LOVE FEAST
Book Description
Gertrude Conover, a wealthy septuagenarian and devoted theosophist, provides Leo Bebb with the setting, inspiration, and financial backing for his greatest spiritual exploit. Their unlikely friendship begins on a cruiser set for Europe, with Gertude’s astonishing claim that the two have met in a previous life, when she, a ward of the pharaoh, had been impregnated by him, a priest of Ptah. On their return, her lavish home in Princeton, New Jew Jersey, provides the base for Bebb’s new ecclesiastical operation: a Thanksgiving “Love Feast” for students and stragglers.
Meanwhile in Connecticut, Sharon has turned Tono out of the house as their marriage continues its downward spiral. In search of solace and direction, he journeys down to Texas to spend Christmas with Brownie, where he encounters Herman Redpath, Lucille Bebb, and his sister Miriam in a drug-induced vision.
On returning north, Tono finds that Sharon has herself fled south to Florida, and that Bebb’s “Love Feast” has sparked a third great awakening. Bebb himself, however, is greatly troubled by two storms on his horizon: the University, pressured by an influential professor, have finally decided to clamp down on his spiritual extravaganzas, while the IRS have taken exception to his filling out of a tax return form under the name of Jesus. As his final open-air revivalist rally descends into a riot, Bebb goes into hiding, resolving to leave the town with one last gospel message – a farewell stunt that leads to a mysterious tragedy…
Reviews
“Frederick Buechner brings the reader to his knees, sometimes in laughter, sometimes in an astonishment very close to prayer, and at the best of times in a combination of both.”
— Michael Mewshaw, The New York Times Book Review
“Frederick Buechner's Love Feast is the third of his wonderful stories about Leo Bebb, the itinerant minister of the gospel...the word about Bebb is simple—he lights up every page on which he appears, making each one a joy to read and to anticipate, and of all the characters in American literature, only Hemingway’s Bill Gorton rivals him in that respect.”
— Roger Sale, Hudson Review
“Buechner never has had difficulty entertaining; but he clearly has other purposes in mind, and these come through in the frequent moments of tenderness when he lets his characters hurts show. They become vulnerable and in so doing almost, almost let the holy show through...this is neither apology nor satire. It is comment on How Things Are…Buechner, with this trilogy, has established himself as the one who best works the genre.”
— Martin E. Marty, Chicago Daily News
“Frederick Buechner belongs in my parade. He's a rare one—this writer-poet-theologian. This is his eight novel and I am still—to quote the psalmist—drinking the wine of astonishment...this stylish and witty writer makes the faith seem more expansive and mysterious. Reading Love Feast gives one a marvelous sense of joy in being.”
— Cultural Information Service
“Buechner, himself a minister, writes about matters theological with a fine satiric touch and a keen appreciation of human foibles. His novels are exceedingly funny, but they are given great depth by Buechner's genuine affection and compassion for his characters. That is especially true of Love Feast, in which Buechner has marvelous fun with Bebb's amiable conniving but in which he also portrays with complexity and feeling the temporarily disintegrated marriage of Bebb's daughter and son-in-law... Life is precisely what Buechner is writing about. Beneath all the antics of Leo Bebb and those around him there is a continuing celebration of life and the interrelation of lives. Buechner's people may at first glance seem caricatures, but their robustness is merely humanity magnified.”
— Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post
