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The Last Gentleman #2
The Second Coming
Will Barrett (also the hero of Percy's The Last Gentleman) is a lonely widower suffering from a depression so severe that he decides he doesn't want to continue living. But then he meets Allison, a mental hospital escapee making a new life for herself in a greenhouse. The Second Coming is by turns touching and zany, tragic and comic, as Will sets out in search of God's existence and winds up finding much more.
360 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
About the author
Walker Percy
68 books720 followersWalker Percy was an American writer whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is noted for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans; his first, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction.
Trained as a physician at Columbia University, Percy decided to become a writer after a bout of tuberculosis. He devoted his literary life to the exploration of "the dislocation of man in the modern age." His work displays a combination of existential questioning, Southern sensibility, and deep Catholic faith. He had a lifelong friendship with author and historian Shelby Foote and spent much of his life in Covington, Louisiana, where he died of prostate cancer in 1990.
Trained as a physician at Columbia University, Percy decided to become a writer after a bout of tuberculosis. He devoted his literary life to the exploration of "the dislocation of man in the modern age." His work displays a combination of existential questioning, Southern sensibility, and deep Catholic faith. He had a lifelong friendship with author and historian Shelby Foote and spent much of his life in Covington, Louisiana, where he died of prostate cancer in 1990.
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October 5, 2021
Belief Isn't Faith
Walker Percy is often referred to as a 'Catholic writer'. Indeed, like G. K. Chesterton, he became a Catholic in adult life, but unlike Chesterton he didn't become a spokesman for the institutional church.
I suspect that the underlying reason for Percy's ecclesiological reticence was his fundamental scepticism about the category of 'belief’. Religious faith for Percy is not a solution to a problem of life. And he recognised that belief is not necessarily divinely sourced; it could equally be derived as a rationalisation for one's status in life, let's say as a white, middle-class, privileged player of golf in the pleasant greenery of the North Carolina mountains. It comes as revelatory to such a person that "There are only two classes of people, the believers and the unbelievers. The only difficulty is deciding which is the more feckless."
One is reminded of Hegel's nostrum: "You need not have advanced very far in your learning in order to find good reasons for the most evil of things. All the evil deeds in this world since Adam and Eve have been justified with good reasons." Walker's theology therefore is not ultimately grounded in beliefs because beliefs are always suspect.
Faith for Percy is inseparable from doubt about belief, in a commitment to a belief in questioning even itself. This is the real mystery of religion, at least of the Christian variety: "If the good news is true, why is not one pleased to hear it? And if the good news is true, why are its public proclaimers such assholes and the proclamation itself such a weary used up thing."
So also, in contrast to Chesterton, it is unlikely that there will ever be an institutional movement for Percy's canonisation. Thank God for that.
Walker Percy is often referred to as a 'Catholic writer'. Indeed, like G. K. Chesterton, he became a Catholic in adult life, but unlike Chesterton he didn't become a spokesman for the institutional church.
I suspect that the underlying reason for Percy's ecclesiological reticence was his fundamental scepticism about the category of 'belief’. Religious faith for Percy is not a solution to a problem of life. And he recognised that belief is not necessarily divinely sourced; it could equally be derived as a rationalisation for one's status in life, let's say as a white, middle-class, privileged player of golf in the pleasant greenery of the North Carolina mountains. It comes as revelatory to such a person that "There are only two classes of people, the believers and the unbelievers. The only difficulty is deciding which is the more feckless."
One is reminded of Hegel's nostrum: "You need not have advanced very far in your learning in order to find good reasons for the most evil of things. All the evil deeds in this world since Adam and Eve have been justified with good reasons." Walker's theology therefore is not ultimately grounded in beliefs because beliefs are always suspect.
Faith for Percy is inseparable from doubt about belief, in a commitment to a belief in questioning even itself. This is the real mystery of religion, at least of the Christian variety: "If the good news is true, why is not one pleased to hear it? And if the good news is true, why are its public proclaimers such assholes and the proclamation itself such a weary used up thing."
So also, in contrast to Chesterton, it is unlikely that there will ever be an institutional movement for Percy's canonisation. Thank God for that.
