Product Description

From critically acclaimed author and Pulitzer Prize runner-up Frederick Buechner comes another powerfully honest memoir, The Eyes of the Heart. Full of poinant insights into his most personal relationships, this moving account traces how the author was shaped as much by his family's secrets as by its celebrations.Within the innermost chambers of his consciousness, Buechner, in his characteristically self-searching style, explores the mysteries and truths behind his deepest connections to family, friends, and mentors. Extraordinarily moving, this memoir follows not chronology but the converging paths of Buechner's imagination and memory.

Buechner invites us into his library-his own Magic Kingdom, Surrounded by his beloved books and treasures, we discover how they serve as the gateway to Buechner's mind and heart. He draws the reader into his recollections, moving seamlessly from reminiscence to contemplation. Buechner recounts events such as the tragic suicide of his father and its continual fallout on his life, intimate and little-known details about his deep friendship with the late poet James Merrill, and his ongoing struggle to understand the complexities of his relationship to his mother.

This cast of characters comprised of Buechner's relatives and loved ones is brought to vibrant life by his peerless writing and capacity to probe the depths of his own consciousness. Buechner visits his past with an honest eye and a heart open to the most painful and life-altering of realizations. heartbreaking and enlightening, The Eyes of the Heart is a treasure for any who have ever pondered the meaning and mystery of their own past.

As "one of our finest writers," according to author Annie Dillard, Frederick Buechner provides yet another chapter in the tale of his life in this gripping memoir tracing the complicated roots and path of his inner life and family, with their multitude of intersections." The Eyes of the Heart stands as a touching testimonial to the significance of kinship to the author as well as to the legions of readers who have come to regard him as one of their own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #396326 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-01
• Released on: 2000-11-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Amazon.com Review
Unlike some Christian writers, Frederick Buechner has never claimed to have a ringside seat to the truth. "I have seen with the eyes of the heart the great hope to which he has called us," he writes, "but out of shyness ... I rarely speak of it, and in my books I have tended to write about it for the most part only obliquely." This very reticence, however, is one of the qualities that most endears this writer to his fans: we trust him all the more because he does not deny his own doubts. A novelist, preacher, and essayist beloved by the thoughtful (and the doubtful), this new memoir follows the quiet and yet probing style of the three that precede it (Now and Then, Telling Secrets, and The Sacred Journey). Here, as he moves into his 70s, Buechner explores more deeply and with greater personal poignancy his familiar subjects of loss, death, and faith, acknowledging that these three issues still revolve around his own father's suicide when Buechner was 9. Including delightful and honest reminiscences of his childhood friend, the great poet James Merrill, along with rich and loving memories of family members and books, Buechner writes the way many of us feel--with moments of glory that shoot through the grayness. Those who know his earlier work will not be disappointed by this continuation of the journey; those new to him will find a suitable entry point to the path right here. --Doug Thorpe

From Publishers Weekly
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 libraryAhis "Magic Kingdom"Avarious 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 fatherAwho committed suicide at the age of 38Anot 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 bookAhe 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 momentAa pitch-perfect blend of tenderness and sardonic lyricismAtypifies 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.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
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 lossesAhis 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.APam Kingsbury, Florence, AL
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

"Must" reading for all Frederick Buechner fans!
The Eyes Of The Heart: A Memoir Of The Lost And Found contains biographical revelations about the notable people who touched the life and family of Pulitzer-nominated writer Frederick Buechner. Included among that number was "a little oddball named Truman Capote" in grammar school, Clara Barton and Karl Barth. Buechner also writes of his only sibling's death while composing this memoir, his long friendship with the late James Merrill, correspondence with his mother concerning his belief in an afterlife, the authors who most influenced him, the meaning of his personal library, and his lifelong quest to determine "if it is true about God". Buechner shares a poem addressed to his grandchildren, considers his family's many tragic deaths, and much more. The Eyes Of The Heart is "must" reading for all Buechner fans as it depicts his personal journey toward an understanding of himself, the world, and the presence of grace in an often graceless world.

Great for fans; not a good Buechner intro
Fans of Frederick Buechner's work will want to read this novel for the depth of understanding he provides regarding his relationships with his family and his appreciation of the family history, but persons who have not read his other memoirs (especially Sacred Journey, but also Now and Then, Telling Secrets, and the Longing for Home) will want to start with them to get a better introduction to Buechner's life. It is, though, a great resource for understanding the inspirations in his life, and his trademark style shines well.

wonderful, beautifully written memoir
A wonderful, beautifully written memoir of loved ones Buechner remembers and love ones for whom he wishes he remembered more. Basis of books and objects from his library is one part of the charm. The other, however, can not be described without dispelling part of the enchantment of the first chapter.