Such a quaint and quirky book. Loved the story and all of the characters were very memorable. I think this author will be one to watch!

I loved Virgil and all the members of his sleepy northern Minnesota community. I recognized them as characters from my own small town upbringing. Like the people from my own history, all the characters in Virgil Wander carry lessons of what it is to be human. Soon after Virgil's car plunges into Lake Superior and he narrowly escapes death, he finds himself hosting a kite-flying visitor in search of memories of a son he never knew in the town where his son lived. The residents are charmed by the kite tinker and Virgil himself makes important connections about his neighbors and friends that he had been overlooking until his car plunged into the water. This book is quiet, but it has a lot to say.

There was some interesting action at the beginning and end of this novel but I found most of it slow moving and rather boring. The novel starts with an auto accident and rescue. Virgil Wander experiences a concussion from the accident. We follow his life as he recuperates and interacts with small town characters.

If I had not agreed to review this novel, I don't think I would have finished it. I will not review a book I have not read so did continue to the end. I asked myself many times what the point of the novel could possibly be. I did find out quite a bit about the possible effects of a concussion, about classic films, and about handmade kites. There were some interesting characters in the book but it was hard to identify any growth or change in them. None of them was developed to the point that I really liked the individual or could empathize with their problem.

Enger's writing style was mostly long passages of prose, such as descriptions or memories of background material. I prefer characters acting and speaking to move the plot forward. There were a few good scenes, some tender moments, and even some humor but the plot overall did not captivate me.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

My first encounter with author Leif Enger was when I recently read a review of his novel Virgil Wander.     I was immediately intrigued by the highly complimentary words about the writing.       From the moment I started reading I too was mighty impressed and in fact one of my first notes was that Leif Enger was a genius with words.     Now, genius is quite a strong word but I'm not backing away from my big claim.   I simply fell into the rhythm of his writing the way I fall into a comfy bed.   The big difference being this writing did not make me want to sleep.   Quite the  opposite.   I'd have been happy to remain permanently in the company of Virgil Wander and the community of Greenstone.

Virgil lives at the Empress, an old school movie theatre, where he's the projectionist, the ticket seller, the cleaner, the works.     He recently had a brush with death and is recovering from a minor traumatic brain injury.   The lingering effects of his injuries, his self deprecating manner, his quirky sense of humour all contributed to making him a highly lovable character.    His observations of and interactions with the people of Greenstone were central to this gently paced, character driven story.       If you're looking for an action packed, suspense filled novel this one may not be right for you, but if you appreciate savouring clever writing you could do much worse than spending a day or two with Virgil Wander.   

This may have been my first encounter with Leif Enger but it certainly won't be my last.    My congratulations and thanks to him for this book.   Thanks too, to Grove Press and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review which it was my pleasure to provide.

I loved this book the small town and all the quirky characters that surround the town. In northern Minnesota there is a small town named greenstone. After losing money in the industrial footing the people who are left behind are stuck in a rut . Virgil who is the narrator loves just above the town and owns the local movie theatre. The theatre barely sells tickets but it’s the local town staple. The book begins with Virgil being rescued after driving off a cliff an accident so he says. During recovery he discovers his memory isn’t the same and he struggles to use adjectives. There are so many characters with there own stories. Loved this book!

This book got good reviews so I was quite interested to read it. This is not my usual genre of book. I prefer psychological thrillers and mysteries, i.e. page turners. This is definitely not a page turner but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It is a well written story about people living in a small Midwestern town on Lake Superior. It starts with the main character driving off the edge of the road into the lake. He survives and the book centers on his recovery and the various characters he interacts with. Not everyone's cup of tea, but different. A little quirky.

If you're looking forward to Virgil Wander because you crave more excellent writing, quirky characters, and themes of the miraculous & superstitious, then you're in for a treat.

Virgil Wander is a "middle aged bachelor and film projectionist" who has a car accident and, through sheer luck, survives. After his hospital stay, he returns to his home in small town Minnesota with the remnant effects of a brain injury which put him at odds with his former self. From here he tries to find his way back to his own life, but as a different Virgil, with the help of his friends. Among the cast are a legendary sturgeon, a formerly domesticated raccoon named Genghis, and a Lake Superior surfer. This story was a bit mystery, a bit love story, a bit drama. I loved every minute.

I thoroughly believe that if you loved Enger's book Peace Like a River, you will enjoy this book! And if you haven't read either, I definitely recommend both!

https://hungryforgoodbooks.blogspot.com/2018/10/virgil-wander-by-leif-enger.html
Virgil Wander is a phenomenal book. I adored Enger’s Peace Like a River and thus approached Virgil Wander with some trepidation. Could it be as good as Peace or even as good as his fine second novel So Brave Young and Handsome? The answer, my friends, is that it’s much like a third child. It’s as different an animal as heredity and environment (and the same writer’s pen) will allow, yet that child is every bit as cherished as were its siblings. Virgil Wander is an entirely different novel than Peace was yet both tell a captivating story and feature engaging characters that linger with the reader long after the last page is turned.



