Chapters 1 - 2, Clay, His Separate Shadow Summary

The book opens with the birth of Reuben Land, Peace Like a River's narrator and main character. Reuben tells the reader that when he was born he could hardly breathe. At the hospital, where Dr. Nokes and his parents, Jeremiah and Helen, were for the delivery, Reuben's inability to breathe was greeted with shocked by Dr. Nokes and Helen (Jeremiah was outside).

Later, when Reuben was older, Jeremiah told Reuben that God had told him that Reuben was struggling to survive. The doctor had to pound Reuben so much and so hard to get him to breathe that Reuben still had nightmares concerning the birth. Jeremiah entered the room to find Dr. Nokes sitting with his mother, with Reuben laying on top of a tray. His father, invoking the name of God, ordered...