So Brave, Young, and Handsome: A Novel Paperback – April 8, 2009

Leif Engel is a skilled, perceptive writer as any reader of his novel, Peace Like A River, will attest. The subject of this novel --a one-time successful writer on an apparently random journey west from Minnesota to California with unusual companions--did not really draw me. Remembering the pleasure of Enger's previous novel, however, I got on board and was rewarded by a most rewarding reading experience.The real value of the novel is not so much the plot featuring a struggling author and family man who takes off on an impetuous journey with an eccentric neighbor who has previous criminal history. The neighbor has become a skilled boat maker so the first part of the journey features water-based adventures. There are also intermittent train escapades and a long journey in an old Packard joined by a young boy companion with cowboy aspirations. The trio become the objects of a quest by a former Pinkerton man who is a a major force in the story, allowing neither a shooting injury nor a stroke to deter him from his quest for justice. As intriguing as the plot, the. appeal of the novel lies iin the author's ability to draw the reader 100% into the unfolding saga.The climax takes place on a California fruit orchard property owned by a charismatic couple who add depth to the drama. The author's wife and son have joined him and are starting a new life at story's end. One is left wondering if the multitude of experiences during his journey will stimulate the author's literary creativity.The characters are a unique blend of well recognizable traits despite despite the rough garb of their embodiers. The ever-changing natural scenery emerges as an actor as interesting as the human characters. Floods, fires, heat and cold all play a role in the novel's appeal. The author writes simply but elegantly, creating a fascinating, memorable journey.

It's inevitable that "So Brave, Young and Handsome" will be compared to Leif Enger's first novel, "Peace Like a River." And that first book, published in 2000, is an incredible story that's received well deserved acclaim.Yet as much as I liked "Peace Like a River," I liked "So Brave, Young and Handsome" more. In fact, the second novel helped me understand the first novel better - an outcome I wasn't expecting.It's Minnesota, 1915. Monte Beckett is a writer with a highly successful first novel, a shoot-em-up western, who finds he can't write a second novel. Nothing works. Everything he sends to his publisher is turned down; everything he writes is unsatisfying. And then Glendon Hale comes rowing down the river by Monte's house, and he's rowing while standing up. And Monte's life fundamentally changes.Eventually, with his wife Susannah's blessing, Monte leaves to accompany Glendon to Mexico, to look for Glendon's first love. Along the way, Monte finds out that Glendon was an outlaw. And he's still being chased down by the authorities.Like "Peace Like a River," Enger's second novel is about a journey, but also much more than that. He raises subtle questions about the nature of good and evil, and heroes and villains. The reader comes to root for the outlaw and despise the ex-Pinkerton agent chasing him. But what great characters Enger creates in the process!Ultimately, "So Brave, Young and Handsome" is a story about storytelling - how stories are written and change, how even "factual accounts" are often anything but. And it's a delight to read.

This is an endearing story filled with warmth and lovable characters, but what truly sets Enger's books apart is his writing style. The man has a gift with words. I could read a story he wrote about watching the grass grow. Every sentence is a delight !

A perfect tale well told. The exciting and surprising story unfolds gently, with delight and effervescence. It coaxed me along with it, inviting - convincing - me to root for scallawags and wish to know them personally. And like the very best books do, caused no small sorrow when the last page is read.

The author, whom I have never read before, weaves a yarn that both delights and intrigues in a down-home, folksy style that is deceptively simple but is, in fact, carefully crafted and finely wrought with a choice of words that interplay like fine threads of an exquisite tapestry. The characters are both quirky and likeable (even the bad guys have their qualities) and while the action is slow-paced it is deliciously absorbing, like a fine meal savoured slowly. I was hooked from the first page until the last and that is everything you want a book to be.My only challenge with the book was that I found the main character’s weakness and his ability to be totally controlled by the stronger characters around him hard to believe but perhaps that’s just because that’s not the kind of person I am, so trying to understand another’s actions and motivations sometimes needs an open mind. After all, it is total fiction and, in fiction, stories go where they want to go not where we want them to go.

No me ha cambiado la vida pero ha sido entretenido de leer/ interesante seguir la historia del protagonista

It was a good read but because I read Peace Like a River first, my expectations were high. Still I enjoyed it. There is adventure, a bit of romance, sadness and redemption.

Leif Enger continues to be a delightful teller of tales, continuing his love of the mythic West, when the world was full of adventures, heroes and villains who are not always what they seem. I was blown away by his first novel, Peace Like A River, waited a long time for this, his second, to appear. The wait has been worth it.In an age like ours which has little innocence, the story of a time when life moved more slowly, when the land was larger, the days longer and not so frantic with choice, there's something surprisingly restful and expansive about this story of cowboys and outlaws, of detectives who spend years and years chasing 'the bad un' and the strange friendships which can spring up between men who yearn for adventure and the open land as much as they yearn for a quieter life and the love of a good woman.Enger has what I love to read - warmth and heart. His 'bad men' can turn out to have good hearts, decency and generosity. Men (and women) do things in youth which they may regret in age.His narrator, a one-tale-wonder author, is an excellent person to accompany us on a journey, taking in boats, trains, automobiles and horses, rodeos, movie making, turtles, orange groves and true love.Now i suppose there may be another 7 year wait while Enger writes number 3. There's something fitting about the slow landscape he describes and his own time taken in writing!

This book follows "Peace Like a River" but it is a very different story. It stands on its own as a study of Western life and adventure in 1915 America. It follows the travels of a repentant aging train robber and his friends. It's a good story but if you're looking for more of "Peace Like a River" this is not it.