Virgil Wander begins on the day of Virgil’s release from the hospital after suffering a “mild traumatic brain injury” upon rupturing a safety barrier on Highway 61 along Lake Superior during the season’s first snow and making a “long, lovely, some might say cinematic arc into the charming lake.”


The only way to fully appreciate the joy of this novel, is to read some of Virgil’s musings as well as those of even the minor characters so ponder a few words from the first pages when Virgil’s neurologist predicts many possibilities for Virgil’s recovery and “Most welcome was his prediction that language would gradually return. Not that I couldn’t speak, but I had to stick to basics. My storehouse of English had been pillaged. At first, I thought common nouns were hardest hit, coffee and doorway and so on, but it soon became clear the missing were mostly adjectives. “Don’t worry, everything will come back,” said Dr. Koskinen. “Most things probably will. A good many of them might return. There will be at least a provisional rebound. How does this make you feel?” I wanted to say relieved or encouraged or at least hopeful but none of those were available.” . . . He was correct about the language, though. Within weeks certain prodigal words started filtering home. They came one at a time or in shy small groups. I remember when sea-kindly showed up, a sentimental favorite, followed by desiccated and massive. Brusque appeared all by itself, which seemed apt; merry and boisterous arrived together.”



Virgil lives in an apartment above the Empress Theater which he owns and operates on an occasional basis. He’s also the town clerk, a part-time job that helps pay the bills. Virgil is primarily a wanderer as his name implies and he leads his readers and his neighbors on a ride as ordinary as running a film reel and as wild as riding the back of a sturgeon.


On the day of Virgil’s release from the hospital, Rune, a Norwegian stranger, enters the “bad luck town of Greenstone, Minnesota” where he meets Virgil at the waterfront. Rune arrives in Greenstone in search of the son he’s only recently learned he’d fathered. Said son had been a minor league pitcher who’d once pitched a perfect game, attracted interest from the majors despite his Mark Fidrych-like inconsistencies, married, had a son, and then vanished in his flimsy plane over Lake Superior. Eccentric Rune makes and flies kites. They’re kites that most adjectives, even the ones Virgil's recovered, can’t begin to describe. Rune’s kites allow him to get to know the townspeople and his grandson as they fly them together beyond reality. Through Rune’s eyes, the reader sees the town and its residents uniquely.


With a touch of Enger’s signature magical realism and plot details that conjure the mysterious, Virgil Wander is much more than a quirky character-driven ode to the Northland. It’s also a siren song of the need to find a place where you matter and to push the envelope when that place starts to disintegrate. The seductive appeal of the minor characters never distracts from the story thus allowing the reader to fall under mythical Greenstone’s spell.


Summing it Up: Read Virgil Wander to enter the magical realm of a quirky, middle-aged man who’s rebirth after an accident offers the reader a view into a northern landscape where ordinary people act in mysterious ways.


Rating: 5 stars

Category: Fiction, Five Stars, Grandma’s Pot Roast, Sushi, Book Club

Publication date: October 1, 2018

Read an Excerpt: http://www.startribune.com/excerpt-from-virgil-wander-by-leif-enger/493899701/

Interview with the Author: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/10/08/author-leif-enger-on-storylight-characterheavy-fiction

What Others are Saying:

“The focus of [Enger’s] bright and breathing third novel feels mostly like life itself, in all its smallness and bigness, and what it means to live a good one.”―Booklist (starred review)


“Virgil Wander is a fast-paced, humorous and mystical novel about hope, friendship, love and the relationship between a two and its people.”―BookPage (top pick)


“Surprises and delights throughout; definitely worth waiting for.”–Library Journal (starred review)


Kirkus Reviews: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/leif-enger/virgil-wander/

Publishers Weekly: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8021-2878-2

Star Tribune: http://m.startribune.com/index.php/review-virgil-wander-by-leif-enger/494549561/

Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/leif-engers-fans-have-waited-10-years-for-virgil-wander-was-it-worth-it/2018/10/01/93afd8ae-c512-11e8-9b1c-a90f1daae309_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.fb1ee3661994

It has been many years since I read Peace Like a River. After reading Virgil Wander, I'm ready to re-read Peace.
Virgil Wander, written ten years after Peace, is a beautifully written book. Leif Enger has a way with words that is breathtaking. His writing is both very much grounded in reality and dream-like at the same time. How can that be? I don't know which makes Mr. Enger a brilliant writer in my opinion.