February 11, 2022
The Second Coming is a deeply spiritual book, though not a religious one, and I believe its writer, Walker Percy, wrote it to draw exactly that distinction. I think Percy would have said that faith is essential, in fact innate, in humanity, but that we have buried our impulse to truly know and understand it so deep that we mostly founder, like a lost ship, throughout our lives.
His main character, Will Barrett, has everything material a man could want. He has had a satisfying marriage, although he has recently lost his wife, and he has a daughter that he barely understands, and whose idea of a connection to God is an over-zealous religiosity. He is, in fact, a man involved in a soul search. He is looking for God, for some proof of God, for some meaning in a world of evil and indifference, and a definition of moral purpose. He seems to recognize in his fellow Christians that there are more of those who “join” because being a Christian furthers their contacts or gets them into the right golf game, than those who actually embrace the presence of a higher power. There are a lot of church-goers but really very few Christians in Will Barrett's world. In fact, if these people are Christians, they would inspire in us all the hope to never be one.
What Will does to determine whether he should believe or not is devise a sort of challenge to God himself.
“my death, if it occurs, shall occur not by my own hand but by the hand of God. Or rather the handlessness or inaction of God.”
Even in this, I think the reader is allowed to choose. Does Will receive his answer? Does God speak? You really have to read the book and decide for yourself. What we tend to forget, as human beings, is that faith is by definition believing without proof. If you can see it, touch it, know it, no faith is required. Thomas needed to see the wounds in Christ’s body to believe in His resurrection. Thomas may have been a believer, but he lacked faith.
There is much that is cynical and depressing in this story. One could make a very good case for the two main characters being off their rockers. Different is not always worse, sometimes it is just different, and that is how I see Allie and Will, both of whom seem to have better perception than their sane but greedy families and friends. What I also loved about the book is that, while in the beginning there seems to be nothing but desperation, in the end, there is hope.
This is an eminently quotable book. I marked dozens of passages, including one that is a direct reference to Matthew Arnold’s poem Dover Beach (the second time in a week that that poem has been brought to my attention while reading another work. I do not believe in coincidence, so I have to call that serendipity.)
Percy is said to have a great deal in common with Flannery O’Conner, but it was Graham Greene who kept springing to my mind. Both Percy and Greene are Catholics struggling with their faith, and while they take different roads, I think they arrive at the same destination. I am now anxious to go back in time and read Percy’s earlier work about Will Barrett, The Last Gentleman.
His main character, Will Barrett, has everything material a man could want. He has had a satisfying marriage, although he has recently lost his wife, and he has a daughter that he barely understands, and whose idea of a connection to God is an over-zealous religiosity. He is, in fact, a man involved in a soul search. He is looking for God, for some proof of God, for some meaning in a world of evil and indifference, and a definition of moral purpose. He seems to recognize in his fellow Christians that there are more of those who “join” because being a Christian furthers their contacts or gets them into the right golf game, than those who actually embrace the presence of a higher power. There are a lot of church-goers but really very few Christians in Will Barrett's world. In fact, if these people are Christians, they would inspire in us all the hope to never be one.
What Will does to determine whether he should believe or not is devise a sort of challenge to God himself.
“my death, if it occurs, shall occur not by my own hand but by the hand of God. Or rather the handlessness or inaction of God.”
Even in this, I think the reader is allowed to choose. Does Will receive his answer? Does God speak? You really have to read the book and decide for yourself. What we tend to forget, as human beings, is that faith is by definition believing without proof. If you can see it, touch it, know it, no faith is required. Thomas needed to see the wounds in Christ’s body to believe in His resurrection. Thomas may have been a believer, but he lacked faith.
There is much that is cynical and depressing in this story. One could make a very good case for the two main characters being off their rockers. Different is not always worse, sometimes it is just different, and that is how I see Allie and Will, both of whom seem to have better perception than their sane but greedy families and friends. What I also loved about the book is that, while in the beginning there seems to be nothing but desperation, in the end, there is hope.
