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The Son of Laughter
Rich in family drama, passion, and human affinity, critically acclaimed author Frederick Buechner's contemporary retelling of this captivating and timeless biblical saga revitalizes the ancient story of Jacob, delighted our senses and modern sensibilities and gracing us with his exceptional eloquence and wit.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1993
72 people are currently reading
910 people want to read
About the author
Frederick Buechner
91 books1,210 followersFrederick Buechner is a highly influential writer and theologian who has won awards for his poetry, short stories, novels and theological writings. His work pioneered the genre of spiritual memoir, laying the groundwork for writers such as Anne Lamott, Rob Bell and Lauren Winner.
His first book, A Long Day's Dying, was published to acclaim just two years after he graduated from Princeton. He entered Union Theological Seminary in 1954 where he studied under renowned theologians that included Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, and James Muilenberg. In 1955, his short story "The Tiger" which had been published in the New Yorker won the O. Henry Prize.
After seminary he spent nine years at Phillips Exeter Academy, establishing a religion department and teaching courses in both religion and English. Among his students was the future author, John Irving. In 1969 he gave the Noble Lectures at Harvard. He presented a theological autobiography on a day in his life, which was published as The Alphabet of Grace.
In the years that followed he began publishing more novels, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist Godric. At the same time, he was also writing a series of spiritual autobiographies. A central theme in his theological writing is looking for God in the everyday, listening and paying attention, to hear God speak to people through their personal lives.
His first book, A Long Day's Dying, was published to acclaim just two years after he graduated from Princeton. He entered Union Theological Seminary in 1954 where he studied under renowned theologians that included Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, and James Muilenberg. In 1955, his short story "The Tiger" which had been published in the New Yorker won the O. Henry Prize.
After seminary he spent nine years at Phillips Exeter Academy, establishing a religion department and teaching courses in both religion and English. Among his students was the future author, John Irving. In 1969 he gave the Noble Lectures at Harvard. He presented a theological autobiography on a day in his life, which was published as The Alphabet of Grace.
In the years that followed he began publishing more novels, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist Godric. At the same time, he was also writing a series of spiritual autobiographies. A central theme in his theological writing is looking for God in the everyday, listening and paying attention, to hear God speak to people through their personal lives.
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November 6, 2016
Once upon a time, there was an old man who was called the Friend of the Fear. He was already 99 years old when the Fear promised to make him a father of a multitude of nations. But how was that possible when he had no children and his wife was past child-bearing? Yet not only was the Fear true to his word, he also had a great sense of humor. The Friend of the Fear beget a son at age 100 and called him Laughter.
If you had been attentive in Sunday School, you would recognize this as the story of the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Frederick Buechner retold an old story with startling freshness, wit, and humor. It held me spellbound. It was the first thing I read on waking up and the last thing I read before sleeping. I marveled at how Buechner fully fleshed out the characters based on their principal personality traits. Abraham was described as “a barrel-chested old man with a beard dyed crimson and the hooded eyes of the desert." I could picture him in my mind’s eye.
Names mattered in this story. The nature of the characters was summed up in the names Buechner created for them. Isaac, Abraham’s son, was Laughter because both Abraham and his wife, Sarah, laughed themselves into a fit at his improbable birth. He was also Laughter because he was the "luck bearer" the Fear had designated as the Son of Promise. Then there were Hairy and Heels - the pair of twins born to Isaac, as different as chalk and cheese. Hairy (a.k.a. Esau), the older twin, was portrayed as a simple-minded, bumbling, but lovable red-haired hunter who lived to hunt, cook, and eat. Heels (a.k.a. Jacob) emerged from his mother's womb grabbling the heels of his brother. He was the smooth-skinned, cunning, go-getter who coveted the Promise and robbed his twin of his birthright.
The story was told from Heels’ perspective. Hence, the title, “The Son of Laughter”, could well refer to Jacob rather than Isaac. In one of the most heart-wrenching episodes, Isaac bared his heart to Jacob about his childhood experience on Mount Moriah when Abraham bound him and placed him on the altar as a gift to the Fear. There was an exquisitely lovely episode where Jacob, fleeing the wrath of his brother, first met his beloved Rachel in Haran.
Culturally and historically, “The Son of Laughter” made for fascinating reading. Buechner did his research well and his story had an authentic sense of place and time.
“The Son of Laughter” is a benign title for a story about faith and doubt, love and rivalry, favoritism and jealousy, passion and murder, loss and grief, forgetting and remembering. It is, in short, the story about evil and redemption that is wrapped up in the lives of “the seed of Abraham, the bearers of luck and blessing."
Five scintillating stars. Impeccable prose. Masterful story-telling.
If you had been attentive in Sunday School, you would recognize this as the story of the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Frederick Buechner retold an old story with startling freshness, wit, and humor. It held me spellbound. It was the first thing I read on waking up and the last thing I read before sleeping. I marveled at how Buechner fully fleshed out the characters based on their principal personality traits. Abraham was described as “a barrel-chested old man with a beard dyed crimson and the hooded eyes of the desert." I could picture him in my mind’s eye.
Names mattered in this story. The nature of the characters was summed up in the names Buechner created for them. Isaac, Abraham’s son, was Laughter because both Abraham and his wife, Sarah, laughed themselves into a fit at his improbable birth. He was also Laughter because he was the "luck bearer" the Fear had designated as the Son of Promise. Then there were Hairy and Heels - the pair of twins born to Isaac, as different as chalk and cheese. Hairy (a.k.a. Esau), the older twin, was portrayed as a simple-minded, bumbling, but lovable red-haired hunter who lived to hunt, cook, and eat. Heels (a.k.a. Jacob) emerged from his mother's womb grabbling the heels of his brother. He was the smooth-skinned, cunning, go-getter who coveted the Promise and robbed his twin of his birthright.