Virgil Wander lives in Minnesota and much of what transpires in this book takes place in winter. Snow and winter are passive important characters. The book opens with Virgil surviving an accident but concussed and having trouble with his memory. His chatter about which adjectives he has forgotten is absolutely delightful. With his recovery an on-going process throughout the book, we are treated to his daily life in a failing town desperately trying to get back on it's feet. The town characters, and they are definitely characters, populate his chapters with daily stories that, described by Mr. Enger, take on the importance of wonderful theatre. There is a quality of kindness throughout the book that is enviable in our day and age. It makes the suspicious motives stand out and even when Virgil is fairly sure that someone is not playing by the rules, he continues to be generous.

By the end of the book, I knew that town quite well. I knew it's inhabitants well and best of all, everything ended on a positive note. When I read Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, I remember thinking that the book read like a wagon train trip rolling back and forth, here and there just as I would have imagined it. I had the same feeling here. I had stepped into an on-going story, was allowed to witness a number of months with the addition of knowing the sometimes hilarious often forgetful but always lyrical mind of one of it's citizens, then had to leave. I was sad to leave. I could never live there but oh did I enjoy visiting.

In a town that lost its industry and much of its optimism, Virgil Wander is coping with his near-miss with death in Lake Superior. Magical kite-flying, menacing creatures, mysterious appearances and disappearances follow. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy. I was immersed in this story and before getting very far into it, I bought a copy.

Virgil Wander, a fictional account of a dying American Midwestern town, meanders through the lives of the inhabitants of Greenstone Minnesota. The protagonist, Virgil Wander, searching for direction, takes advantage of his time in recovery from an injury to develop a fresh perspective on his town. Virgil Wander is the first novel in 10 years for Leif Enger who has written several novels, most notably Peace Like a River.

Virgil Wander has moved back to Greenstone to run a movie theatre. In a freak snowstorm he and his car leave the road and “fly” into Lake Superior. Virgil survives but he suffers from certain memory and speech impediments. During his recovery, with the help of his friends and neighbours, Virgil rebuilds and in some cases reconfigures the life he lives in Greenstone. Meanwhile the people of Greenstone struggle to find unique ways to rebuild their impoverished town.

I enjoy the characters in this novel and find this to be the most interesting part of the book. Rune has experienced tragedy, but is dealing with it by reconnecting with family. Nadine finds a way to jumpstart her stagnant life. The Pea Family seems born to lose, but finds a path to recovery. All these characters and more are rich and interesting.

In spite of the character development, I find the story slow. At points it is difficult to detect progress in the storyline. Even the most dangerous event in the book seems to be anti-climatic. I have thought that this may be exactly the pace the Leif Enger used to create the sense that Greenstone is suffering but I am not certain. All in all it leaves me wanting more.

I rate the book 3 on 5 because of the excellent character development in the story. I want to thank NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

Despite some dark themes, Virgil Wander (digital galley, Grove Atlantic) is a remarkably humorous, feel-good novel. Virgil, the title character, is the owner of a one-screen movie theater in a struggling Lake Superior town who is dealing with the mental after effects of a serious, and spectacular, car accident.

The town of Greenstone is inhabited by several offbeat, yet agreeable characters who help Virgil as he gets back on his feet. But Greenstone is also a town plagued by tragedy, and central to the story is the mystery of a missing minor league baseball player, a friend of Virgils.

This strangely appealing novel is author Leif Enger’s first in ten years, since his well received Peace Like a River. The story if full of midwestern nostalgia and wonderful subplots, such as a vengeful quest for a giant fish and the towns compulsive attraction to an out-of-town kite flyer. It would be hard to ask for more out of a book.

This one was a little too slow for me. The writing was beautiful, the characters well-drawn but the plot or story line was like molasses. I found myself wishing it was over. I read Peace Like a River and felt the same so Mr. Enger's style just might not be for me. As others have written, it is quirky. It reminds me of the 1990s television show, Northern Exposure and maybe a little of Twin Peaks. I loved that he lived in and ran a vintage theater. I loved the kite flying. I loved the raccoon. I feel this book will find the right audience because the prose is beautiful. I would recommend it to people who enjoy slow stories about small towns, heroically flawed people and Midwestern landscapes.

What a gorgeously written novel. From the moment I started I was captivated by the quirky characters and the various subplots.
The setting is fictional Greenstone, MN, a small town fallen on hard times. It is a character driven novel headed by Virgil Wander who is recovering from a car accident with mild brain injury who I fell in love with. He is trying to put the bits and pieces of his life back together. He is aided by a Nordic kite flyer, Rune who is looking for pieces of his dead son that he never knew as well as a cast of charming characters. It evolves into a story of love, compassion and healing for the individuals as well as the town.
I would like to thank Net Galley for my ARC.

