Page "Frederick Buechner" Paragraph 59

" These literary passes at contemporaneity are out of keeping with the biblical tone Mr. Buechner sustains, and with his faithful adherence to the original narrative.

Some of the descriptive passages of the biblical countryside are lush and beautifully written, but they seem superfluous – Technicolor glosses.

Writers can try to put flesh on the bones of this story, but finally it resists meddling, modernization, rewriting.

The mesmerizing, cryptic original is a hard act to follow.

" – Lore Dickstein on The Son of Laughter