This is an eminently quotable book. I marked dozens of passages, including one that is a direct reference to Matthew Arnold’s poem Dover Beach (the second time in a week that that poem has been brought to my attention while reading another work. I do not believe in coincidence, so I have to call that serendipity.)
Percy is said to have a great deal in common with Flannery O’Conner, but it was Graham Greene who kept springing to my mind. Both Percy and Greene are Catholics struggling with their faith, and while they take different roads, I think they arrive at the same destination. I am now anxious to go back in time and read Percy’s earlier work about Will Barrett, The Last Gentleman.
September 5, 2017
My first buddy-read with our beloved Kirk... the first blossom of an incredible friendship with an extraordinary soul. Rest well, darling boy. We carry Janice and the boys in our hearts and love you still.
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Knowing a little bit about the actual life and history of the author made this book extremely interesting. The two primary characters each have a psychiatric condition that makes their interactions with those around them dissatisfying and odd. As yin to yang, though, Will and Allie are somewhat opposite in their most obvious symptoms yet each accepts the other with no judgment. To keep others surprised, Ill refrain from listing these characters' peculiarities and will also spare you a "book report" - there is some unexpected action here and there you will want to happen upon yourself.
The author Walker Percy trained to be a physician as a young man - some say he wanted to be a psychiatrist - but contracted TB from a cadaver he was performing an autopsy upon in med school. His resulting illness side-tracked him from his medical studies, and he spent some time recovering in a sanatorium.
He tried writing for a living, but was not overly successful and took to living off the inheritance his wealthy adoptive father/second cousin left him (who was a lawyer named Will - just like this main character!). Percy studied philosophy, and when you embrace his work, the reader can see the influence of those studies. There are also nuggets relating to time confined to a sanatorium, the angst of a wealthy but "unsuccessful" man, and someone whose father committed suicide when he was a pre-teen.
Percy may have taken a long time to get over that suicide, but he broke the chain of the "death-gene" that his character Will fights. About two years after his father's death, Percy's mother was killed in a car accident. In one piece I read, it was said that Percy suspected his mother faked the accident to take her own life as well. Surely, the loss of one's parents by any means will impact a teenager, and adding the topics of depression or suicidal ideation to his characters rings extraordinarily true.
Funny, there is erratic word use in the novel such as the repeated use of the word "farcical" in just a handful of the first pages. That had me scratching my head until I read further. The dialogue from the character Allie is very stilted and extremely odd. She is recovering from electro shock therapy, and as time goes on her wording improves throughout the book. What I came to understand is that these grammatical errors lent authenticity to the characters, even when used in second-person format, and do not reflect on Percy's ability.
He uses symbolism in the leaves of trees, in extinct sabertooth tigers, and reflects regularly on signs - but these techniques aren't blunt or obvious. His words about choosing life over death are blatant, but the subtlety in his technique is smooth.
I have GOT to read the "prequel" to this soon and am entirely thrilled to have enjoyed this as a buddy read with Kirk. Best invitation I ever accepted!
-------------
Knowing a little bit about the actual life and history of the author made this book extremely interesting. The two primary characters each have a psychiatric condition that makes their interactions with those around them dissatisfying and odd. As yin to yang, though, Will and Allie are somewhat opposite in their most obvious symptoms yet each accepts the other with no judgment. To keep others surprised, Ill refrain from listing these characters' peculiarities and will also spare you a "book report" - there is some unexpected action here and there you will want to happen upon yourself.
The author Walker Percy trained to be a physician as a young man - some say he wanted to be a psychiatrist - but contracted TB from a cadaver he was performing an autopsy upon in med school. His resulting illness side-tracked him from his medical studies, and he spent some time recovering in a sanatorium.
He tried writing for a living, but was not overly successful and took to living off the inheritance his wealthy adoptive father/second cousin left him (who was a lawyer named Will - just like this main character!). Percy studied philosophy, and when you embrace his work, the reader can see the influence of those studies. There are also nuggets relating to time confined to a sanatorium, the angst of a wealthy but "unsuccessful" man, and someone whose father committed suicide when he was a pre-teen.
