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 notes the "Rinkitink" personality in other literary figures such as Samuel Pickwick of Charles Dickens's Pickwick Papers (18361837); the mysterious Sunday of G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday (1908); and the aforementioned whiskey priest of Graham Greene, a cleric who is flawed himself but nonetheless dispenses grace to others. The Rinkitink/whiskey priest character was clearly an influence...