The story was told from Heels’ perspective. Hence, the title, “The Son of Laughter”, could well refer to Jacob rather than Isaac. In one of the most heart-wrenching episodes, Isaac bared his heart to Jacob about his childhood experience on Mount Moriah when Abraham bound him and placed him on the altar as a gift to the Fear. There was an exquisitely lovely episode where Jacob, fleeing the wrath of his brother, first met his beloved Rachel in Haran.
Culturally and historically, “The Son of Laughter” made for fascinating reading. Buechner did his research well and his story had an authentic sense of place and time.
“The Son of Laughter” is a benign title for a story about faith and doubt, love and rivalry, favoritism and jealousy, passion and murder, loss and grief, forgetting and remembering. It is, in short, the story about evil and redemption that is wrapped up in the lives of “the seed of Abraham, the bearers of luck and blessing."
Five scintillating stars. Impeccable prose. Masterful story-telling.
February 22, 2021
I still don’t quite know how to feel about this book. While I appreciate the ingenuity of writing a Bible story in the form of a novel, something about it just didn’t sit well with me. I was definitely intrigued throughout the whole book, and it drew out details from the Biblical narrative I hadn’t really considered before — however, it was difficult to tell which parts were true to the Bible and which parts were added in. I almost felt like I needed to have Genesis open while reading the book to make sure I wasn’t believing something that was invented by the author. Furthermore, I appreciate the author’s desire to put forth something raw and honest, but there were so many crass and vulgar inclusions that seemed unnecessary to me and detracted from the story; However, I appreciate Buechner’s desire to show to reality of the human condition and the depravity of man.
July 31, 2021
Wonderful retelling of the old testament stories. Perhaps these Bible heros were more complex than our Sunday school teachers suggested
October 15, 2016
If you’re a purist like me, you might be skeptical about retelling a story that is beautiful in its original form. Indeed, a biblical story retold with added imagination might frighten or even offend you. But not so with Frederick Buechnar’s retelling of Jacob’s story. In Son of Laughter, Buechnar imaginative telling of Jacob’s story puts a spotlight on God’s use of deeply flawed humans. With well planned artistry and pastoral ingenuity, Buechnar’s Son of Laughter reminds readers that the God of the Bible enacts his plans and promises for a cursed world not in spite of humans but through them. The story is told through Jacob’s lens, who often recalls what it’s like to be the grandson of Abraham, the son of Isaac, and the father of 12 sons, in particular Joseph. This is a book about fathers, sons, and a family filled with lies, anger, sex, fear and betrayal. Throughout the story, Buechnar captures the reality that these familial relationships contain blessing and cursing; they are simultaneously charged with a deep pain and an unspeakable joy. This book, like the story of Jacob itself, is about being human, ultimately pointing to the God who became one.
July 16, 2014
This is the third time I've read this extraordinary novel. Every sermon I've ever preached on the Genesis stories of the matriarchs and patriarchs bears the imprint of this book... if I could give it a sixth star, I would!
January 11, 2025
Loved loved reading this. I love when authors use ancient and almost mystical religious storytelling when articulating biblical ideas (like TWHF) — it captivates me by its foreign and intense “other”ness. This articulation of Jacob’s life is crude, unpolished, dirty, vivid, strange, and richly hopeful, which is everything I’ve needed to glean good things from this story.
Humanity is broken and feeble, and yet, the Fear lavishes promises upon us. I believe He was made much of in this story.
Humanity is broken and feeble, and yet, the Fear lavishes promises upon us. I believe He was made much of in this story.
February 12, 2025
Buechner takes a relatively short telling of the life of Jacob in the Bible and retells it in a way that adds humanity and sweat and stink and beauty. This was awesome and genius and made me want to read way more by him.
August 2, 2018
Buechner retells the action-packed Biblical story of Jacob. The novel is bawdy, salty, funny, vivid, violent, crude, heartbreaking--exactly what I needed to rescue the saga from the over-familiarity of Sunday School versions. I've read this novel, my favorite from one of my favorite authors, three times or so, and it's been as life-giving as any an preaching, imagining, analyzing, or parsing of Scripture I've ever found.
“In all I had ten sons and one daughter by Leah and the two maids. Even with the building of several new rooms, Laban’s house was as crowded as a sheepfold. The children were everywhere. They were into everything. One by one they learned to crawl and walk. They learned to talk after a fashion as well as to scream and to make your ears ring with their shrill laughter. They learned to poke and pinch and slap. Before they learned to take care of their needs outside, the house stank worse than the narrow, sun-baked streets of Haran with their little mounds and puddles. They shattered the nights with their wails . . .
. . . I was like a man caught out in a storm with the wind squalling, the sand flailing me across the eyes, the chilled rain pelting me. The children were the storm, I thought, until one day, right in the thick of it, I saw the truth of what the children were.
One boy was pounding another boy’s head against the hard-packed floor. Another was drowsing at his mother’s teat. Three of them were trying to shove a fourth into a basket. Dinah was fitting her foot into her mouth. The air was foul with the smell of them.
They were the Fear’s promise. That is what I suddenly saw the children were. I had forgotten it. They were the dust that would cover the earth. The great people would spring from their scrawny loins. Kicking and howling and crowing and pissing and slobbering food all over their faces, they were the world’s best luck.”
