Buechner is consummately skilled as a writer. His nonfiction style is the perfect blend of truth and ephemera.
He gives us a tour through several unspectacular events and places in his life, yet draws the truth out of them like an unlooked-for flavor in a meal prepared by a master chef. He speaks truth more unobtrusively than almost any other author I have read, and in that I would see him as a predecessor to Donald Miller. (Or, others would say Donald Miller is a succesor of his.)
This book carries forward an idea present in his other books, about seeing God as the main character in your own autobiography. “Listen to your life,” he says more than once.
Where I was less impressed is his theology proper. I sense a deep sympathy in some paragraphs where he mentions times of doubt or depression. In other paragraphs, I felt that Buechner was betraying more skepticism than is becoming of a preacher, and perhaps that is why he is so popular in theologically mainstream-to-liberal circles.
As just another instance, when he cites examples from Buddhism, they are, for the most part interesting, but I can’t help but feel that it is a ploy to keep less religious readers engaged, especially when he backpedals and says that the Christian view is more encompassing.
Of course, Buechner himself mentions this dillemma of audience, which tries to straddle the line between those who are “in” and “out” of this club we call religion. He is neither the first nor the last to experience this dillemma, but all in all I feel that, whoever his reader is, Buechner truly has something to say, and says it powerfully—not so much like a trumpet, but more like rising string overture, a gentle reminder that your soundtrack is already playing, the camera is running. This is your life. What is God saying through it? ( )

One of Frederick Buechner's memoirs, Now and Then is an honest look at his various intermingled vocations of minister and writer. If you've read other Buechner, whether fiction or nonfiction, you'll enjoy this story from behind the scenes. If not, you'll also enjoy a good memoir from a kind and creative soul.

Of particular interest are Buechner's comparisons of love in Christianity and Buddhism; and Buechner's interaction with Agnes Sanford, one of the wonderful lay leaders of healing prayer in the past century. ( )

I read the third of Buechner's autobiographical trilogy as an assignment for a course when I was an undergraduate. 14 years later, I have now read the other two books in the set. I remember being quite moved by [b:Telling Secrets|123291|Telling Secrets|Frederick Buechner|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349010507s/123291.jpg|118704], but this book was my favorite of the three. He has a beautiful way of finding the narrative and the grace in the people, settings, and events of his life, which I found very instructive. In this book, he also tells how the other books that he has written grew out of the different elements of his life, which was much appreciated as I like his fiction even more than I like his non-fiction. I think this book also particularly resonated with me because Buechner is an introvert and a student of theology, which he writes about a fair bit in two of the chapters.

One of my favorite quotes from the book:

If you have to choose between words that mean more than what you have experienced and words that mean less, choose the ones that mean less because that way you leave room for your hearers to move around in and for yourself to move around in too.

( )

Lots of insight. His description of a parent's love for a child and the pain that it can cause has come the closest to what I have felt in the past. He quotes Paul Tillich and Karl Barth. He writes of life being grace. "Vocatus atque non vocatus Deus aderit" - God will be with you whether you call on him or not. ( )

This is an important book. I expected an autobiography of Buechner’s life from when he decided to enter Union Theological Seminary until 1983. I received far more.

This book is holy. It will not satisfy the intellectual curiosity of a Buechner reader—it speaks to the core of the human experience. With a heart sensitive to the Spirit, and a master’s command of language, Buechner transforms thoughts about his own life into universal truth. There was one point in the book when he shifted gears and spoke more directly to the reader. It almost knocked me off my chair:

"Listen to your life.

All moments are key moments."

Buechner’s honesty also struck home. Hear his reflections on prayer:

"I was less a man praying than a man being a man praying, and no clear answer came, none that I could hear anyway, . . ."

Who hasn’t felt like that?

This is the first thing I’ve read by Buechner. I providentially stumbled across this slim volume in a secondhand bookstore in Nashville, with the inside of the front cover marked down: $19.95 - $9.99 - $6.00.

All moments are key moments. ( )