered with it and a few days later you've forgotten that you did.
It opens with Monte Becket, an author whose never been able to recapture the spark of that first surprise hit novel about a Pony Express adventurer and who has just given up on his seventh failed attempt to do so, a fact he'll withhold for some time from his confident and supportive wife. As he sits on his dock, an odd apparition appears in the fog paddling a boat by the dock--his new neighbor Glendon, who builds boats and has a mysterious past. This meeting develops into a strange friendship that eventually leads to Monte joining Glendon on his quest to apologize to the wife he left long ago in Mexico, a quest that is quickly interrupted when Glendon is recognized as a notorious train robber. The two are split then rejoin as for reasons even unknown to himself Monte keeps following Glendon further West. Along the way he picks up with a young man who shifts from mechanic to cowboy to modern-day bandit/fugitive and an inspector Javier-like former Pinkerton--Charles Siringo who is tracking Glendon.
There are several reasons the book is solid but unimpressive. The main one is quite simple; it just isn't all that compelling in either plot or character. Monte is relatively passive, always a dangerous trait for a narrator, and when he does act, it's almost always with a sense of numb bemusement or confusion. Glendon should be much more interesting than he is, but his relatively unexplored past and single-minded focus on apologizing makes him less than enthralling. Robert Hood, the young man, has potential, but at first he's not really a full character and when he starts to become one he goes off-stage and we hear about him third-hand. The only truly interesting character is Siringo, who doesn't appear for far too long. Things pick up when he's on the page, but that doesn't last long enough.
The time setting, the cusp between horses and cars, old and new west, is touched upon, but again, too much is left on the table. And though they travel cross-country, it feels a bit like a stage set from Hollywood. And finally, the end devolves a bit into sentimentality, or at least, too much so for my liking.
In the end, as mentioned, there isn't really much to dislike about the book (save one particular irksome way a character shrugs off an injury) but there also isn't much to really like. Either one would be an intensity of emotion the book just doesn't provoke. And so I can't really recommend it as there are so many other books out there that will provoke a strong (positive) response.

This book is narrated by one Monte Becket, who sounds like Wallace Stegner, Mark Twain, and Gabby Hayes at different points in this wonderful adventure.

As Monte takes off with the somewhat dubious character, Glendon, Monte rolls into more trouble than he has ever dreamed up in his one-hit wonder of a fiction career.

All manner of swindlers, desperados, sweet ladies, and troublesome, dear animals, not to mention a dogged detective, come their way as Monte and Glendon traverse the US by river, on foot, on horseback, and in broken-down cars.

"The willing suspension of disbelief" is required, but toss your cynical self aside and enjoy.

This is my favorite sentence by the talented Leif Enger: "Death arrived easy as the train; [he] just climbed aboard, like the capable traveler he was." (amended to prevent a spoiler)

It's a terrific book. When was the last time you found sympathy for a snapping turtle?

Monte Beckett used to be a postman. Now he's an author, with one famous adventure novel behind him and seven stalled sophomore attempts balled up and dead at various stages. His plan seemed wise: one thousand words a day, no matter what. The page count is dwindling though; so is the Beckett's money.

What does not wane is the faith of Beckett's beautiful artist wife, the curiosity of his young son, Redstart or the intrigue of Glendon Hale, the strange neighbor who rows his boat standing up. When Redstart befriends Hale and invites him to dinner, Beckett is drawn to the man too. A boat maker by trade, Hale has some secrets of his own and a nagging guilt about leaving his wife, Blue, years before. This guilt and the consent of Beckett's loving wife, set the two men off on an adventure that will change everything--but not as quickly as they hope.

Once on the train, Hale is recognized by the porter as a train robber. Beckett's new friend recommends the author return home and he jumps off the train. An unlikely adventurer, Beckett finds himself under the eyes of the law and an aging Pinkerton agent, Charles Siringo. When his path crosses with Glendon again, Beckett leaves his clothes and for a time his life to commit totally to a journey of redemption with a man who has spent his life running from justice.

Beckett meets up with a brave turtle, wily outlaws, a wannabe cowboy, a dead actor, a flooded horseranch, kidnap by an old man in a rackety Packard, pursuit of a young outlaw en route to catch an old one and the shaking of his faith in everything noble and good. In the end though, a community is birthed from his efforts and justice and beauty bring what he'd forgotten to expect--one beautiful sentence from his pen.