“In all I had ten sons and one daughter by Leah and the two maids. Even with the building of several new rooms, Laban’s house was as crowded as a sheepfold. The children were everywhere. They were into everything. One by one they learned to crawl and walk. They learned to talk after a fashion as well as to scream and to make your ears ring with their shrill laughter. They learned to poke and pinch and slap. Before they learned to take care of their needs outside, the house stank worse than the narrow, sun-baked streets of Haran with their little mounds and puddles. They shattered the nights with their wails . . .
. . . I was like a man caught out in a storm with the wind squalling, the sand flailing me across the eyes, the chilled rain pelting me. The children were the storm, I thought, until one day, right in the thick of it, I saw the truth of what the children were.
One boy was pounding another boy’s head against the hard-packed floor. Another was drowsing at his mother’s teat. Three of them were trying to shove a fourth into a basket. Dinah was fitting her foot into her mouth. The air was foul with the smell of them.
They were the Fear’s promise. That is what I suddenly saw the children were. I had forgotten it. They were the dust that would cover the earth. The great people would spring from their scrawny loins. Kicking and howling and crowing and pissing and slobbering food all over their faces, they were the world’s best luck.”
February 20, 2017
Have you ever actually read the Bible? I mean, sat down and read it, as a book, from start to finish. It's strange - deeply, unsettlingly weird. And it's at its strangest at the start and at the end: in the books of the Torah, and in particular the book of Genesis, and in the Apocalypse of the world's ending amid a welter of lambs and dragons and incomprehensible imagery. (Actually, there's one other area where it is particularly weird, but repetition has dulled its strangeness, and that is in Jesus' teaching. Hearing the Sermon on the Mount again on Sunday, I was struck again at how, by any human standards, what Jesus preaches is completely mad. I mean, if someone hits you, offer him your other cheek to strike again! It is the madness of a view to the uttermost depths of humanity.)
Anyway, the temptation with the story of these patriarchs is to see them as all too modern. But they weren't. The world of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was almost incomprehensibly different from our own. From the brilliance of the stars in a sky of crushing darkness, through to the caprice of kings unbound by any sorts of laws and the walking of a world thick with gods and demons, it was a time utterly unlike our own, rule bound, desacralised era. The physical and the spiritual were bound so tightly together that an oath before God might be made by cupping one's testicles, the seed of the future - or having someone else hold them as pledge and troth! It was a world so strange as to be all but incomprehensible.
But people are people, whatever the gulfs of culture. What Buechner does here is hold in creative tension the chasm and the closeness, making these strange people, the fathers and mothers of nations, understandable without ever minimising the huge gulf in understanding that separates them from us.
The Son of Laughter of the title is Jacob, son of Isaac, for Isaac means Laughter. Jacob means Heels but he is renamed, in the course of the book and the Bible, Israel, which means he who wrestles with God. No more apt description of the Jewish people has ever been written: for they are the people who wrestle with God. The struggle continues.
Most Biblically-inspired literature is full of pious platitudes. Son of Laughter is full of the fierce strangeness of the book that inspired and informs it. So, if you can't bring yourself to sit down and read the Bible, read Son of Laughter for an insight into the fractured, fracturing meeting point of the human and the divine.
In the book, Jacob's name for God is the Fear. That is the beginning of wisdom.
Anyway, the temptation with the story of these patriarchs is to see them as all too modern. But they weren't. The world of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was almost incomprehensibly different from our own. From the brilliance of the stars in a sky of crushing darkness, through to the caprice of kings unbound by any sorts of laws and the walking of a world thick with gods and demons, it was a time utterly unlike our own, rule bound, desacralised era. The physical and the spiritual were bound so tightly together that an oath before God might be made by cupping one's testicles, the seed of the future - or having someone else hold them as pledge and troth! It was a world so strange as to be all but incomprehensible.
But people are people, whatever the gulfs of culture. What Buechner does here is hold in creative tension the chasm and the closeness, making these strange people, the fathers and mothers of nations, understandable without ever minimising the huge gulf in understanding that separates them from us.
The Son of Laughter of the title is Jacob, son of Isaac, for Isaac means Laughter. Jacob means Heels but he is renamed, in the course of the book and the Bible, Israel, which means he who wrestles with God. No more apt description of the Jewish people has ever been written: for they are the people who wrestle with God. The struggle continues.
Most Biblically-inspired literature is full of pious platitudes. Son of Laughter is full of the fierce strangeness of the book that inspired and informs it. So, if you can't bring yourself to sit down and read the Bible, read Son of Laughter for an insight into the fractured, fracturing meeting point of the human and the divine.
In the book, Jacob's name for God is the Fear. That is the beginning of wisdom.
July 8, 2025
I don’t really know how to talk about this book. Like Buechner’s other (fiction) work, it does take liberties but it does also stay true to the source material: the former are not taken in an expressly dishonoring/disrespectful way to the original; and the latter is true such that if you’ve read the second half of Genesis, you know everything that will happen in this book.
Besides that, this book was really engaging and helped to “humanize” some of the biblical characters of whom it can be easy to forget they’re human. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and all those around them were real people!
This book helps to engage the Scripture in a different light: “different” in that some plot points and details are skewed, so it’s good to keep an eye on the biblical text and not accidentally step in the wrong direction; but also a “light” in that the texts are illuminated and given new life, which we might not as easily see if we rote-read the same Torah chapters over again.
Besides that, this book was really engaging and helped to “humanize” some of the biblical characters of whom it can be easy to forget they’re human. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and all those around them were real people!
This book helps to engage the Scripture in a different light: “different” in that some plot points and details are skewed, so it’s good to keep an eye on the biblical text and not accidentally step in the wrong direction; but also a “light” in that the texts are illuminated and given new life, which we might not as easily see if we rote-read the same Torah chapters over again.
August 12, 2024
I'm not typically a fan of re-told biblical stories (I like the originals just fine). But Beuchner's imaginings through the story of Jacob was stunning. He fleshes out the characters to so that they breathe and eat and suffer and rejoice. He allows the people of Jacob's clan to stumble around God (they refer to God as "The Fear"), even confusing his work with that of the local territorial gods that can be packed in a satchel and carried around for convenience. The people's progression toward being the people of God—Israel—is described in very human and often confused ways (as people tend to do).
I found it to be a compelling read. Now I just might go back to the Bible see what I think of that version . . .
I found it to be a compelling read. Now I just might go back to the Bible see what I think of that version . . .
October 16, 2017
This is my second time reading this beautiful book. Luck, blessing, dreams, love, life, death, trickery, cleverness, betrayal ... and evocative language. I am interested to see what my book club thinks of it.
August 11, 2023
I read this book 30 years ago as a young pastor when it was first published. It made the Jacob stories come alive and I remember being kind of blown away by it. That was at the beginning of my career. I'm preaching on the stories again and decided to pick it up again. Now, 30 years later after having become deeply familiar with the stories through preaching and personal study of the Torah, I find the novel to be even more fascinating. The focus is sharp, the imaginative treatment of the stories is vivid and believable, and the profundity of these ancient stories has again amazed me. When Frederick Buechner died, we truly lost one of America's greatest 20th century novelists.
August 10, 2024
I wavered between four and five; when the narrative shifts to Joseph's experiences in Egypt, the tempo quickens. I wish it hadn't. But that is to say, I wanted it to go on and on as it began.
March 9, 2025
“To see your face is like seeing the face of God.”
*chef’s kiss
*chef’s kiss
September 22, 2014
I first became acquainted with this book after reading an excerpt of it in another book, and decided then and there to read it. The Son of Laughter is a retelling of the story of Jacob (and by extension, Issac, Joseph, and even maybe Abraham) - his life, his family, and his encounters with God.
Frederick Buechner is, first of all, a fantastic writer. His prose is elegant. His retelling is delightfully detailed and imaginative, while still faithful enough to the Biblical text enough to to satisfy the most literalist of fundamentalists. The characters are sympathetic and relatable, despite the fact that their culture(s) could be considered radically alien to our own. I may be a bit biased in favor, however - I love ancient anthropology, but I could understand if other readers are turned off by the mindsets and mannerisms of the characters. It made me want to do more research, just to see how accurate all the depictions were.
Case in point: there is a LOT of sex/references to genitals in this book. And not in a sexy way; this is old-timey, ancient world, superstitious, temple-prostitute, polygamist, people-getting-horny-with-sheep kind of sex, sex that had little to nothing to do with love and everything to do with reproduction. We see that reproduction and lineage was so fundamental that the most important and binding of oaths were sworn by guys cupping each others balls (English translations of the Bible put it more delicately with the euphemism "placing the hand under the thigh"), that infertility was everyone's worst nightmare, that child-sacrifice was not considered to be cruelty, but rather the highest and most dreadful act of devotion.
It is steeped in this culture that God makes his promise to Abraham, that his seed would outnumber the stars, that Sarah would have a child in her old age, and instructs that every male be circumcised in reminder. It is in this culture that God reiterates the promise to Jacob, after he is fleeing from his own brother after stealing his father's blessings of fruitfulness. When the common gods are made from wood and clay and metal and are tied to their land, gods who can be cajoled into bestowing their favor, we realize how strange it is for there to be a god without an image, a god with "no dwelling place," whose promises and favor seem arbitrary. This is a possible depiction of early Judaism at its very earliest.
I will definitely keep my eye out for more Buechner in the future.
Frederick Buechner is, first of all, a fantastic writer. His prose is elegant. His retelling is delightfully detailed and imaginative, while still faithful enough to the Biblical text enough to to satisfy the most literalist of fundamentalists. The characters are sympathetic and relatable, despite the fact that their culture(s) could be considered radically alien to our own. I may be a bit biased in favor, however - I love ancient anthropology, but I could understand if other readers are turned off by the mindsets and mannerisms of the characters. It made me want to do more research, just to see how accurate all the depictions were.
Case in point: there is a LOT of sex/references to genitals in this book. And not in a sexy way; this is old-timey, ancient world, superstitious, temple-prostitute, polygamist, people-getting-horny-with-sheep kind of sex, sex that had little to nothing to do with love and everything to do with reproduction. We see that reproduction and lineage was so fundamental that the most important and binding of oaths were sworn by guys cupping each others balls (English translations of the Bible put it more delicately with the euphemism "placing the hand under the thigh"), that infertility was everyone's worst nightmare, that child-sacrifice was not considered to be cruelty, but rather the highest and most dreadful act of devotion.
It is steeped in this culture that God makes his promise to Abraham, that his seed would outnumber the stars, that Sarah would have a child in her old age, and instructs that every male be circumcised in reminder. It is in this culture that God reiterates the promise to Jacob, after he is fleeing from his own brother after stealing his father's blessings of fruitfulness. When the common gods are made from wood and clay and metal and are tied to their land, gods who can be cajoled into bestowing their favor, we realize how strange it is for there to be a god without an image, a god with "no dwelling place," whose promises and favor seem arbitrary. This is a possible depiction of early Judaism at its very earliest.
I will definitely keep my eye out for more Buechner in the future.
