Peace

by Gene Wolfe

Paperback, 1995

Call number

813/.54 20

Publication

Orb Books (1995), Reprint, Paperback

Pages

264

Description

Originally published in 1975, "Peace "is a spellbinding, brilliant tour de force of the imagination. The melancholy memoir of Alden Dennis Weer, an embittered old man living out his last days in a small midwestern town, the novel reveals a miraculous dimension as the narrative unfolds. For Weer's imagination has the power to obliterate time and reshape reality, transcending even death itself. Powerfully moving and uncompromisingly honest, "Peace "ranks alongside the finest literary works of our time. Hailed as "one of the literary giants of SF" by the "Denver Post," Gene Wolfe has repeatedly won the field's highest honors, including the Nebula, the Hugo, and the World Fantasy awards. "Peace "is Gene Wolfe's first full-length novel, a work that shows the genius that later flourished in such acclaimed works as "The Fifth Head of Cerberus "and "The Book of The New Sun."… (more)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1975-05

Physical description

264 p.; 8.3 inches

ISBN

0312890338 / 9780312890339

User reviews

LibraryThing member saltmanz
Peace is the memoir of Alden Dennis Weer, chronicling his life growing up in the town of Cassionsville. It's a rambling narrative prone to go off on tangents, where one story can and will invoke another, entirely seperate memory—transitioning into it without warning—and so the text jumps back
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forth in time, blurring the boundaries between one passage and the next. But Gene Wolfe is such a great writer that, after a few pages to get acclimated to these shifts, not only does it become easy to follow, but the seemingly-unrelated stories end up tying back to each other in often unexpected ways.

And yet, as Weer weaves his stories, something sinister begins to take shape underneath the main narrative, hinting at some horrific secret underlying Weer's tale. Is this simply an old man recording his life story? Or is Weer somehow projecting his consciousness back through time to revisit (or revise) these memories? Or (even worse) is he somehow recreating events as he describes them—conjuring up the dead to reenact his tale for him? There's a sense of unease and dread that mounts as the pages fly by, an anticipation that builds, waiting for the terrible revelation that will totally alter the context of all that has come before. And then, once that final page has turned...

The book just kind of ends. Or doesn't. Depending how you look at it.

And I confess that I don't get it. I found it captivating and entertaining and beautifully written, but it comes as no surprise (I guess) that Wolfe has outsmarted me. From the little I had read about it (to keep from spoiling myself) I expected this big reveal at the end that would turn the entire book on its head. Didn't happen. In fact, I found the fifth and final chapter to be the least interesting—and the least relevant—by far. Wolfe is a man whose work demands to be read very closely and carefully, and this book might be Exhibit A. I've looked at a couple of interpretations online, and, okay, I guess that makes some sense, but if that's true then man! is this stuff obtuse.

I'm trying not to let it bother me though. I still loved every minute that I spent reading it. And if I was rather disappointed by the outcome, I consider myself at least as much to blame as Wolfe. Someday I'll reread it for the tenth time, and it will all make sense. Until then, I give Peace 4 out of 5 stars.
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LibraryThing member igor.kh
I opened the book and inhaled the wonderful aroma of mystery and fairy tale, exhaling as I turned the last page. Its exotic scent is still with me.
LibraryThing member BayardUS
Gene Wolfe is my favorite living author thanks to the brilliant Book of the New Sun and Book of the Short Sun (Long Sun was very good as well, just not quite on the level of the other two), and so I go into each of his books with raised expectations. Peace met them, and then some. While I'd name
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The Fifth Head of Cerberus as the best place to start with Wolfe, this might be a good place to start for those who don't love science fiction. Here the setting is more tethered to reality, although not without some supernatural aspects, as the stories contained herein are mostly ghost stories (in fact, once you work it out, in a way everything is a ghost story).

Like any Gene Wolfe there is hidden depth here, as if you pay attention to characters and dates you can piece together a timeline that reveals more of what is going on than is ever explicitly stated. Wolfe is the master at writing books that have extra depths to explore if you so choose, but which don't have to be delved into to have a good reading experience. Personally I always like trying to solve the riddles Wolfe strews about, and if such a thing sounds appealing to you there's no author I would recommend to you more highly than Gene Wolfe.
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LibraryThing member lucienspringer
An old man sifts through his memories, his seeming confusion masterfully controlled by the author. Peace is so beautifully written that I lingered through a first reading and wanted to start again as soon as it ended. Rich and strange.
LibraryThing member pshaw
Like any Gene Wolfe work, this isn't what it appears to be. I've found much of his work not only holds up to repeated readings, but practically demands it if you're going to get anything out of them. This was his first novel and, I gather, not a big hit at the time. While at first reading it seems
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to simply be the story of a midwestern man's life, upon closer inspection I've found it to be a deeply frightening book. I wonder what the next reading will reveal?
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LibraryThing member davebessom
Great! I admit, I got a few hints, post-read, as to the nature- or possible nature- of the mystery of the story; but my mind has been running rampant with ideas since. No spoilers, but I am actually anxious to reread this one to see how much more I can glean. And to think, this was Wolfe's first
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full novel!
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LibraryThing member stacy_chambers
I suspect there's a lot I didn't understand about this novel, though reading-wise, it was a fine read. On its surface, it's the journal of an elderly man and his time with his aunt. But the narrator is totally unreliable and I got the sense there was a lot of bad stuff underneath his surface. Yet I
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couldn't see it - at least, not until I was more than 3/4 of the way through the story (though the ghost story in the middle creeped me out). I'll probably take another crack at this one soon, just to see if I can put more things together.

