I have the attention span of a fruit fly. Whether in a movie or book, pacing is important to me. When a movie is slow, I’ve been known to hit fast forward, then read the subtitles as I zoom to the end.

Virgil Wanderstarts slowly, but I hung in through the first pages because the writing was excellent and because I adored Enger’s book, Peace Like a River. I’m glad I stuck with it.

As the book opens, we learn that Virgil Wander had driven to a northern lookout on Lake Superior to photograph an approaching snowstorm but wound up getting caught in the middle of it. Virgil describes what happens, “(Snow) came down in armloads. Highway 61 quickly grew rutted and slick. Maybe I was driving too fast. U2 was on the radio—‘Mysterious Ways,’ I seem to recall. Apparently, my heartbroken Pontiac breached a safety barrier and made a long, lovely, some might say cinematic arc into the churning lake.”

Marcus Jetty happens to be on the beach.  Virgil tells the reader, “Marcus runs Greenstone Salvage & Tinker, a famous local eyesore of bike frames, tube amps, hula poppers, oil drums and knobs of driftwood.” Marcus rescues Virgil.

Virgil lands in the hospital with a mild traumatic brain injury, a diagnosis that he finds paradoxical.  He likes his neurologist, a kindly old Finn named Koskinen, whom he describes, “He had the heartening bulk of the aging athlete defeated by pastry. He delivered all news as though it were good.”

Upon his return, Virgil encounters Rune, an elderly man who, “blew into our bad luck town of Greenstone, Minnesota, like a spark from the boreal gloom.” Isn’t that a spectacular sentence? These and many others are why I kept reading.

Enger’s writing is wise and funny. His authentically-drawn characters are quirky and engaging. And, except for the villain, (perhaps too obviously named Mr. Leer), they work hard to love each other in quirky and engaging ways.  The description of townspeople walking alongside each other through life’s joys and hardships reminded me both of Wendell Berry’s novels and the movie, Lars and the Real Girl.

Of course, this is Leif Enger, so you will find a dash of magical realism on these pages, which I found charming and whimsical. I’m not so much a fan of real realism, so this was right up my alley.

If you are in the mood for a story lovingly told in a way that does not rush along, this novel is for you.