Customer Reviews

The Eyes of the Heart: A Memoir of the Lost and Found

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

I have been a fan of Mr. Buechner's for a long time and his writings have touched me very deeply. This book was read at a crucial time in my life when my mother was not well. It means more to me than I can say, now that mom is with the Lord in heaven. Mr. Buechner has always touched my heart, but the poignancy of his writing affected me deeply. Just wanted to drop my 5 stars in for this book, seeing how some reviewers didn't value it that much. To me, it is one of his best books. I treasure it.

As a fan of Frederick Buechner, I found this volume in our church library and secured it anticipating a summer weekend of ecstasy, reading this book on the back porch while sipping lemonade. I found it disappointing, as he focuses on his collection of Buechner family memoribilia. As hard as he tries to universalize it, making it accessible to all of us, for me, it just didn't work. And it reads like a review of one's summer family reunion. Sorry. Read his other stuff. It's great!

For a person who enjoys seeing beyond the cover of my books that I store in my own library, this book was a visual treat fro the mind. I love how the book opens with Frederick Buechner describing this library saying that when people enter this room he expects them to tremble with excitement, but few of them do as they do not know or care enough about books to have any idea as to what they are seeing. Buechner then goes on to describe the collections he holds within this room from his early childhood reads, to many first publishing's such as A Christmas Carol from 1843. (I mention this one as I am a collector of the different writings/editions of A Christmas Carol and this book alone would have caused me to tremble with excitement.)

I thought the book to be a brilliant look into this authors deepest soul from where he wavers, to where he is strong. I like the thought of pulling up the people from our past, those who have passed on, and asking them the questions that lay on many of our hearts.... what is out there? Who is waiting?

I wish I could do this book justice when I describe it as breathtaking... when Buechner speaks of his grandson coming into the world, and grasping on how soon he feels he himself will leave it - I was teary eyed. I admit I have never really been moved by poetry, but to me this book read in parts like a poem that I much savored and took my time reading through passages again.

My only wish is that I had read some of his earlier works so as to have a better picture of who this man was before he became who he is in this book. Beautifully written, deeply detailed, this is a book I will keep in my "Magic Kingdom" for years to come. This will not be my last adventure in reading with Frederick Buechner.

The Eyes of the Heart is a beautiful book--gentle, hopeful, honest. At a time when so many groups and individuals are screaming at us that they have all the answers to our deepest questions, Mr. Buechner quietly surveys his life for glimmers and glimpses of hope ("again and again over the years I have experienced holiness...as a living, healing, saving presence in my life"). The screamers' "answers" are founded in fear. Mr. Buechner's are clothed in hope and peace.

Somewhere at the very bottom of your soul, if you are very patient and vulnerable and humble, the eyes of your heart can eventually see the actual substance of faith, friendship, and fate. Our longing to know ultimately, beyond the thin veneer of our time-bound realities, is the final quest of the soul, to express gratitude in the most profound sense. Frederick Buechner illuminates the essence of meaning with exquisite care.

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.

Sharing intimate details of his childhood and adult memories--in a kaleidoscope of chronology which requires flexibility on the part of the reader--Buechner offers a gentle autobiographical
patchwork of his life. He invites us graciously into the most
hallowed rooms of his heart, describing precious objects whose
existence and display coalesce into his own personal magic kingdom. We are treated as his honored guests, allowed free access into the privacy of sacred spaces: his home, his family archives and his fluid imagination. He reveals the dreams and feelings, labors and heartache of various family members going several generations back. Not because they were noteworthy in the eyes of the world; instead because he painstakingly acquired the knowledge, and now is willing to share their human
experiences with his unknown readers--experiences which just might echo our own.

Mainly the author presents conversations with those dear ones who have gone on before. He, like us, seeks to know what really Happens after death. Endowing his characters with post-terrestrial information and wisdom, he seeks to calm his fear of the great unknown (and ours) by spiritual rationalization as viewed through "the eyes of the heart"--a quotation from Ephesians. We learn much about his family of course, but also about literature and his favorite authors, such as Trollope. Striving to comfort himself and his readers about those who have been Lost, he assures us that they have also been Found in afterlife by a benficient Divinity--a message which offers desperately-needed peace and hope for those who grieve. This plotless book consists of variations on one theme, so it can not be classified as a novel, yet it remains much more than mere autobiography. I recommend this book for introspective readers who seek meaning in this world, especially after suffering the loss of dear ones. Take hope--take heart--as Buechner strives to assuage our pain and our fears about the post-human condition.