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The Wizard's Tide: A Story
An eleven-year-old boy describes the joys and sorrows of growing up in a dysfunctional family with a jobless alcoholic father during the hard times of the Depression
104 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
3 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
About the author
Frederick Buechner
93 books1,238 followersFrederick Buechner is a highly influential writer and theologian who has won awards for his poetry, short stories, novels and theological writings. His work pioneered the genre of spiritual memoir, laying the groundwork for writers such as Anne Lamott, Rob Bell and Lauren Winner.
His first book, A Long Day's Dying, was published to acclaim just two years after he graduated from Princeton. He entered Union Theological Seminary in 1954 where he studied under renowned theologians that included Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, and James Muilenberg. In 1955, his short story "The Tiger" which had been published in the New Yorker won the O. Henry Prize.
After seminary he spent nine years at Phillips Exeter Academy, establishing a religion department and teaching courses in both religion and English. Among his students was the future author, John Irving. In 1969 he gave the Noble Lectures at Harvard. He presented a theological autobiography on a day in his life, which was published as The Alphabet of Grace.
In the years that followed he began publishing more novels, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist Godric. At the same time, he was also writing a series of spiritual autobiographies. A central theme in his theological writing is looking for God in the everyday, listening and paying attention, to hear God speak to people through their personal lives.
His first book, A Long Day's Dying, was published to acclaim just two years after he graduated from Princeton. He entered Union Theological Seminary in 1954 where he studied under renowned theologians that included Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, and James Muilenberg. In 1955, his short story "The Tiger" which had been published in the New Yorker won the O. Henry Prize.
After seminary he spent nine years at Phillips Exeter Academy, establishing a religion department and teaching courses in both religion and English. Among his students was the future author, John Irving. In 1969 he gave the Noble Lectures at Harvard. He presented a theological autobiography on a day in his life, which was published as The Alphabet of Grace.
In the years that followed he began publishing more novels, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist Godric. At the same time, he was also writing a series of spiritual autobiographies. A central theme in his theological writing is looking for God in the everyday, listening and paying attention, to hear God speak to people through their personal lives.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 4, 2021
This book failed to capture me. It's a sad book; when I read that it is a fictional autobiography I regretted the failed connection.
It is also a rule of life that no matter how far the low tide goes out, the high tide always comes in again as high as ever. I suppose that's a handy thing to remember when you're feeling a little low yourself.
It is also a rule of life that no matter how far the low tide goes out, the high tide always comes in again as high as ever. I suppose that's a handy thing to remember when you're feeling a little low yourself.
May 22, 2025
3.5 stars.
August 16, 2013
Wow. I had always thought of Buechner as a writer of sermons and theological essays, but now I've seen the light.
At the start of this book I thought it was well suited to a YA reader, because the main character is a young boy and the author uses this boy's memory to tell the story. Characters and events are so clearly described, and are painted with a child's simplicity and honest perception. For instance:
"Mrs. Shroeder had never learned to swim because she was afraid of the water and couldn't bear to get her face wet and also because she didn't want to ruin her permanent wave. She wore a bathing cap like all the other ladies, but she was afraid water would get in under it somehow. So what she did instead of swimming was pretend to swim. She would go in only about as deep as her waist, squat down so just her head and shoulders were showing above the surface, and then sweep her arms back and forth as if she was doing the breast stroke. Bean thought this was very funny and when Mrs. Shroeder did it this time, Bean went and squatted down in the water near her mother and did the same thing she was doing with her arms but also stretched one leg out as far behind her as she could reach so she could kick the water with her foot. She thought this made the whole thing look even more realistic."
Another passage I highlighted :
"Snow probably doesn't make things any quieter than usual *really*, but it always seems to. For one thing it falls more quietly than anything else in the world, and, for another, if you listen as hard as you can, you can sometimes hear just the faintest, farthest away, most delicate kind of whispery sound happening at the same time. It's as if it's the quiet itself that is whispering, and that makes it seem even quieter still."
I love that.
This is a quick read and I highly recommend giving it an afternoon. And by the way, I don't recommend it for the YA reader -- not until fourteen or fifteen.
At the start of this book I thought it was well suited to a YA reader, because the main character is a young boy and the author uses this boy's memory to tell the story. Characters and events are so clearly described, and are painted with a child's simplicity and honest perception. For instance:
"Mrs. Shroeder had never learned to swim because she was afraid of the water and couldn't bear to get her face wet and also because she didn't want to ruin her permanent wave. She wore a bathing cap like all the other ladies, but she was afraid water would get in under it somehow. So what she did instead of swimming was pretend to swim. She would go in only about as deep as her waist, squat down so just her head and shoulders were showing above the surface, and then sweep her arms back and forth as if she was doing the breast stroke. Bean thought this was very funny and when Mrs. Shroeder did it this time, Bean went and squatted down in the water near her mother and did the same thing she was doing with her arms but also stretched one leg out as far behind her as she could reach so she could kick the water with her foot. She thought this made the whole thing look even more realistic."
Another passage I highlighted :
"Snow probably doesn't make things any quieter than usual *really*, but it always seems to. For one thing it falls more quietly than anything else in the world, and, for another, if you listen as hard as you can, you can sometimes hear just the faintest, farthest away, most delicate kind of whispery sound happening at the same time. It's as if it's the quiet itself that is whispering, and that makes it seem even quieter still."