Edit: Just read some cliff notes on the novel, and yes, there's quite a bit I didn't fully get. Time to read Goethe's FAUST.
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LibraryThing member ScoLgo
Peace is a difficult book for me to categorize. Wolfe is mostly famous for writing science-fiction and fantasy but this book is really neither of those things. Well... perhaps it's a modern fantasy, of sorts... 'Pastoral Horror' is about the nearest term I can think of.

In Wolfe's first full-length
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novel we are told a series of stories, most of them frustratingly incomplete, by an aging first-person narrator. There are ghost stories, tragedies, treasure hunts, forged books, romantic entanglements, strange surroundings, even stranger events, meta-physics, a sort of time-travel... All in all, there are a lot of weird happenings. But none of them are stridently visceral. It's all delivered in a languidly matter-of-fact tone that soon imparts to the reader that there is much, much more to these stories than the person doing the telling is letting on.

Now, I love me some first-person story-telling because I always expect the narrator to be unreliable. And this one certainly is. Alden Dennis Weer is a strange old guy and the way he reminisces about people, places and events from his past (and present?) soon makes it abundantly clear that there is more here than meets the eye at first glance. And Peace is definitely that rare type of book that will reveal more of itself with each re-read. I almost want to start over from the beginning right away to see what I missed in the early going that might help clarify where we ended up. Which was where again? Ah yes. The ending, (if one can call it that). Frustratingly incomplete and yet... Oh well, there are too many other books clamoring for their fair share at the moment - but I will be tempted to re-read this one sooner rather than later while it's still relatively fresh. Anyway, I pretty much loved this book - even though I am grinding my teeth a bit at the swooshing sound I keep hearing above my head...

A footnote: Gene Wolfe has never been an easy read for me. He places a heavy demand on his audience. When you pick up one of his books, do not expect to be spoon-fed a plot. That doesn't mean there isn't a plot, only that there will be deeper meanings in his stories than you might at first realize. There are always layers of meaning and hidden events in Wolfe's narratives. This book is perhaps his most confounding that I have read to date - although Castleview is comparably dense with meaning.
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LibraryThing member briandarvell
If you've seen other reviews of this novel, it's almost common knowledge that to really appreciate this novel you need to read it more than once. After just having read it for the first time I can believe that. I enjoyed the book overall but definitely can see through the narrator's telling of this
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tale and how the book is structured that you will undoubtedly miss many things upon the first reading. I admit that I read through many of the spoilers and plot summary's of the novel as I read it and I don't find that this took away from my enjoyment of the story. Wolfe is a great author and the way the writes his prose and the form of the story is excellent. I'm definitely glad to have read this novel.
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LibraryThing member andrlik
I have no idea how to categorize this book. I tend to agree with others that this is ultimately a ghost story, with the narrator roaming the corridors of his memory. It's brilliantly written, but a challenging read.

The ending... Just kind of happens, and I almost want to knock of a star for that,
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but it's so wonderful as a whole it keeps its five stars. This is one I can easily see myself returning to several more times, an I'd expect I'll find something new each time.
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LibraryThing member sparemethecensor
A slow read, but beautifully written. There's more than meets the eye here. Settle in with a cup of tea.

Note: while there are some dark elements to some of the stories, and ghosts are prominent, it is not graphic. More dread than terror.
LibraryThing member quondame
The baroque pearl at the center of this fanciful collage of story jewels is an unexceptional middle class life in the Midwest of early to middle 20th century USA. There are ghost stories and corner of the eye love stories, fragments of remembered stories, old Irish stories, and even likely forged
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necromancy accounts. We encompassed in rooms of all the recalled residences and workplaces of Den Weer and move freely but without a safety thread though them.
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LibraryThing member grahzny
It's sort of like a rural Indiana art house movie made by a spiritually inclined Catholic, full of ghosts and folktales. For a first novel, this does hew to Wolfe's technique: painting around his main points or plot, describing them indirectly in outline. It's beautiful!
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