Buechner has employed a number of techniques in constructing The Book of Bebb. As a minister, Buechner has utilized many devices in writing his sermons that he has reclaimed as a novelist and used in The Book of Bebb. As a preacher, Buechner has not shied away from using sermon illustrations that may come from movies, history, fairy tales, Buddhist philosophy, television and his personal life. Buechner is also able to incorporate material from a number of eclectic sources in The Book of Bebb ranging from the apocryphal gospels and Native American tradition, to King Lear and Abbot and Costello movies. Frequently, his characters such as Bebb, Herman Redpath, Brownie and Joking Cousin are drawn with broad, satirical strokes. However, Buechner reserves a deep compassion for his characters, no matter how out of the ordinary they appear. The reader is prompted to laugh with them, not at them...