Percy may have taken a long time to get over that suicide, but he broke the chain of the "death-gene" that his character Will fights. About two years after his father's death, Percy's mother was killed in a car accident. In one piece I read, it was said that Percy suspected his mother faked the accident to take her own life as well. Surely, the loss of one's parents by any means will impact a teenager, and adding the topics of depression or suicidal ideation to his characters rings extraordinarily true.
Funny, there is erratic word use in the novel such as the repeated use of the word "farcical" in just a handful of the first pages. That had me scratching my head until I read further. The dialogue from the character Allie is very stilted and extremely odd. She is recovering from electro shock therapy, and as time goes on her wording improves throughout the book. What I came to understand is that these grammatical errors lent authenticity to the characters, even when used in second-person format, and do not reflect on Percy's ability.
He uses symbolism in the leaves of trees, in extinct sabertooth tigers, and reflects regularly on signs - but these techniques aren't blunt or obvious. His words about choosing life over death are blatant, but the subtlety in his technique is smooth.
I have GOT to read the "prequel" to this soon and am entirely thrilled to have enjoyed this as a buddy read with Kirk. Best invitation I ever accepted!
November 28, 2012
There is something almost ineffable that hits me when I read Walker Percy. I think it is the grace of Percy's confrontation and struggle with spiritual belief. His characters are amazing, his prose is lovely. He writes these quirky scenes, in a sometimes peculiar prose without them seeming fussy or overwrought (an amazing balancing act right there).
Perhaps, I am just drawn to my big Trinity of Catholic Novelists(Greene, O'Connor, Percy). They don't play in an easy playground of consecration. They don't write about faith, belief, or redemption as if these topics were easy loads to lift. Percy, to me, meets the Modern man where he is; trapped between light and darkness, between falling and hoisting, between Heaven and Hell. Percy greets the reader and lifts him, slaps him on the ass, and pushes him on his way.
Perhaps, I am just drawn to my big Trinity of Catholic Novelists(Greene, O'Connor, Percy). They don't play in an easy playground of consecration. They don't write about faith, belief, or redemption as if these topics were easy loads to lift. Percy, to me, meets the Modern man where he is; trapped between light and darkness, between falling and hoisting, between Heaven and Hell. Percy greets the reader and lifts him, slaps him on the ass, and pushes him on his way.
February 7, 2022
With apologies to all those who loved this book, I did not. I didn't get it, but now I understand why Percy championed Confederacy of Dunces to get it published. This book's ramblings reminded me of that one. Maybe it was just me and the timing of this read, but I was not in the mood for the strange philosophical ramblings on the meaning of life and death mixed with relious overtones. It seemed farcical to me.
April 3, 2016
This is the story of Will and Allie, two individuals following troubled paths that eventually cross and merge. Each in different ways have experienced more than their share of suffering. Their actions, initially passive, become focused as they pursue contentment in life, enlightenment, and love. In true Walker Percy fashion, their complicated lives are absolute messes. Much of the first part of the book remains dark with unpleasant repressed memories, electroshock therapy, suicidal temptations, failure to integrate into society, and a challenge to God to make an appearance and prove his existence.****In an honest parallel to normal human pathways, nothing is resolved quickly or easily, and when near the end there is hope for a happy and fulfilling existence, it is credible. Percy is capable of developing complex characters he pulls from the depths of his own soul. He lost his own father to suicide (my reading buddy brought this to my attention),and at least some of this could have been his seeking understanding and resolution for his personal tragedy.*** In the end I found this immensely satisfying because of all the quirky, sad, humorous idiosyncrasies of the characters. Coming to know Will and Allie was a true pleasure!
February 24, 2022
Widower and retired attorney Will Barrett has been pensive lately. Although not estranged from his daughter, his relationship with her is superficial at best. However, much of his reflections regarding the suicide of his father and his grandfather. He realizes that his father during a hunting trip,when Will was an early adolescence, attempted sucide (later successful) but also tried to kill his son to spare him the sickness successive male generations appeared to develop. Although not very religious, Will decides to put God to the test by holing up in a cave sustaining on only water and barbituates until God proves his existance and saves him. After a few days, he develops a severe pain from an abscessed tooth. Seeking relief and an exit from the cave he falls through a small cave opening into a greenhouse adjacent to an abandoned mansion.