June 2, 2023
Got this for Christmas. It's one of Buechner's sad, earthy fictions, this time about the Biblical character of Jacob.
Buechner writes so immediately about being human. There are few writers I enjoy reading more. His work is entirely free of frivolity and distraction, and offers a sublime view of people completely engaged in living their lives, a wonder no matter what they suffer. Like Tolstoy, he writes about individuals in all their glorious individual strangeness, like they're your family. From the book:
"I saw Esau's face. I saw the wet teeth of his tilted grin. I saw his red mane. All that my brother was at any moment was in his face for as long as that moment lasted, unlike me whose face is what I hide who I am behind. There is nothing ever in my face except what I choose to have in it. All the fullness of his anger was in Esau's face when he was angry, or of his lust when he was lustful. When he loved you, his love for you was in his face to overflowing. You drew back to avoid being drowned by it. His bent eyes flooded you with love, his parted lips, the way he cocked his head at you calling you darling, darling, staring at you so hard that it was as if there was never a delight under the sun or the moon like the delight of you."
I recently finished reading the entire Old Testament of the Bible, and Buechner is the one fiction writer I've read who seems to capture its immediacy and its strangeness, its frightening immediacy and its complete otherness, all at the same time.
Buechner writes so immediately about being human. There are few writers I enjoy reading more. His work is entirely free of frivolity and distraction, and offers a sublime view of people completely engaged in living their lives, a wonder no matter what they suffer. Like Tolstoy, he writes about individuals in all their glorious individual strangeness, like they're your family. From the book:
"I saw Esau's face. I saw the wet teeth of his tilted grin. I saw his red mane. All that my brother was at any moment was in his face for as long as that moment lasted, unlike me whose face is what I hide who I am behind. There is nothing ever in my face except what I choose to have in it. All the fullness of his anger was in Esau's face when he was angry, or of his lust when he was lustful. When he loved you, his love for you was in his face to overflowing. You drew back to avoid being drowned by it. His bent eyes flooded you with love, his parted lips, the way he cocked his head at you calling you darling, darling, staring at you so hard that it was as if there was never a delight under the sun or the moon like the delight of you."
I recently finished reading the entire Old Testament of the Bible, and Buechner is the one fiction writer I've read who seems to capture its immediacy and its strangeness, its frightening immediacy and its complete otherness, all at the same time.
September 8, 2016
Frederick Buechner has done a beautiful job of grafting flesh onto the biblical story of Jacob.
As a master storyteller, Buechner's prose provides an immersive experience into the sights, sounds, and smells of ancient nomadic culture. It's raw, gritty, sweaty and brimming with the harsh realities and beauties of life.
Buechner's biographical portrayal cuts no corners. His words capture both the dark and the light of the human and divine dance; giving voice to ancient perspective and passion. Yes, sometimes the language is explicit (this is no children's tale, afterall), but this narrative perfectly captures the emotion, the fatigue, and the grain of the long and winding road that the family of Jacob find themselves travelling.
This is the story of one who wrestles with both God and men--a reality we all share. So read this story expecting to meet our very human selves; as we also find ourselves trying to make sense of this journey we're on.
*The Son of Laughter* is one story you shouldn't miss.
--Tristan Sherwin, author of *Love: Expressed*
As a master storyteller, Buechner's prose provides an immersive experience into the sights, sounds, and smells of ancient nomadic culture. It's raw, gritty, sweaty and brimming with the harsh realities and beauties of life.
Buechner's biographical portrayal cuts no corners. His words capture both the dark and the light of the human and divine dance; giving voice to ancient perspective and passion. Yes, sometimes the language is explicit (this is no children's tale, afterall), but this narrative perfectly captures the emotion, the fatigue, and the grain of the long and winding road that the family of Jacob find themselves travelling.
This is the story of one who wrestles with both God and men--a reality we all share. So read this story expecting to meet our very human selves; as we also find ourselves trying to make sense of this journey we're on.
*The Son of Laughter* is one story you shouldn't miss.
--Tristan Sherwin, author of *Love: Expressed*
January 6, 2010
When another person puts into words what I want to say better than I ever could on my own, I have no qualms quoting them. And so here is Joel's review:
"Whenever he applies his re-imagination to the story of a saint or of characters in the Bible, Buechner always manages in his own way to (1) capture how radically foreign these characters are to my own perspective, experience and sensibilities, and (2) to work out in a ramshackle way what it could look like to embody what it means to be God's blessing to the world.
This re-crafting of Jacob's story from the book of Genesis is a shining example."
"Whenever he applies his re-imagination to the story of a saint or of characters in the Bible, Buechner always manages in his own way to (1) capture how radically foreign these characters are to my own perspective, experience and sensibilities, and (2) to work out in a ramshackle way what it could look like to embody what it means to be God's blessing to the world.
This re-crafting of Jacob's story from the book of Genesis is a shining example."
October 8, 2015
Wow. This book was an incredible read. I rarely encounter a book draws me in to a familiar world and so thoroughly changes how I see that world. This is a creative telling of the life of Jacob, the biblical patriarch. For someone accustomed to Sunday School Old Testament lessons, Beuchner's story telling did not gently expand my imagination- he exploded it with force and beauty and some terror too.
After reading this book I am floored by the grace and mystery of God. Son Of Laughter was very helpful for helping me develop a more robust theology that goes far beyond Sunday School, yet stays within the bounds of what I think is faithful Bible reading.
After reading this book I am floored by the grace and mystery of God. Son Of Laughter was very helpful for helping me develop a more robust theology that goes far beyond Sunday School, yet stays within the bounds of what I think is faithful Bible reading.
