A paradigm of transcendence pervades Buell's novels, imaginatively conceived from within a Catholic consciousness of God's grace in effecting redemption. Safeguarding the Real Presence from invidious sacrilege, Elizabeth Lucy in The Pyx achieves heroic sanctity, losing her life to gain glory as a martyr to her faith . The Eucharist also has centrality in the lives of Stan Hagen and Martin Lacey in A Lot To Make Up For as they share in the sacrificial oblation at mass. In Four Days, sacred love suffuses profane love, the sanctity of human love being yet another manifestation of God's presence in the world, only to be tragically subverted by deception and self-interest. Buell's Catholic consciousness is also noticeably present in his thematic development of redemptive suffering. In Playground, the narrative reveals that suffering is itself the path to healing. The novel details Spence Morisons's suffering toward what he trusts will be his deliverance, his redemption taking the form of his conversion to a new self-realization about the nature of his humanity. In The Shrewsdale Exit, on the other hand, the need for conversion becomes apparent when Joe Hagen surrenders to a desire for murderous vengeance. A resolution is effected when Joe forsakes revenge, finding deliverance in the assurance that justice will prevail.

A paradigm of transcendence pervades Buell's novels, imaginatively conceived from within a Catholic consciousness of God's grace in effecting redemption. Safeguarding the Real Presence from invidious sacrilege, Elizabeth Lucy in The Pyx achieves heroic sanctity, losing her life to gain glory as a martyr to her faith . The Eucharist also has centrality in the lives of Stan Hagen and Martin Lacey in A Lot To Make Up For as they share in the sacrificial oblation at mass. In Four Days, sacred love suffuses profane love, the sanctity of human love being yet another manifestation of God's presence in the world, only to be tragically subverted by deception and self-interest. Buell's Catholic consciousness is also noticeably present in his thematic development of redemptive suffering. In Playground, the narrative reveals that suffering is itself the path to healing. The novel details Spence Morisons's suffering toward what he trusts will be his deliverance, his redemption taking the form of his conversion to a new self-realization about the nature of his humanity. In The Shrewsdale Exit, on the other hand, the need for conversion becomes apparent when Joe Hagen surrenders to a desire for murderous vengeance. A resolution is effected when Joe forsakes revenge, finding deliverance in the assurance that justice will prevail. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate