Godric - Softcover

Buechner, Frederick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060611626 ISBN 13: 9780060611620

Publisher: HarperOne, 1983

A brilliant re-creation of the sacred and profane life journey of the unpredictable, all-too-human twelfth-century saint who went from being a sea rover to poet, hermit, and mystic.

Review:

If you think a novel about a saint is likely to be a dry and dusty sort of thing, think again. Godric, a 12th-century saint--born of Anglo-Saxon parents in Norfolk almost to the year of the Norman invasion (1066 for those of you long unschooled!)--was a peddler and wanderer long before he settled into the life of a hermit in northern England, led there by the famous hermit St Cuthbert, who tells him, "your true nesting place lies farther on", and "until you reach it, every other place you find will fret you like a cage."

In Godric Frederick Buechner captures the voice and the times of this saint with a style that recalls the richly alliterative language of Middle English poetry. So too does it recall the beautiful earthiness of that literature, reminding us that this time of deep spirituality was also a time of real flesh and blood folk. And in some ways this is the pivotal point of this delightful (and at times comic) novel: these saints, like those that live among us today, become saints not by leaving the body behind but by finding a way to live more deeply within it. They find a way to turn it to glory. --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.

• Publisher: HarperOne
• Publication date: 1983
• ISBN 10: 0060611626
• ISBN 13: 9780060611620
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192