Leif Enger is an award-winning author who I’d never heard of before coming across his latest novel, Virgil Wander. He truly has a gift for language, painting a colorful and complete picture of a Midwestern small town and its inhabitants without overdoing it. I look forward to checking out his previous work, but first, Virgil...

Virgil is the part-time city clerk as well as the owner of his town’s only movie theater (and a failing one at that). As he becomes reacquainted with his life, we too get to know the town and cast of characters within it. Despite a lack of adjectives, Virgil finds spot-on descriptors for each of them. I fell in love with the quirky characters, who were both richly described and realistic.

Somewhat akin to A Man Called Ove, this novel was both whimsical and full of heart. I loved the focus on the Upper Midwest. My favorite moments in the story were the Empress theater’s “after parties.” Virgil invited close friends to stay after regular showings for a classic movie screening and a potluck meal -- almost always involving lasagna and Rune’s deliciously simple bread. They were just charming. I wish I’d been invited.

This was my first Leif Enger book and I was excited to give it a try, as so many Goodreads folks have rated this one highly and also admired his other work. The book follows Virgil Wander and various characters in Greenstone, a small midwestern town. The stories about these characters were quite entertaining, but it didn't quite work for me. The writing was good, but it felt a bit too slow for me and I didn't really connect with the characters. (The ending did pick up a bit and I enjoyed it, though. I wish that I bit more had happened throughout the book.) I suspect that, given a slightly different mood, I would have enjoyed it more.

Thanks to the author, NetGalley, and Grove Press for an opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Virgil Wander by Leif Enger is a very highly recommended, charming portrait of a man and a town.

Virgil Wander was just released from the hospital where he landed when he accidentally drove his car off a cliff into icy Lake Superior. Rumors of his demise are flying around the small town of Greenstone, MN, but Virgil is very much alive. He sustained a concussion, has short-term memory loss and a feeling that the life he is stepping back into, his life, isn't really his after all. He also may be having hallucinations. For twenty-five years, Virgil has been the owner of the Empress Theater and a part-time city clerk. Now, as he recovers, he also needs to try and put the pieces of his life back together.

Virgil ends up taking on a kite-flying roommate, Rune Eliassen, who is looking for information on his missing son, Alec Sandstrom. Additionally, the novel contains a cast of memorable, perfectly captured characters: Nadine and Bjorn, Tom, the Pea family, Jerry Fandeen, and Adam Leer, to name a few, as well as the town of Greenstone. This is a wonderful portrait of a town and its quirky residents.

The story is told with intelligence, humor, affection, and just a touch of melancholy. It is the portrait of a small town and the residents, but it is also about rebuilding your life, defining friendship and family, taking chances on change, finding delight in things like flying a kite, and living your life as it happens. While the plot meanders slowly through the novel, the narrative is simply charming - and needs more adjectives - delicious, engaging, appealing and refreshing. Enger's writing is absolutely superb. Virgil Wander really is a lovely, delightful novel that captivated me entirely.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Grove/Atlantic.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2018/10/virgil-wander.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2551998668
https://www.librarything.com/work/21893651/book/161103930
https://twitter.com/SheTreadsSoftly/status/1047995356460568576

It would be easy to become discouraged when reading this book, set in a small Minnesota town where many of the citizens seem to have given up, and the town itself is fading into memory. But, there are rays of light that shine through the beautiful prose describing Virgil's brush with death, the small town movie theatre, the father searching for news of the son he never really knew, the single mother who worries about her boy's future while he dreams big dreams, and the kitemaker whose fantastical creations cause people to look up and remember the joy of the wind in their hair and the sun on their faces. The characters in Virgil's small community are for the most part kind and caring even though their circumstances are rather dismal, and through it all, there is a bit of magic, a little quirkiness, and a desire to settle down in this town for a delightful read that will remain in your mind long after you turn the last page. Please consider recommending this book to your club or group! (less)

Virgil Wander is a breath of fresh air. Charming, smart, and perfectly unforgettable. I haven't rooted so hard for a character in a long time. This book will make you want to curl up under a warm blanket with a cup of tea and read for hours on end. I feel sad for whatever books I read next. They have a lot to live up to.

Virgil Wander: with that name, how can the protagonist be anything but a hero? Maybe a quirky, small town, injured in a freak accident hero, but a hero nonetheless.

I love Leif Enger’s descriptive prose and well drawn characters, and am so happy to have entered his warm but not sappy world yet again. I was not disappointed; the only let down here is having finished the book. Virgil, Nadine, Bjorn and Rune (and Rune’s unique kites) spring off the page with life.

While Enger is most interested in questions of humanity within and between individuals, he is the boss of the plot here, moving it along briskly. He weaves a bit of magical realism into his story as well, somehow pulling off the hardest magic trick of all: telling the truth through subterfuge.

I earnestly hope not to have to wait another decade for more of Leif Enger’s work.

Thank you to Grove Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.