Will falls figuatively into the arms of a young woman, Allie, who has escaped from a psychiatric institution and has found haven in the greenhouse. Unconscious and physically displeated, Allie cares for him. The two will find completeness together.
I simply loved this Southern writer's prose, especially the dialogue between Will and Allie, who is young enough to be his daughter. Percy captures perfectly the cognition of some one with a severe mental illness with tangential thinking and neologisms. I enjoyed how the two became better people through the other. All characters were fully developed including some of the ancillary characters who had me laughing out loud. If you want a novel that celebrates life this is the one.
Will falls figuatively into the arms of a young woman, Allie, who has escaped from a psychiatric institution and has found haven in the greenhouse. Unconscious and physically displeated, Allie cares for him. The two will find completeness together.
I simply loved this Southern writer's prose, especially the dialogue between Will and Allie, who is young enough to be his daughter. Percy captures perfectly the cognition of some one with a severe mental illness with tangential thinking and neologisms. I enjoyed how the two became better people through the other. All characters were fully developed including some of the ancillary characters who had me laughing out loud. If you want a novel that celebrates life this is the one.
January 15, 2019
In late 2005 I started another round of re-reads of Walker Percy's novels. I'm never sure how a re-read will live up to memory or time, but TSC did just fine. There was one section where I felt bogged down by some details, but I was even more touched by the two main characters than I had been in the past. As I get older, I feel I get more and more out of his novels, especially his later ones. Do read The Last Gentleman, if you can, before you read TSC.
July 7, 2014
Read a few years back, one of the more unique novelist devices I've seen, and the usual superb psychological development from Percy. Entertaining and lively as well!
December 27, 2016
It had been a long pause in my reading of Walker Percy, and this was a wonderful work to re-enter into his crazy, convoluted world. The two main characters (one a depressed, suicidal multi-millionaire lawyer and the other an escapee from a mental institute) couldn't have been more wondrously or wackily crafted.
Percy touches on the themes that are so dear to him in other books such as The Moviegoer, more specifically, what is the meaning of existence, what is the nature of meaning (especially in regards to language), and what is the nature of belief. This book has a multitude of theological and philosophical facets that will take a very long time for me to digest for any sort of comprehension.
All I know today is that I had a great time reading it and I have no idea how to live in this foggy, mystical, and whimsical world. What more could you ask of a book?
Percy touches on the themes that are so dear to him in other books such as The Moviegoer, more specifically, what is the meaning of existence, what is the nature of meaning (especially in regards to language), and what is the nature of belief. This book has a multitude of theological and philosophical facets that will take a very long time for me to digest for any sort of comprehension.
All I know today is that I had a great time reading it and I have no idea how to live in this foggy, mystical, and whimsical world. What more could you ask of a book?
June 4, 2021
Published when Percy was in his mid 60's this book is the work of a survivor. While I typically encourage people to start Percy by reading the Moviegoer, it is in The Second Coming that one sees a much fuller expression of what Percy is on to and up to. The exploration throughout the book of Will's hunting trip with his father in a Georgia swamp is, in my view, the best writing Percy ever did. We have set before us life and death; in a culture that chooses and even loves death (the braver like his father loving real death, the weaker like Kitty loving living death) Percy suggests that life may indeed still be possible - but it just might take a madman (or Woman) to show that it is so.
January 5, 2014
I first read this book shortly after it was published, but decided to re-read it when it was offered (cheap) on my Kindle. I appreciated it more now that I am the approximate age of the main protagonist. The book asks the ultimate question "is life worth living?" We get Percy's answer through the two main characters, Will Barrett, a semi-retired widower, and Alison, an escaped mental patient (who is also the daughter of one of Will's old flames). How these two find each other and, through their respective searches for what matters most, what they discover about themselves and each other, is a delightful literary journey. Alison's language alone--she thinks and speaks as though she has arrived from another planet--is a remarkable achievement for Percy. The book explores the mysterious power of memory to transform a life, if one chooses to allow the transformation. Here is a great passage: "...at the very moment of his remembering the distant past, the meaning of his present life became clear to him, instantly and without the least surprise as if he had known it all along but had not until now taken the trouble to know that he knew." Although the full significance of this "epiphany" does not become clear to the reader until much later, Percy shows how the clarity of one's internal understanding can sometimes be interpreted as madness by those around us. Percy is what I would call a "Christian existentialist" and he is about as good at describing the mysteries of faith as any writer I have encountered.
