 | |
| Author | Frederick Buechner |
|---|---|
| Publisher | New York: Atheneum |
| Preceded by | The Return of Ansel Gibbs |
| Followed by | The Entrance to Porlock |
The Final Beast is the fourth novel by the American author and theologian, Frederick Buechner. It was first published in 1965 by Atheneum, New York.
The untimely death of Franny Nicolet leaves behind her grieving husband, Theodore, and their two children. A minister, living in Myron, New England, Nicolet struggles on with the overwhelming tasks of raising his children and caring for his parishioners. When Clem Vail reports the distressed abscondment of his wife, Rooney, Nicolet drives off in search of her, and in hopes of ascertaining why she has fled her husband. His pursuit of her, however, opens up an opportunity for a local journalist, Will Poteat, to spread the malicious rumour that the parishioner and her pastor are engaged in a secret affair.
Nicolet's journey will take him down several avenues of self-discovery. The minister meets with his distant and disinterested father, Roy, with whom he haltingly attempts to ignite some form of familial relationship. The attempt proves to be a failure, though not a personal one, as ultimately the son will forgive the father, although the relationship remains dormant. Nicolet eventually finds Rooney, who has cloistered herself away in a retreat house in Muscadine, owned and operated by Lillian Flagg, a faith-healer and Christian mystic. Flagg's overtures to Nicolet on the topics of prayer and forgiveness prove to be a catalyst for change in the young minister's outlook, prompting a greater understanding about the inherent joy that lies beneath grief and suffering.
Running alongside the narrative of Nicolet's pursuit of Rooney is the tragic story of Irma Reinwasser. Having survived a Nazi concentration camp, Irma has found some semblance of ordinary life working as Nicolet's housekeeper. Her unguarded conversation with Poteat unwittingly opens the door for the newspaper man to spread the rumours regarding her employer's supposed affair among his parishioners – an outcome over which she has very little control and yet feels a great sense of culpability. Her life reaches its terrible conclusion in the novel as, wracked by uncontrollable guilt, she falls victim to a misfiring prank perpetrated by some boys who attend Nicolet's church. Despite their good intentions, their actions lead to a fire, by which Irma is tragically consumed.
Themes
Written in the years following Buechner's ordination to the ministry, The Final Beast explores many of the themes that became central to the author's future work. It is a meditation on grief, grace, death, faith lived out in the midst of the ordinary, and the search for identity. Critic Dale Brown suggests that Buechner simultaneously expresses ‘a belief that the world is a dark place’, while also finding ‘beyond human inadequacy […] faith, grace, and absurd joy’. [4] He further argues that the novel is ‘a studied attempt to suggest the presence of grace in a tawdry world’, and manifests the desire of its author ‘to jar readers and listeners into a consideration of spiritual possibilities’. [5] In Now and Then Buechner offers the following summary of its central theme, writing that 'the part of the Christian experience' that he 'tried to make real', was element he found 'conspicuously absent' in other Christian books: 'the experience of salvation as grace, as the now-and-thenness and here-and-thereness of the New Being.' [6]
As with Buechner's first three novels, A Long Day’s Dying , The Seasons' Difference , and The Return of Ansel Gibbs , much of the novel is concerned with the thought-life of its characters. Unlike these novels, however, Buechner's preoccupations in The Final Beast are less concerned with modernist presuppositions – despite the returning themes of grief, loss, and ennui, the presence of futility is less prevalent, although, as Buechner himself writes: ‘doubt and darkness have their say along with faith and hope’. [7]
In Now and Then Buechner recalls the context out of which he wrote his fourth novel. The author had been teaching theology at the Phillips Exeter Academy since September 1958, and took a sabbatical in Vermont during the 1963–64 school year. He describes 'sitting on the living-room couch trying to get on with' his next novel when he received a phone call from a friend:
The president had been shot, she said. He was in a hospital in Dallas. He was not expected to last out the day. No one who lived through that time can ever forget it, of course, or those few days that followed it when the world stood still, and everybody remembers just where they were and what they were doing when the news came through. [8]