The author mentions "The Cowboy's Lament" in the afterword. I recommend listening to The Sons of the Pioneers The Essential Collection ( The Sons of The Pioneers) and Country Classics Country Classics, Vol. 2 when you read this poetic love letter to the Western.

This book, like many of the finest stories, is about the quest for redemption. To the list of classic dusty-trail duos, Leif Enger adds the team of the anguished one-hit wonder author Monte Becket and the ex-train robber Glendon Hale (who travel in a Packard for much of the trip). In 1915 Minnesota, Monte lives a comfortable life with his wife and son, hiding his failed novels and his despair, at least until Glendon Hale rows into his life down the Cannon River. Glendon has a past and a wife he regrets abandoning. He seeks her forgiveness, and like most writers attempting to live up to past successes, Monte would rather brave pursuit by an ex-Pinkerton detective, a flood, a fire, and all the mythic obstacles any hero must confront --- after all, a shootout is less terrifying than a blank page, or several pages of prose that you know with dead certainty are going nowhere.

The characters are wonderfully drawn, especially Glendon Hale, the antagonist Charles Siringo, Glendon's former wife Blue/Arandano (and her new husband Claudio), Monte's wife Susannah (who interestingly lacks a physical description other than the mention of an orange skirt) encourages him on this adventure rather than telling him to go back to work at the post office, Monte's son Redstart, and the enigmatic rogue youth Hood Roberts who aids and complicates Monte and Glendon's journey. Charles Siringo is a villain worth of Joel and Ethan Coen, crossed with Detective Javert.

For people who found "No Country For Old Men" too intense, this is a delightful counterpoint and a moving story of love and friendship in a vanished age. Enger does a marvelous job of capturing early twentieth-century America.

Although this is not a book I normally would have bought, I enjoyed it tremendously. The story meanders across the country, and through the lives of the people involved. It recalls a simpler time, which is only enhanced by the author's use of period writing. While at first blush this is simply a story of the travels of several men, it has a deeper meaning that provides a dose of wisdom for all. Highly recommended.

Swede, the little girl in PEACE LIKE A RIVER who wrote Robert Service-inspired poems, made that book what it was. At the beginning of SO BRAVE, YOUNG, AND HANDSOME I thought we might be in store for another young hero in Redstart, the narrator's mischievous son, but he quickly disappears from the story.

Another candidate for the Swede role was Hood Roberts, the young auto mechanic turned bronk-buster, turned outlaw, but just as we get to know him a little, he's gone as well.

The closest we come to a compelling character is Charles Siringo, the former Pinkerton detective (Based on the real-life outlaw, Pinkerton detective and author). The narrator, author Monte Becket, befriends an old outlaw and boat-builder named Glendon Hale, and for some reason agrees to accompany him to California to apologize to Hale's former wife, Blue, whom he had deserted as a young man. About the only motivation Leif Enger supplies is that Becket is suffering from writers' block, and his wife urges him to go. Almost immediately a porter on the train recognizes Hale as a train robber who killed a man. Siringo, who has been tracking Hale for thirty years, is soon hot on Hale's trail.

As far as I could tell, Hood Roberts, who accidentally kills a man during a brawl, is supposed to be a sort of alter-ego for Glendon Hale. He's in love with the idea of being a cowboy and is quite good at it until he breaks a man's neck defending a friend. Siringo takes a detour, shanghaiing Becket in the process, and begins to hunt Roberts down. Monte Becket takes a liking to Hood Roberts, mainly because he reminds him of his son Redstart, but Becket is such a milktoast the most he can come up with is firing a warning shot when Siringo has Hood and his Mexican girlfriend cornered.

There are also parallels between Glendon Hale and Siringo. Both abandoned their lovers as young men. Both were outlaws at the Hole in the Wall, Butch Cassidy's hideout. The difference is that Hale still loves his wife; Siringo loves himself as his numerous memoirs show.

Enger doesn't seem to know what kind of book he wants to write. Is it about redemption? Is it a quest novel? Is it a coming of age novel centering on Monte Becket? Apparently the title has to do with Glendon Hale, not Hood Roberts, as Hale never stops growing and has a sort of happy/unhappy resolution to his character arc. In case you're wondering about that title, it's from "The Cowboy's Lament" a song Enger loved as a child. And that's as close to the charm and mysticism we found in PEACE LIKE A RIVER as we're going to get.