Page "Frederick Buechner" Paragraph 6

::" I took the title from a passage in Paradise Lost where Adam says to Eve that their expulsion from Paradise " will prove no sudden but a slow pac ’ d evil ,/ A Long Day ’ s Dying to augment our pain ," and with the exception of the old lady Maroo, what all the characters seem to be dying of is loneliness, emptiness, sterility, and such preoccupation with themselves and their own problems that they are unable to communicate with each other about anything that really matters to them very much.

I am sure that I chose such a melancholy theme partly because it seemed effective and fashionable, but I have no doubt that, like dreams generally, it also reflected the way I felt about at least some dimension of my own life and the lives of those around me.