I love that.
This is a quick read and I highly recommend giving it an afternoon. And by the way, I don't recommend it for the YA reader -- not until fourteen or fifteen.
June 3, 2008
This is a sad story about the way children deal with grief and loss. Very well written and thoughtful, it is the story of ten-year old Teddy Schroeder and his younger sister, Bean during the depression. Told by Teddy as an grown up, "as clearly and simply as he would tell a story to a child - either to a real child or to a child like the one he felt was holed up in his grown-up self with a lot of the mysteries of his childhood that he'd never gotten around to solving." A great book for those who struggle to understand the mysteries created during their own childhoods when things are too big to be truly seen by a childlike mind.
December 15, 2015
A lovely, lyrical story about a young boy's struggles to understand the ways of life and family.
December 25, 2023
What a perfect story to read on Christmas eve! When I picked it up to read, I did know that ending would be on the same day I read it--I guess the odds on that are 1 in 365.
The message is beautiful, inspiring, and memorable. This was the right time in my life to read this charming, simple story of a brother and sister growing up in the Great Depression. The strain put on the family by their alcoholic, unemployed father reminded of my experience persevering through Covid. The ending reminds me of the way Dickens would end his Christmas tales.
The title arrives from a portmanteau word: The Wizard is from the Oz stories, a magician of great powers, and the lessons that tidal phenomena can teach. As such, it teaches me where I find myself on Christmas eve--is it in my home? Where do I call home? because the tide will always take me back to home.
The message is beautiful, inspiring, and memorable. This was the right time in my life to read this charming, simple story of a brother and sister growing up in the Great Depression. The strain put on the family by their alcoholic, unemployed father reminded of my experience persevering through Covid. The ending reminds me of the way Dickens would end his Christmas tales.
The title arrives from a portmanteau word: The Wizard is from the Oz stories, a magician of great powers, and the lessons that tidal phenomena can teach. As such, it teaches me where I find myself on Christmas eve--is it in my home? Where do I call home? because the tide will always take me back to home.
September 14, 2024
Autobiographical story of 11 year old Teddy, whose life is changed by the Great Depression, his father's get-rich-quick schemes, alcoholism in the family. Many of the events in the book parallel events in Buechner's own life and the book deals with his own struggle to play the cards he's been dealt in life. Guilt, responsibility, memory and forgiveness are themes in the book.
As always, Buechner is a writer that doesn't disappoint, but requires careful reading.
As always, Buechner is a writer that doesn't disappoint, but requires careful reading.
July 26, 2020
What a lovely story! I enjoyed seeing family life through the eyes of a precocious eleven-year-old boy during the Great Depression. His parents were flawed human beings who coped as well as they could as their world fell apart. Teddy's determination to remember his father makes a lovely ending to a sweet story.
September 14, 2023
I love Buechner’s storytelling style. Set in 1930 Long Island from the perspective of an 11 year old boy. The Depression, unemployment, doomed inventions, alcoholism. True telling from 11 year old child of alcoholic. Exquisite details of daily life in 1930. Incredible concluding scene of Christmas Eve church service through the eyes of children. Amazing story!
April 10, 2021
This was so beautiful. I audibly gasped at the end. All the characters are so fleshed out and human.
May 21, 2007
Buechner's books are always tender and honest. No character's really ever tapped to play the token villain. All are just people, ordinary and yet extraordinary. This book is no different, and tells the account of young siblings Teddy and Bean and their family in Depression-era America. The book is slim at about 100 pages, but the whole story is compelling. I found the last three pages affecting; it nearly made me cry tears of both happiness and sadness, and I think Buechner wouldn't have it any other way.
June 7, 2016
This is a book to make your heart hurt: how are we all so good and so bad all the time?
It's a little story about rich people during the Depression and how none of us is very rich after all, because richness doesn't mean much if it doesn't mean not feeling pain.
It's written beautifully as a kids' story, and I can't think of any better book to introduce how to think in an emotionally responsible way about the hurt of life. Buechner is a neglected treasure.
It's a little story about rich people during the Depression and how none of us is very rich after all, because richness doesn't mean much if it doesn't mean not feeling pain.
It's written beautifully as a kids' story, and I can't think of any better book to introduce how to think in an emotionally responsible way about the hurt of life. Buechner is a neglected treasure.
January 19, 2014
I loved this tender story of a young boy and his family during the depression as he struggles to deal with the issues of, not only the economic trouble in the family, but his father's struggle with alcohol. The issues of denial and the way the family tries to keep a balance draw a fragile thread through the story.
July 18, 2009
The first piece I've ever read by Buechner. A short novella, ostensibly for children but certainly written with an eye towards adults, it details a year in one family during the Great Depression, told from the perspective of a ten-year-old boy.
Short, sweet, and sad.
Short, sweet, and sad.
August 17, 2015
A well written short story of a young boy and how he processes life in Depression era America. Buechner is adept at eliciting emotion in his reader (at least in me). The analogies he offers between seen and unseen things (in this book, waves and redemption) are powerful and touching.
June 23, 2012
Fabulous writer, draws you right in; sad story.
August 17, 2013
At one point this novel touched me deeply and has not let me forget it in over 10 years. Love this book.
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October 30, 2013An autobiographical work of fiction. Hard to know when real-life experience and the imagination separate and overlap. Sad in so many ways.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews