The novel has also drawn praise from several notable academics and authors. Novelist Tony Abbott wrote that ‘Godric is absolutely astounding, and no matter how many times you read it, it is still moving,’Approved via email: please contact pcooke@frederickbuechner.org for documentation of approval and Revd Dr Michael Lloyd, principal of Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford, suggested that "The first line of Godric is one of the best in all of literature.’Approved via email: please contact pcooke@frederickbuechner.org for documentation of approval In an article written for Newsweek, reviewer Peter S. Prescott also noted the power of the novel’s opening line: ‘From the book’s opening sentence’, he writes, ‘any sensible reader will be caught in Godric’s grip.’ He continues:Like all good writers of historical fiction, Buechner strives less for verisimilitude than for a vision of the past. […] In telling his long story in such a short space, and from both of its ends at once, Buechner glides deftly from the fanciful to scenes that are nearly realistic […] Buechner has risked much in attempting to define the ambivalences in the life of a saintly man, and risked even more by adopting a language that could easily have become overwrought […] Godric glimmers brightly.In addition to that of reviewers, Godric has also met with approval from literary academics. In her work, Listening to Life: psychology and spirituality in the writings of Frederick Buechner, Victoria S. Allen affirms the ‘literary excellence’ of the novel, writing that ‘the literary quality of Godric stands on its own.’ Allen points beyond literary questions to the psychological nature of Buechner’s craft, writing that: ‘In Godric Frederick Buechner’s psychological spirituality finds its ultimate literary expression as an old monk listens to his life.’Allen, Victoria S. (2002). Listening to Life: psychology and spirituality in the writings of Frederick Buechner. Baltimore: American Literary Press, Inc. p. 110. She further adds that, ‘the use of first-person narration and a natural presentation of the inner dynamics of psychotherapy and spirituality produced a work both secular and religious readers found remarkable.’Allen, Victoria S. (2002). Listening to Life: psychology and spirituality in the writings of Frederick Buechner. Baltimore: American Literary Press, Inc. p. 117. Marjorie Casebier McCoy’s investigation into the work of Buechner, Frederick Buechner: novelist and theologian of the lost and found, also features an extensive study of Godric. McCoy suggests that the novel ‘reminds us of all that has gone before in Buechner’s writing’, while insisting that ‘this book must be viewed in a class unto itself among the novels.’ Godric, she writes, 'has all the Buechner ability to draw us into a storied world, to make us listen to the characters and discover that they are talking directly to us, and to compel us to take even the impossible possibility of God and faith in God with complete seriousness'.McCoy, Marjorie Casebier (1988). Frederick Buechner: novelist and theologian of the lost and found. San Francisco: Harper and Row. p. 5. McCoy concludes by proffering what she perceives as the chief ‘insight’, unearthed by Buechner with ‘sensitivity and brilliance’ in Godric: ‘The distinctiveness of Buechner’, she writes, ‘is that he not only knows the theological power of metaphors in stories told with artistic force and set within a comprehensive religious vision’.McCoy, Marjorie Casebier (1988). Frederick Buechner: novelist and theologian of the lost and found. San Francisco: Harper and Row. p. 38.