August 22, 2017
Why do people seek to imprison those near them? There is a subtext of confinement and the issues that are generated from it in this book.
Will's - the male protagonist - recently deceased wife was confined to a wheelchair, did she confine him to an early retirement and others to an old folks home to put them in the same position?
Allie - the female protagonist - escapes from a mental home and avoids her parents trying to re-institutionalize her. Allie's confinement is less subtle than Will's.
In the novel they help each other break out.
Another open question here is whether there is a God and love or feelings of such are chemical products that can be manipulated by science.
Good stuff. However, I didn't love this book. It dawdles. It could be more balanced between Allie and Will. Will gets boring.
Percy has a style where he tells you a big dramatic happening and then goes back for 10 pages to explain how that happening came to be. It should be used more selectively. Also Will makes a literary joke about AE Housman, which I felt was totally out of character. Other authors have written mentally abnormal characters better than Percy does Allie.
This book was recommended because I liked Flannery O'Conner. I understand because they both write about the South. However, Percy doesn't have her force, drive, or exceptionalism.
Will's - the male protagonist - recently deceased wife was confined to a wheelchair, did she confine him to an early retirement and others to an old folks home to put them in the same position?
Allie - the female protagonist - escapes from a mental home and avoids her parents trying to re-institutionalize her. Allie's confinement is less subtle than Will's.
In the novel they help each other break out.
Another open question here is whether there is a God and love or feelings of such are chemical products that can be manipulated by science.
Good stuff. However, I didn't love this book. It dawdles. It could be more balanced between Allie and Will. Will gets boring.
Percy has a style where he tells you a big dramatic happening and then goes back for 10 pages to explain how that happening came to be. It should be used more selectively. Also Will makes a literary joke about AE Housman, which I felt was totally out of character. Other authors have written mentally abnormal characters better than Percy does Allie.
This book was recommended because I liked Flannery O'Conner. I understand because they both write about the South. However, Percy doesn't have her force, drive, or exceptionalism.
November 26, 2023
First: if you're not familiar with anything by Walker Percy, I wouldn't recommend making this your first novel of his. It has all his typical qualities of strange, off-color existentialism; but it's not as poetically written and deftly imagined as The Moviegoer, even though the story is very similar all things considered. There's no way around it: this is a weird book. It's partially an amusing yet disturbing satire on contemporary American life (at least, contemporary American life in 1980—much of it will seem dated today), partially an examination of mental illness, and partially a classic oddball Catholic novel that is just barely about grace—except Percy is even stingier on the clear Christian applications than his forebears Greene and O'Connor, and you may struggle to find anything terribly redemptive here. Like O'Connor, Percy uses "freaks" and madmen and women to illustrate the violent intrusion of the transcendent upon the "living death" of banal existence, and the results are convincing if you're willing to treat this as a necessary shock factor to wake modernity from its slumber. This is a frequently funny book, but much of the humor is bawdy and morbid. Despite the flaws in the construction and the cynical tone, I was just about convinced by its Kierkegaardian quirkiness until the final chapter, which brought things to a level I wasn't comfortable with, morally speaking, and from four stars to three. Is it a "Christian novel"? It depends on how you define that. One could argue that there is no real transformation in either of the two main characters, and no real rejection of nihilism to be found. I thus prefer to see it as more of a wry absurdist examination of disillusionment rather than a homily like an O'Connor story. It's worth reading, but be warned: there's quite a bit of foul language, and although I usually don't appreciate that, I think most of it is justified within the artistic context.
