Review by Booklist Review
Without ever leaving the magic kingdom of his personal library, the acclaimed author of religious fiction, meditation, and criticism transports us in multiple directions: back in time to witness his grandparents' wedding in Maine; around the world to relive an eventful trip with his wife; and deep into his own dark childhood to comprehend the shock of his alcoholic father's suicide in a fume-filled garage. Interwoven with these threads of family history lie the even stronger threads of literary experience: discovering the world of literature as a child reading Uncle Wiggily; savoring as a mature writer the genius of Anthony Trollope in his nuanced portrayal of the neurotic Josiah Crawley. For readers who have already enjoyed such Buechner masterpieces as A Long Day's Dying or The Son of Laughter, these memoirs offer illuminating glimpses into how the writer acquired and nurtured his gift for transmuting the subtlest spiritual stirrings into narrative art. For those unfamiliar with Buechner, these reflections can only awaken desires to explore his other work. --Bryce Christensen
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Its cloying title aside, this fourth memoir by the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author (Godric) is elegant, understated and elegiac. As the reader is guided through the author's libraryÄhis "Magic Kingdom"Ävarious books, manuscripts and mementos become the stimulus for meditations about Christian faith and about the people who have touched his life. We read at length about the folly of writing a novel about Jesus; to do so, the ordained minister writes, "would be to cheapen and somehow dishonor the bond between us." We see the author's fatherÄwho committed suicide at the age of 38Änot only as a distant figure, alcoholic and adulterous ("the empty place at [the] center" of Buechner's childhood), but as a charismatic Princeton alumnus who once seemed so full of promise. The memoir's penultimate chapter is a tribute to the author's beloved brother, Jamie, who died as Buechner was finishing the bookÄhe had called and said he had "incurable cancer of virtually everything and didn't intend to be around for more than two weeks if he could possibly help it." Such a momentÄa pitch-perfect blend of tenderness and sardonic lyricismÄtypifies the poetic intensity of the memoir. Also of note is the second chapter, about Buechner's friend, the late poet James Merrill, who appears in the author's dreams: "and it is always goodbye that we are saying again as if to make up for never having had the chance to say it properly." Acknowledging at once the intensity of their bond and the married minister's puzzlement at the alien pleasures of an unapologetically homosexual man, this chapter exemplifies the memoir's adroit equipoise, unsparing and loving at once. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Buechner's fourth memoir (after The Sacred Journey, Now and Then, and Telling Secrets) is a hopeful rumination on family, loss, and faith. The recent deaths of the author's older brother and his lifelong friend, poet James Merrill, remind him of earlier lossesÄhis father's suicide and the death of his beloved grandmother Naya. The birth of a grandchild forces Buechner to focus on the present, reminding him that life goes on and that forgotten familial characteristics remain for generations to come. "The Magic Kingdom," Buechner's nickname for his study, office, and library, gives him the necessary space for writing and meditating. The rooms are filled with family archives, irreplaceable books and mementos that inspire the author to connect past and present and look beyond his life to his grandchildren's future. An impressive addition to Buechner's oeuvre, which includes over 30 critically acclaimed works of fiction and nonfiction.ÄPam Kingsbury, Florence, AL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A memoir of death may seem a contradiction in terms, but that is what Buechner, Presbyterian minister and prolific writer (best known for his novel Godric, 1980) has given us. Here we meet the dead who haunt his heart'his grandmother; his friend and fellow wordsmith James Merrill; his father, who committed suicide; and his brother. Buechner, trustworthy and slightly self-effacing, offers his meditations on death with a characteristically light touch. Unlike so many writers who weigh in on the ultimate questions, Buechner never winds up sounding like a pompous ass. A 'hopelessly religious person,' Buechner is the doubter's Christian, ever suspect of the believer whose faith life is not shot through with doubt. The Eyes of the Heart captures that skepticism: Without losing sight of his Christian convictions, Buechner wonders what will happen after he dies, asking his grandmother, who pooh-poohs the question, to describe being dead. Bibliophiles will enjoy The Eyes of the Heart because it is framed by a tour through Buechner's study; we browse through his first edition Oz books and the copy of Gone With the Wind in which Buechner's father wrote a final note to Buechner's mother. Early in the book, Buechner tells us, 'There are such wonderful books in [my study] that I expect people to tremble with excitement, as I would, on entering it for the first time, but few of them do because they don't know or care enough about books to have any idea what they are seeing.' It seems, at first, a throwaway line, but the image stays with you as you read, for Buechner is not just referring to books, but to God and the wonder and fragility of human life as well. One hopes in the same way that readers will know what they are seeing when they pick up The Eyes of the Heart.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
