121 of 129 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredible Road Trip, Odd Grace, March 28, 2008
This review is from: So Brave, Young and Handsome: A Novel (Hardcover)
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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.
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Is it autobiographical? Perhaps., June 21, 2008
This review is from: So Brave, Young and Handsome: A Novel (Hardcover)
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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.
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30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Throwback Romantic "Western", April 4, 2008
This review is from: So Brave, Young and Handsome: A Novel (Hardcover)
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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.
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