January 22, 2017
It's obvious why Buechner was nominated for a Pulitzer. His descriptions are inventive with startling clarity even inside their unfamiliarity. My only complaint is the author's jump to Joseph's story at the end...Jacob's dreaming of his son's life is so vivid and detailed that it loses the dream sense and merely tells the story from Joseph's point of view.
December 16, 2010
Be wary of God's blessings ...
September 23, 2015
Here's a tip. Don't waste your time. If you want a better and the true story of Joseph read your Bible. How do these crap recommendations keep showing up in my Goodreads Historical Fiction feed?
August 31, 2017
The beautiful always surprise us. Everything else in the world we expect as we expect weariness at the day’s end and sun at waking. (171)
I’ve read a bit of Frederic Buechner, though not nearly as much as he deserves. Godric remains a favorite. In that novel, I especially love the way Buechner writes the prose with a cadence that makes it feels like I’m reading a poem or a song.
This latest, The Son of Laughter, was recommended by a good friend, and it tells the story of the Biblical patriarch Jacob, the son of Isaac (whose name means laughter), the son of Abraham, who was a friend of God. The story is familiar—or at least the bones of the story are—to anyone who has read the Old Testament account. But what is truly wonderful about this book is the way Buechner takes the familiar Sunday school account and restores the foreignness and the strangeness that our familiarity with the story has worn away.
Buechner takes the reader back to the earthy, alien, near-savage, almost pagan reality of a dusty tribe of desert nomads who have a peculiar relationship with an unusually singular deity. And he does this while remaining true to the source material yet simultaneously resisting the urge to color the entire account with an obvious Christological teleology (as would no doubt be the case in your standard Family Christian Bookstore retelling).
Instead Buecher tells the story of a tribe learning about this deity they call only “The Fear,” trying to understand (in the midst of great pain and violence) what the Fear’s promise that they will grow to be a great “luck” to all the people of the earth means to them. Along the way, Buechner’s perspective continually reverse-telescopes the view of Jacob and his situations, reestablishing distance between our world and theirs. Surprisingly, this helps explain some things (like circumcision) that seem inexplicable to our modern sensibilities.
The moon is a shepherd with a pitted face. He herds the stars. (56)
The narrative becomes strained in the second portion of the book, where the reader moves from the perspective of Jacob/Isreal to follow Joseph’s time in Egypt. Buechner still tells the story through Jacob’s perspective, which enhances the dream-like distance. Yet this portion remains integral to the story, because the consummation of the promise is so wrapped up in what happens to Joseph in Egypt.
The book ends without any sentimental reassurances about God or his promise to Israel. In fact, in one conversation Jacob admits to his son that the Fear’s promise is only for the living and that Jacob does not know what the Fear has in store for the dead. Buechner leaves the reader with only the glimmer of a greater hope on the horizon. Along the way though, he expertly shows the story of the patriarchs through eyes that make them simultaneously incredibly alien and richly alive.
The Fear gives to the empty-handed, the empty-hearted. In return it is only the heart’s trust that the Fear asks. Trust him though you cannot see him and he has no silver hand to hold. Trust him though you have no name to call him by, though out of the black night he leaps like a stranger to cripple and bless. (184)
I’ve read a bit of Frederic Buechner, though not nearly as much as he deserves. Godric remains a favorite. In that novel, I especially love the way Buechner writes the prose with a cadence that makes it feels like I’m reading a poem or a song.
This latest, The Son of Laughter, was recommended by a good friend, and it tells the story of the Biblical patriarch Jacob, the son of Isaac (whose name means laughter), the son of Abraham, who was a friend of God. The story is familiar—or at least the bones of the story are—to anyone who has read the Old Testament account. But what is truly wonderful about this book is the way Buechner takes the familiar Sunday school account and restores the foreignness and the strangeness that our familiarity with the story has worn away.
Buechner takes the reader back to the earthy, alien, near-savage, almost pagan reality of a dusty tribe of desert nomads who have a peculiar relationship with an unusually singular deity. And he does this while remaining true to the source material yet simultaneously resisting the urge to color the entire account with an obvious Christological teleology (as would no doubt be the case in your standard Family Christian Bookstore retelling).
Instead Buecher tells the story of a tribe learning about this deity they call only “The Fear,” trying to understand (in the midst of great pain and violence) what the Fear’s promise that they will grow to be a great “luck” to all the people of the earth means to them. Along the way, Buechner’s perspective continually reverse-telescopes the view of Jacob and his situations, reestablishing distance between our world and theirs. Surprisingly, this helps explain some things (like circumcision) that seem inexplicable to our modern sensibilities.
The moon is a shepherd with a pitted face. He herds the stars. (56)
The narrative becomes strained in the second portion of the book, where the reader moves from the perspective of Jacob/Isreal to follow Joseph’s time in Egypt. Buechner still tells the story through Jacob’s perspective, which enhances the dream-like distance. Yet this portion remains integral to the story, because the consummation of the promise is so wrapped up in what happens to Joseph in Egypt.
The book ends without any sentimental reassurances about God or his promise to Israel. In fact, in one conversation Jacob admits to his son that the Fear’s promise is only for the living and that Jacob does not know what the Fear has in store for the dead. Buechner leaves the reader with only the glimmer of a greater hope on the horizon. Along the way though, he expertly shows the story of the patriarchs through eyes that make them simultaneously incredibly alien and richly alive.
