The Son of Laughter

I was looking to check out this authour Frederick Buechner as he had been recommended to me, and boy I'm glad I did. Since then I've read some of his nonfiction, which I like even more, but here he gives a retelling of the story of Jacob with plausable fictional elements used to give one idea of what the real, human Jacob and surrounding story characters might have been like. Obviously as this is fiction based on the biblical account there is no real way to know the details that we haven't been told, but Buechner brings the story, the characters, the time and the cultures to life in this vivid imagining, in a beautifully written way that highlights the earthy-ness of the story, and even at times its crudity that I just hadn't thought about before. It didn't work so much for me that the story was told non-chronologically, but it suited the rest of the story, nearly as if it was being narrated, with relevant details of both past and future woven into the story as needed. And, though well writen, the story is nothing new. I'd recommend it to anyone who isn't as familiar with the story, and for those who want to see it brought to life or see previously known details from a different perspective