By the time the sabbatical drew to an end in September 1964 Buechner had finished the novel, naming it The Final Beast, a phrase taken from the final line in a poem by Stephen Crane, 'God Lay Dead in Heaven'. Elsewhere in Now and Then, Buechner describes his trepidation regarding the publication of this, his first novel since entering into the ministry, and of those who would enter into the novel expecting 'a sermon with illustrations in the form of character and dialogue'. Concerning his own writing process, the author writes that novels begin as 'a lump in the throat':
I don't start with some theological axe to grind, but with a deep, wordless feeling for some aspect of my own experience that has moved me. Then, out of the shadows, a handful of characters starts to emerge, then various possible relationships between them, then a setting maybe, and lastly, out of those relationships, the semblance at least of a plot. Like any other serious novelist, I try to be as true as I can to life as I have known it. [9]
Critical reception
Buechner's first novel as an ordained minister, The Final Beast was received with a certain guardedness by a number of critics. As Dale Brown writes, ‘the news of the ordination was on the streets, and the weight of this outburst of dubiety has pushed against Buechner’s literary reputation since’. [10] Writing in Christianity and Crisis, Amos Wilder suggested that the novel constituted ‘a good test case of whether a modern artist can make traditional Christian language palatable or effective to a general audience today’. [11] Julian Moynahan, in his review published in Book Week , concluded that ‘The Final Beast lodges itself at midpoint between the priest’s and the writer’s way of looking at things’. [12] In an article written for The Spectator , John Davenport argued that the theological centre of the novel is located largely in its common worldview; ‘Mr. Buechner is no puritan’ he insists: ‘He makes us aware that everything has to be paid for and that an awareness of truth is more desirable than a febrile search for 'happiness.'’. [13]
Many critics noted the altered style of Buechner's fourth novel over and against his previous three. Dale Brown writes that the new Buechnerian style was ‘freer’, and characterised by ‘simplicity’ and ‘an instinct for humor’. [14] Writing for Punch, critic Venetia Pollock argued that ‘The writing is excellent and the handling crisp’. [15] Critics such as Katherine Jackson and Arthur Mizener concluded that Buechner had handled and paired his characters, style, and theme with skill. The latter wrote in the New York Times that the novel evoked ‘the beauty and laughter underlying the filth and boredom of this world’, [16] to which the former, in a review published in Harper’s , added the final word that:
This is a story that skates with daring skill and exuberant speed over the thin ice of potential blasphemy, sentimentality, and violence to emerge finally on the firm, smooth surface of honest faith and uproarious laughter. [17]
Godric is the tenth novel by the American author and theologian, Frederick Buechner. Set in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the novel tells the semi-fictionalised life story of the medieval Roman Catholic saint, Godric of Finchale. It was first published in 1980 by Atheneum, New York, and was a finalist for the 1981 Pulitzer Prize.
The Book of Bebb is a tetralogy of novels by the American author and theologian, Frederick Buechner. Published in 1971 by Atheneum, New York, Lion Country is the first in the Book of Bebb series. It was followed by Open Heart (1972), Love Feast (1974), and Treasure Hunt (1977). In 1972 Lion Country was named a finalist in the National Book Award for Fiction. The Book of Bebb is an edited single volume edition containing the four novels, and it was published by Atheneum, New York, in 1979.
This is a list of published works by writer and theologian Frederick Buechner.
A Long Day’s Dying is the debut novel of the American author and theologian, Frederick Buechner. Published in 1950 with Alfred A. Knopf, the novel was received with critical acclaim.
Brendan is the eleventh novel by the American author and theologian, Frederick Buechner. It was first published in 1987 by Atheneum, New York, and it won the Christianity and Literature Book Award for Belles-Lettres in the same year.
The Son of Laughter is the twelfth novel by the American author and theologian, Frederick Buechner. The novel was first published in 1993 by Harper, San Francisco. In the same year it was named ‘Book of the Year’ by the Conference on Christianity and Literature.