The Fear gives to the empty-handed, the empty-hearted. In return it is only the heart’s trust that the Fear asks. Trust him though you cannot see him and he has no silver hand to hold. Trust him though you have no name to call him by, though out of the black night he leaps like a stranger to cripple and bless. (184)
January 16, 2023
Buechner's reimagining of Israel's origin stories not only has left me feeling more connected to these ancient characters in a way I didn't realize was possible, but also longing for the kind of theology which finds security and comfort in calling God "The Fear."
"They were the Fear's promise. That is what I suddenly saw the children were. I had forgotten it. They were the dust that would cover the earth. The great people would spring from their scrawny loins. Kicking and howling and crowing and pissing and sobering food all over their faces, they were the world's best luck."
"For the rest of the night we battled in the reeds with the Jabbok roaring down through the gorge above us. Each time I thought I was lost, I escaped somehow. There were moments when we lay exhausted in each other's arms the way a man and woman lie exhausted from passion...it was like fighting in a dream."
"I believe their beauty took each other by surprise, my blue eyed Dinah's beauty and the brave-eyed boys. The beautiful always surprise us. Everything else in the world we expect as we expect weariness at the day's end and sun at waking."
"The Fear gives to the empty-handed, the empty-hearted, as to me from the stone stair he gave promise and blessing, and gave them also to Laughter before me, and to Abraham before him, all of us wanderers only, herdsmen and planters moving with the seasons as gales of dry sand move with the wind. In return it is only the heart's trust that the Fear asks. Trust him though you cannot see him and he has no silver hand to hold. Trust him though you have no name to call him by, though out of the black night he leaps like a stranger to cripple and bless."
"They were the Fear's promise. That is what I suddenly saw the children were. I had forgotten it. They were the dust that would cover the earth. The great people would spring from their scrawny loins. Kicking and howling and crowing and pissing and sobering food all over their faces, they were the world's best luck."
"For the rest of the night we battled in the reeds with the Jabbok roaring down through the gorge above us. Each time I thought I was lost, I escaped somehow. There were moments when we lay exhausted in each other's arms the way a man and woman lie exhausted from passion...it was like fighting in a dream."
"I believe their beauty took each other by surprise, my blue eyed Dinah's beauty and the brave-eyed boys. The beautiful always surprise us. Everything else in the world we expect as we expect weariness at the day's end and sun at waking."
"The Fear gives to the empty-handed, the empty-hearted, as to me from the stone stair he gave promise and blessing, and gave them also to Laughter before me, and to Abraham before him, all of us wanderers only, herdsmen and planters moving with the seasons as gales of dry sand move with the wind. In return it is only the heart's trust that the Fear asks. Trust him though you cannot see him and he has no silver hand to hold. Trust him though you have no name to call him by, though out of the black night he leaps like a stranger to cripple and bless."
March 17, 2019
Many consider Frederick Buechner, the author of “The Son of Laughter,” as an excellent author and enjoy this 1993 novel. “Laughter” is the English translation of Isaac, the son of Abraham, and the son in the title is Jacob. The book is about the three patriarchs.
I can understand why some religious people who accept what the Bible states literally and who prefer to see the biblical figures in the best possible light, even totally sinless, may dislike the book because Buechner depicts the patriarchs in a human way, with many faults. He even imagines members of the family not getting along with others, even Rebecca frequently finding fault with her husband Isaac and saying she should be beaten for her bad behavior. They will dislike reading that Abraham had bad breath and dyed his hair red, that Isaac was traumatized by his dad almost sacrificing him, that Isaac was overweight, that they worshipped God who they called “Fear” and also “Shield,” but also idols.
On the other hand, the story is interesting. For example, Buechner suggests that Jacob preferred to give Ephraim the better blessing than he gave to his older brother Menashe because Ephraim looked like his beloved dead wife Rachel. And although readers may dislike thinking thoughts such as Abraham having bad breath, the story and the way it is told makes readers think. “OK,” they may say, “I do not think Abraham had bad breath, but what kind of man was he, what did he eat, what did he wear, how did he treat others.” In other words, the book will prompt readers to fill-in what the Bible does not say.
I can understand why some religious people who accept what the Bible states literally and who prefer to see the biblical figures in the best possible light, even totally sinless, may dislike the book because Buechner depicts the patriarchs in a human way, with many faults. He even imagines members of the family not getting along with others, even Rebecca frequently finding fault with her husband Isaac and saying she should be beaten for her bad behavior. They will dislike reading that Abraham had bad breath and dyed his hair red, that Isaac was traumatized by his dad almost sacrificing him, that Isaac was overweight, that they worshipped God who they called “Fear” and also “Shield,” but also idols.
On the other hand, the story is interesting. For example, Buechner suggests that Jacob preferred to give Ephraim the better blessing than he gave to his older brother Menashe because Ephraim looked like his beloved dead wife Rachel. And although readers may dislike thinking thoughts such as Abraham having bad breath, the story and the way it is told makes readers think. “OK,” they may say, “I do not think Abraham had bad breath, but what kind of man was he, what did he eat, what did he wear, how did he treat others.” In other words, the book will prompt readers to fill-in what the Bible does not say.
March 21, 2017
I'm not totally sure what to think of this book, but I like it. Others certainly thought highly of it when it came out some 30 years ago - it was the winner of Christianity Today’s Critic’s Choice Award 1994 and the MLA’s Conference on Christianity and Literature’s Book of the Year 1993.
