The Wizard's Tide

In his literary critical study, Reading Buechner, Jeffrey Munroe argues that '[b]ecause The Wizard's Tide is a fictionalised version of events during Buechner's childhood, a strong argument can be made that is should be classified as a memoir instead of a novel.'^[5] Munroe points out that the characters in the story are simple replacements of the author and his relatives: 'Teddy' is Frederick; 'Bean' is his younger brother, Jamie; his mother and father are 'Mr. and Mrs. Schroeder'; 'Grandma Schroeder' is Grandma Buechner; and 'Dan' is his maternal grandmother, Naya.^[6]

Buechner scholar Dale Brown suggests that the label 'novel' is 'a problematic classification' since the work is 'directly autobiographical', and argues that it should be 'located'^[7] with his other memoirs, listingThe Wizard's Tide alongside The Sacred Journey (1982) (elsewhere Brown calls it 'the first chapter of The Sacred Journey revisited from a new angle' and with 'withheld parts [...] included'),^[8] Now and Then (1983), Telling Secrets (1991), The Longing for Home (1996), and The Eyes of the Heart (1999).^[9] Noting that the author began composing The Wizard's Tide in the months following his mother's death in 1988, Brown writes that it 'should be read as an important moment in Buechner's self-analysis'.^[10]

Brown also notes within the work the influence of Mark Twain,^[11] while the Kirkus reviewer suggests that the narrative 'faintly echo[es]' the style of J. D. Salinger.^[12]

As a heavily autobiographical work, The Wizard's Tide contains many of the themes that are common to Buechner's publications both fiction and non-fiction. Dale Brown notes that the novella typifies the author's fascination with 'shame, guilt, memory, and forgiveness'.^[13] The Wizard's Tide is also concerned with fatherlessness, single motherhood, family dysfunction, and suicide, a theme to which Buechner returned 'on many occasions'.^[14]

Buechner's discussion of these subjects in a work intended for young adults caused it to be initially rejected by 'two'^[15] publishing companies, who felt that such 'adult themes'^[16] were unsuitable for the target audience.