The Alphabet of Grace

Buechner Frederick

ISBN 10: 0060611731 ISBN 13: 9780060611736

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 1985

Synopsis

A series of reflections that trace out the deepest mysteries of life in the course of a single day. "A book by an experienced writer, a novelist, a poet, a clergyman.... This is a small but beautiful whole, ordered by poetic structure."--Madeleine L' Engle

About this title

Review:

Frederick Buechner's The Alphabet of Grace is a small but lyrical volume of essays, which moves through a single day in three chapters. It is no particular day, and yet, as Buechner suggests, each day of life is an invitation to be truly alive. "Live a day of it and see," he writes. "Nobody claims that it will be entirely painless, but no matter. It is your birthday, and there are many presents to open. The world is to open."

This gets us very close to the sweet centre of this little book--and of Buechner's work more generally. He makes no claims for himself as special: "most of the times I am indistinguishable from the rest of the herd that jostles and snuffles at the great trough of life." But he also knows how to listen, how to pay attention to the small moments of life where grace in fact breaks through. Two apple branches clack together: this becomes the metaphor for the "clack-clack" of his life, which is also the sign of "the occasional, obscure glimmering through of grace". Sometimes, this book reminds us, God comes not in the whirlwind but in the still small voice of our ordinary moments. --Doug Thorpe

About the Author:

Frederick Buechner, author of more than thirty works of fiction and nonfiction, is an ordained Presbyterian minister. He has been a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His most recent work is Beyond Words: Daily Readings in the ABC's of Faith.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0060611731
• ISBN 13: 9780060611736
• Binding: Unbound