Novels

The Storm

Have you ever had an author that wins you over slowly? One that you’ve returned to over the years despite reservations until one day it clicks?

I’ve had that experience with the writings of Frederick Buechner. I bought Listening to Your Life, a collection of excerpts from his writings, on February 24, 1993; I know this because the receipt is still slipped in among the pages as a bookmark. I have yet to read every entry, but I am always drawn to it in the spring. A year or two ago, I read The Sacred Journey. And more recently, I read The Alphabet of Grace.

There is something uncompromisingly honest about Buechner’s writing. He has a poet’s sensibility, and a sense of humor. These are all things that draw me back. But there have always been frustrations for me as well, the chief one being his refusal to talk with much certainty about theological matters. This has bothered me, yet I’m coming to realize that this is probably one of the deepest chords that he strikes within me. I don’t know that my uncertainties are Frederick Buechner’s, but his style of being Christian even amidst his uncertainties has extended a grace and a courage to me. He doesn’t speak for me in the particulars, but simply by existing he does reinforce that there is room for me in the fold.

This week I read The Storm, my first of his novels, and I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly. It’s about a fragmented family populated by characters who are at once broken, and extremely decent and likable. Every one of them has eccentricities. Every one of them has desires that have yet to be realized or even, in some cases, defined. They have varying levels of comfort within their own skin, and most of them have regrets. The main character, if there is one, is Kenzie Maxwell, who almost every day remembers a sin from years earlier, and almost every day he still tries to make restitution. The novel is loosely structured around his search for, and at least partial arrival in, rest.

For plot summary, you can probably do better by reading the description over at Amazon. But for reaction, all I can say is that whenever I closed the book to go do something else, I put it down with a smile. I just really liked the people in this book, and I enjoyed the humor and affection with which Buechner develops them. I sensed something of the same refusal to simplify or prettify these characters as he demonstrates in his attitude toward Christianity, and I recognized the same beauty and wonder persisting in his vision of human life and the mystery that surrounds us. It’s not an overly ambitious story, not terribly long or complex, but very real in a way that amounted to pure delight for me.

The idea of Listening to Your Life, the devotional I mentioned earlier, is on the first page:

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and the pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.

Surely this includes listening to your reading life. If mine tells part of my story, I seem to have passed a milestone into liking Buechner without reservation. It’s always worth noting when I become less critical of someone or something! — and often it means I’m becoming less critical of certain aspects of myself. Maybe it’s a beginning of something good.

While reading The Storm, I searched online and found a bit more information about Buechner. I found this piece, and watched this interview. Both are interesting for those who want to “meet” this author outside of his books.

6 Comments

  • Barbara H.

    I can’t decide if I would be interested in reading him or not. I didn’t think so at first, but the Wikipedia article on him had some interesting things. Maybe someday…

  • DebD

    I just love the writing of Frederick Buechner but never heard of his novel “The Storm”. I’ll have to go look it up. I loved your quote from “Listen to your Life”, it made me smile. I think I need to read that book again.

  • Janet

    That sounds like one to go on my list. I’m also interested in ‘Godric.’ He was nominated for a Pulitzer for that one.

  • Amy

    You’ve piqued my curiosity for sure! I love the image of your closing the book each time with a smile on your face!