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: $19.95 $9.99 $6.00.

All moments are key moments.

Buechner, Frederick. Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation. 1983. Harper Collins, 1991.