Nearer, My God

September 29, 1997
Buckley's account of a 1930s and '40s Catholic childhood spent at English boarding school--and of a family life spent traveling Europe, living in huge homes peopled with butlers and beloved tutors--will not whistle up similar memories for most Catholics of his, or any other, generation. Though the book includes autobiographical sections, this is less an autobiography than a collection of the author's opinions about things Catholic. Buckley and several prominent Catholic converts he consulted give the reader an informative and entertaining earful on everything from post-Vatican II liturgy--which Buckley finds aesthetically and theologically inferior to the old Latin Mass--to such current Catholic hot-button issues as the ordination of women and the use of contraceptives. An appendix presents a summary of the status of religious observances at a number of exclusive private secondary schools. This is a book by an author who eschews the merely trendy and speaks his own mind.

September 1, 1997
More than once, Buckley says this is a personal book, by which he does not really mean an autobiography, although it has autobiographical parts. Indeed, the most autobiographical chapters--the first and second, on his education in religious schools and his army service as a VD educator in Spanish--are the most engaging ones. The succeeding chapters caper from topic to topic in no necessary order, indicating perhaps what Buckley means by "personal": that this is not a straightforward narrative or argument but instead a loose compilation of writings about matters relevant to why he is a faithful Catholic. Some chapters consider theological matters. Some relate personal experiences with faith, such as a pilgrimage to Lourdes. Some are about persons whose faith has especially impressed him, such as the late British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge and Michael Bozell, Buckley's nephew, whose ordination as a Benedictine priest he reports. Some broach the religious dimensions of the social and political controversies that are his usual stock-in-trade, as in a chapter on the influence of Hollywood. Some of the best are colloquies with five friends who are Catholic converts about matters of doctrine and practice. All will please Buckleyphiles seeking insight into what most deeply motivates the dean of American conservatism. ((Reviewed Sept. 1, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)