The Son of Laughter

"The Bible's account of Jacob is a pungent seed found in a tomb," wrote the poet James Merrill about this novel. "Frederick Buechner has planted it and the result is this beautiful swaying tree of a book." The fact that Merrill was an old friend of Buechner's does not disqualify this eloquent testimony. Indeed, Jacob is powerfully translated here through Buechner's honest and humorous--and cantankerous--voice. We see a living, human character, as always in Buechner's work, whether fiction or nonfiction. From this archetypal tale of feuding brothers he draws a story of family and fear, and a tale of a living God with whom Jacob wrestles in more ways than one. The tale of this life is a rich one: the two wives, Leah and Rachel, the journeys and the dreams--all of it takes on a coloring that is both strange and yet familiar: here is a Jacob both larger than life and yet very much human, very much one of us. --Doug Thorpe