Review of "So Brave Young and Handsome"

Leif Enger was instantly installed as one of my favorite authors after I read his first book, Peace Like A River. In that book, the two children characters, the dad, the older son (on the run from the police), the villain - every character was great. Good guys were endearing and unique, bad guys were really bad. It had miracles, chases, romance, ethical questions and flawed characters.

His new book has a similar feel to it - the simple perspective of northerners (probably Lutheran), policemen chasing the protagonists, flawed people dealing with their weaknesses, men thinking about their women, etc. No miracles this time. But I have to say I did not enjoy this book as well as the first - its hard to put a finger on why.

Maybe its because the action slows down several times in the book to be replaced by quaintness. Like home cooking, fruit trees being harvested, and hand-crafted sailboats being made. You can almost see the men in suspenders and pork pie hats and women in floral dresses looking wistfully toward a cloudy sunset on a summer's eve. Neither book elucidates the title very well.

Admittedly, the homely parts are appealing and not bad writing. I guess I had just been primed for gifted creativity by the first book, and the second seemed to meander quite a bit. Being a writer of sorts, I want to believe that he has layers of meaning and symbolism, but if he does I missed it. Some descriptions seem merely for the sake of description. Occasionally I got the feeling he just wasn't trying.

But before I say too much negative, I want to say that there is a lot of the same charm that seems to be becoming Enger's trademark. The narrator is an uncertain cowardly wimp with great longings for bravery, conquest, eloquence etc. He longs for the approval of his wife, which seems elusive. He reminds me of the middle boy in Peace Like A River - same sorts of demons. Which makes the book accessible, because so many of us feel ourselves to be cowards inside and desperately wish we could be exceptional.

Happily, he steers clear of triteness, especially in the ending, although husband and wife live happily ever after, as you figure they will from page 1. But the other dramatic characters rarely get what they want, and hard justice is usually served.

I recommend the book to someone looking for a good summer read, although with less enthusiasm than I did the first book.

The Crash of the Wienermobile

We are forced to inhabit a planet with this sort of thing.

How apropos, how fitting, how necessary that the wienermobile crashed into this house in Wisconsin. It has been subdued, nay, struck down to rise no more. It shall crawl upon its belly, it shall eat dust all the days of its life. How the angels in heaven must rejoice. How the mighty have fallen. The wrath of God expressed in a flash, his righteous anger, his long patience could endure the ignominy no longer as this massive frankfurter, this beast that roams the earth to and fro, seeking whom it may devour, is cast from its lofty perch into the lake reserved for the devil and his angels.

Until now, it has driven at large, crying out as it goes, the song of the fallen:

"Look upon me, O man, and despair! Tear your robes, and claw your faces! Beat your breasts in anguish for I am your undoing. Outwardly I advertise a puree'd paste of pork refuse, but in essence I exist to mock humanity, to parade your foolishness, to condemn you in the midst of your vaunted selves, your technology, your advancements, your medicine, law, philosophy, science...I also am among your achievements, ye infamous, ye paltry, ye who have rejoiced in my pallid light. You will never emerge from the swamp while I wander the hiways and byways of this land, your neighborhoods, beach fronts, your sports events and company parties! You will never evolve, never achieve enlightenment, never find harmony, love, redemption or peace while I live! The albatross to humanity am I, your shame. Look upon me!"