The Storm is the fourteenth novel by the American author and theologian, Frederick Buechner. The novel was first published in 1998 by Harper, San Francisco.
The Return of Ansel Gibbs is the third novel by the American author and theologian Frederick Buechner. It was first published in 1958 by Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
The Entrance to Porlock is the fifth novel by the American author and theologian, Frederick Buechner. It was first published in 1970 by Atheneum, New York.
Now and Then: a memoir of vocation (1983), is the second of four partial autobiographies written by Frederick Buechner. Published in 1983, the work describes the author's life from his conversion to Christianity in 1953, at the age of twenty-seven, up to his residency in Vermont at the age of fifty-seven.
Telling Secrets: a memoir (1991), is the third of four partial autobiographies written by Frederick Buechner. Published in 1991, the work considers in depth several scenes and events from the author's life, from his father’s suicide through to his time spent as a visiting professor at Wheaton College.
The Alphabet of Grace is a collection of addresses on Christianity and faith by Frederick Buechner. It was first conceived as a trilogy of sermons, delivered at the Harvard Memorial Church in the winter of 1969. It was subsequently published by Seabury Press, NY, in 1970.
The Magnificent Defeat is a collection of meditations on Christianity and faith by Frederick Buechner. It was first conceived as a series of sermons, delivered at the Phillips Exeter Academy throughout 1959. It was subsequently published by Seabury Press, NY, in 1966. The Magnificent Defeat is Buechner’s first non-fiction publication.
The Hungering Dark is a collection of meditations on Christianity and faith by Frederick Buechner. Preceded by The Magnificent Defeat, it is the second in a series of sermon anthologies preached in 1959 during the author's time at the Phillips Exeter Academy. The Hungering Dark is Buechner's second non-fiction publication, and it was published by Seabury Press, NY, in 1968.
Wishful Thinking: a theological ABC, reissued in 1993 as Wishful Thinking: a seeker’s ABC, is a collection of meditations on faith, Christianity, and theology by Frederick Buechner. It is the first of Buechner’s lexical trilogy, which includes Peculiar Treasures (1979) and Whistling in the Dark (1988). Published in 1973 by Harper and Row, Wishful Thinking is Buechner’s fourth non-fiction work.
The Faces of Jesus: a life story is a collection of meditations by Frederick Buechner on the life and person of Jesus Christ. The work gathers and discusses a selection of artistic portrayals of Jesus, including a variety of forms, from tapestry to sculpture. Published in 1974 by Simon and Schuster, Faces of Jesus is Buechner’s fifth non-fiction work.
Telling the Truth: the Gospel as tragedy, comedy, and fairy tale, is a collection of essays by Frederick Buechner on the subject of homiletics. It was first composed for and delivered at the Yale Divinity School Lyman Beecher Lecture series in 1976. Telling the Truth was subsequently published in 1977 by HarperCollins. It is Buechner's sixth non-fiction work.
Peculiar Treasures: A Biblical Who's Who, is a collection of meditations on the stories of biblical figures, written by Frederick Buechner. It is the second of Buechner's lexical trilogy, which includes Wishful Thinking (1973) and Whistling in the Dark (1988). Published in 1979 by Harper and Row, Peculiar Treasures is Buechner's seventh non-fiction work.
Whistling in the Dark: a doubter's dictionary, first issued as Whistling in the Dark: an ABC theologized, is a collection of meditations on faith, Christianity, and theology by Frederick Buechner. It is the third and final instalment of Buechner's lexical trilogy, which includes Wishful Thinking (1973) and Peculiar Treasures (1979). Published in 1988 by Harper and Row, Whistling in the Dark is Buechner's ninth non-fiction work.
The Wizard's Tide: a story is a novella by the American author and theologian, Frederick Buechner. It was first published in 1990 by Harper and Row, before being re-issued in 2005 under the altered title, The Christmas Tide.