It's raw! The Bible already pulls no punches, but this the story of Jacob told while the censors were at lunch. It's the Biblical narrative with the cultural color commentary added showing Isaac, Jacob, Esau, and all their attending family and cohorts as crude and blunt and culturally shocking as they probably really were. They grab each other's testicles to make oaths on their seed, one or two of them have sex with sheep, they throw dung at each other like monkeys, and they have a very unsure and immature relationship with God whom they call "The Fear". They really knew so little of God in those early days of revelation and they were people of dirt, sand, rocks, animal husbandry, polygamy, leftover polytheism, and tent-dwelling, so I think this book gives us a good unfiltered look into their story.
Yes, is no flannel-graph Sunday school lesson of Jacob and his 12 sons, but it makes you think and it makes these forefathers of ours more real than I've ever felt them to be. That is always a good thing. When the "characters" from the Bible are not pasteurized nice guys who always get it right, but get revealed in all of their gluttony, jealousy, trickery, gossip, lust, and faltering faith we feel like maybe we can make it to the promised land too. We certainly realize when we look at a flawed man like Jacob that the only we any of us make it into the favor of God is by His grace that flows from the love He already has for us and which depends nothing upon our goodness.
It's raw! The Bible already pulls no punches, but this the story of Jacob told while the censors were at lunch. It's the Biblical narrative with the cultural color commentary added showing Isaac, Jacob, Esau, and all their attending family and cohorts as crude and blunt and culturally shocking as they probably really were. They grab each other's testicles to make oaths on their seed, one or two of them have sex with sheep, they throw dung at each other like monkeys, and they have a very unsure and immature relationship with God whom they call "The Fear". They really knew so little of God in those early days of revelation and they were people of dirt, sand, rocks, animal husbandry, polygamy, leftover polytheism, and tent-dwelling, so I think this book gives us a good unfiltered look into their story.
Yes, is no flannel-graph Sunday school lesson of Jacob and his 12 sons, but it makes you think and it makes these forefathers of ours more real than I've ever felt them to be. That is always a good thing. When the "characters" from the Bible are not pasteurized nice guys who always get it right, but get revealed in all of their gluttony, jealousy, trickery, gossip, lust, and faltering faith we feel like maybe we can make it to the promised land too. We certainly realize when we look at a flawed man like Jacob that the only we any of us make it into the favor of God is by His grace that flows from the love He already has for us and which depends nothing upon our goodness.
November 26, 2019
I read Godric and Brendan by Buechner long ago, but I think Son of Laughter is his most revelatory historical fiction. Told from the perspective of Jacob, son of Isaac (Laughter), son of Abraham, it surprises you as it tells the same story you've heard all your life (if you're like me). I especially like Buechner's character and cultural descriptions. The chapter "The Red Heifer" is the best explanation of why people sacrificed animals (goes along with Girard, by the way) and the chapter on Jacob wrestling with his Rival is a kaleidoscope shifting through all the interpretations of this enigmatic struggle, somehow cohering with the text in a way I can only describe as awesome. My quibbles are that the characters other than Jacob are a little too much the same: Abraham and Isaac, all the women, and Jacob's brothers seem too much alike. But this book is really more about the whole story and so it's fine if some characters dissolve into archetypes. The overall impact is that all the characters feel like real people and the story of Israel gains another dimension. It feels like Israel could have happened this way, and it's a down-to-earth miracle as much as the Christmas birth in a cramped stable thousands of years later.
January 13, 2021
Wow. Beautifully poetic prose through and through. Equally amazing was his ability to bring countless and easily forgettable details of this well-worn tale very palpably to life, perhaps due to the additional evocative contextual details indicating quite thorough research.
I do wish Buechner had not changed the main character towards the end temporarily from Jacob/Israel to Joseph. At first I was excited and I became immersed in the beloved character and his unfolding drama in Egypt. However, that dispelled when suddenly it shifted mid-paragraph back to Jacob with a new narrative vagueness from then on. As often happens in novels, it felt like Buechner had been unable to sustain the powerful grip of his original voice and let it henceforth slide sloppily towards the end. At least the final paragraph ends with a profound spiritual question that makes this ancient tale agelessly relevant.
I do wish Buechner had not changed the main character towards the end temporarily from Jacob/Israel to Joseph. At first I was excited and I became immersed in the beloved character and his unfolding drama in Egypt. However, that dispelled when suddenly it shifted mid-paragraph back to Jacob with a new narrative vagueness from then on. As often happens in novels, it felt like Buechner had been unable to sustain the powerful grip of his original voice and let it henceforth slide sloppily towards the end. At least the final paragraph ends with a profound spiritual question that makes this ancient tale agelessly relevant.
February 9, 2024
This was my first book by Frederick Buechner, and boy was I thrown. He retells the story of Jacob, the son of Isaac (which means Laughter). But the retelling is deliberately jarring to refined, modern ears. He tries to put us in the ancient world with lots of crude descriptions of various practices surrounding sex and religion, which were often commingled then. This can be quite off putting to most readers.
But if you stick with it there are some nuggets of bronze to be gleaned. Hearing and heeding the voice of God, against all odds. (Perhaps some Karl Barth-like themes, here.) Being faced with hard, pressing life events, and still believing what the Fear (the God of Isaac) tells you instead.
Can’t really recommend to the average reader, but if you’re doing a study of Isaac, Jacob or Joseph, it may be useful for a different take on their life.
But if you stick with it there are some nuggets of bronze to be gleaned. Hearing and heeding the voice of God, against all odds. (Perhaps some Karl Barth-like themes, here.) Being faced with hard, pressing life events, and still believing what the Fear (the God of Isaac) tells you instead.
Can’t really recommend to the average reader, but if you’re doing a study of Isaac, Jacob or Joseph, it may be useful for a different take on their life.
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