Dec 23, 2009

The Book of Bebb | Literary Precedents

Among the sources of inspiration for Buechner's novels are the Oz books of L. Frank Baum, C. S. Lewis's Surprised By Joy (1955) and fantasies, and the character of the "whiskey priest" in Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory (1940). The Entrance to Porlock (1970) contains modern, adult versions of Dorothy, the Tin Woodsman, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Wizard. It is, however, Baum's character of King Rinkitink, an ostensibly foolish man with great reserves of integrity and strength, which has haunted Buechner's imagination for many years. Buechner...