Frederick Buechner (1927–2022)

For me to deeply love a book of fiction these days, it has to impress me at the sentence level, and does this one triumph! Written in the first person by a companion of the sixth-century Irish Saint Brendan, it's as vivid and warm and lusty and funny and tragic as the soul of Ireland itself. It reads like a transcription of a spoken tale, alternately grave and deadpan whimsical. It astounds me that an American Presbyterian could capture this voice. I kept reading because I was drawn by the show more voice, not by the story, though it's a great story as well.

The legend of Brendan, who is called the Navigator and whom some believe to have reached the Americas, is a collection of tall tales, told here with little attempt to tone down their miraculousness. It's not important to believe that these things happened in real life; it is important that as with any fantastic tale, from Jonah to Star Wars, you cooperate with the story and not resist it or scoff. There are marvels, but the jewels of the book are its characters, the people in Brendan's orbit. I'm certain at least one of them will speak to you in a special way. For me it was Malo, a bitter and mean man who is at first impossible to like. When I found out what cruelty had made Malo so bitter, the harshness of it almost turned me against the book. But when he eventually came to something like peace, the insight that healed him put a catch in my throat. For you, no doubt, some other character or incident will have a similar force.

This is an earnest book but not a sentimental one. If you have trouble telling the two apart, beware. show less

Frederick Buechner's Godric "retells the life of Godric of Finchale, a twelfth-century English holy man whose projects late in life included that of purifying his moral ambition of pride...Sin, spiritual yearning, rebirth, fierce asceticism--these hagiographic staples aren't easy to revitalize but Frederick Buechner goes at the task with intelligent intensity and a fine readiness to invent what history doesn't supply. He contrives a style of speech for his narrator--Godric himself--that's show more brisk and tough-sinewed...He avoids metaphysical fiddle, embedding his narrative in domestic reality--familiar affection, responsibilities, disasters...All on his own, Mr. Buechner has managed to reinvent projects of self-purification and of faith as piquant matter for contemporary fiction [in a book] notable for literary finish...Frederick Buechner is a very good writer indeed." -- Benjamin DeMott, The New York Times Book Review show less

This slim volume is one of the best conversion narratives I've read, reminiscent in some way of Augustine's Confessions, yet also uniquely the voice of Buechner. It is not a complete narrative of the author's childhood and youth, but episodic in form. Even the incidents he includes are told elliptically. Its diffident, evocative style is clearly the result of careful craftsmanship, but also gives a feeling of what it would be like to sit and talk with the man. The triadic structure of show more childhood - once below a time -, youth - once upon a time -, and of the gifts received from beyond time is built not only, perhaps not even primarily, to recount the author's own life, but with the aim of sensitizing the reader to see his or her life, as well as the lives of all others, as a sacred journey. Highly recommended. show less

Buechner is consummately skilled as a writer. His nonfiction style is the perfect blend of truth and ephemera.
He gives us a tour through several unspectacular events and places in his life, yet draws the truth out of them like an unlooked-for flavor in a meal prepared by a master chef. He speaks truth more unobtrusively than almost any other author I have read, and in that I would see him as a predecessor to Donald Miller. (Or, others would say Donald Miller is a succesor of his.)
This book show more carries forward an idea present in his other books, about seeing God as the main character in your own autobiography. “Listen to your life,” he says more than once.
Where I was less impressed is his theology proper. I sense a deep sympathy in some paragraphs where he mentions times of doubt or depression. In other paragraphs, I felt that Buechner was betraying more skepticism than is becoming of a preacher, and perhaps that is why he is so popular in theologically mainstream-to-liberal circles.
As just another instance, when he cites examples from Buddhism, they are, for the most part interesting, but I can’t help but feel that it is a ploy to keep less religious readers engaged, especially when he backpedals and says that the Christian view is more encompassing.
Of course, Buechner himself mentions this dillemma of audience, which tries to straddle the line between those who are “in” and “out” of this club we call religion. He is neither the first nor the last to experience this dillemma, but all in all I feel that, whoever his reader is, Buechner truly has something to say, and says it powerfully—not so much like a trumpet, but more like rising string overture, a gentle reminder that your soundtrack is already playing, the camera is running. This is your life. What is God saying through it? show less