August 29, 2022
Upon a second reading of this novel, I find I enjoyed and liked it more than before. The novel is set in North Carolina, and tells the story of two very different individuals. Will Barrett is a young, widowed, wealthy, lawyer, seemingly on top of the world, who is experiencing an occasional physical difficulty, coupled with depression arising out of his past. Allison is an escapee from a psychiatric institution, who is very bright but almost incapable of the simple day to day transactions of living in the human community. They end up meeting, and finding kindred spirits in each other.
At one point in the novel, Will goes looking for evidence of God's existence, and his wacky experiment ends up leading him into Allison's world. Everyone else thinks the two of them are a little crazy (actually, more than a little), but the sly suggestion is that perhaps they aren't as crazy as everyone else.
The novel is a little off beat, and at times you wonder where is this headed, but it's an entertaining read.
At one point in the novel, Will goes looking for evidence of God's existence, and his wacky experiment ends up leading him into Allison's world. Everyone else thinks the two of them are a little crazy (actually, more than a little), but the sly suggestion is that perhaps they aren't as crazy as everyone else.
The novel is a little off beat, and at times you wonder where is this headed, but it's an entertaining read.
February 5, 2010
"Shortly afterward, he became even more depressed. People seemed more farcical than ever. More than once he shook his head and, smiling ironically, said to himself: This is not for me."
There's an improbable romance in this featuring my least favorite stock character, ie, the zany girl that changes your life and teaches you to love again, but I like this book so much I'll let it pass.
There's an improbable romance in this featuring my least favorite stock character, ie, the zany girl that changes your life and teaches you to love again, but I like this book so much I'll let it pass.
June 26, 2023
Enjoyable read. Couldn’t put it down. Not my favorite of
his stuff but entertaining nonetheless. One of those books that gets in you in your head and makes you feel like your going insane or better still, makes you wonder if life might not be better through the eyes of the madman. Don’t know of any other American author who captures and addresses the distinctively American malaise, with all of its plastic pleasure, like Percy does.
Somewhere underneath all the comical insanity, an avid reader might be able to sniff Percy’s real aim (?): an apology for the Catholic faith against the consumerist existential nihilistic malaise of the recently modern west. But indeed all I did was sniff. Saw some hints of that but found it hard to pinpoint a clear and compelling message. Ending was a bit underwhelming. But so are Episcopalians.
his stuff but entertaining nonetheless. One of those books that gets in you in your head and makes you feel like your going insane or better still, makes you wonder if life might not be better through the eyes of the madman. Don’t know of any other American author who captures and addresses the distinctively American malaise, with all of its plastic pleasure, like Percy does.
Somewhere underneath all the comical insanity, an avid reader might be able to sniff Percy’s real aim (?): an apology for the Catholic faith against the consumerist existential nihilistic malaise of the recently modern west. But indeed all I did was sniff. Saw some hints of that but found it hard to pinpoint a clear and compelling message. Ending was a bit underwhelming. But so are Episcopalians.
July 18, 2020
This is a sequel to what was heretofore my favorite Percy novel, The Last Gentleman. Now The Second Coming is, but partly because it builds upon the themes begun in the earlier novel. Percy is second only to Flannery O'Connor in writing about the need for God, not as Christian dogma, but as a palpable fact of human nature.
February 25, 2022
What a strange and oddly beautiful novel! Percy has captured the logic of the deranged mind and interpreted it back to us in quirky, halting and beautiful prose. I don’t want to try to sum up or explain this extraordinary book for fear I’ll diminish it.
November 5, 2009
A morose, cynical, brilliantly-written work of extreme introspection.
From the moment Will Barrett collapses on a Linwood, North Carolina golf course in the first chapter, it's apparent that he is a man in dire need of something that he's not getting, despite the fact that he is an athletic and wealthy widower who moves gracefully through society's higher levels. From the moment we meet Allie Vaught, who has checked herself out of (not to put too fine a point upon it: escaped) a nearby sanitarium, it's apparent that she too needs more help than she's likely to get while living on her own. It's inevitable and hence no spoiler to the story to reveal that they eventually meet. The pleasures of this book are not so much in the bare bones of its plot as they are in the characters, their inner lives, their conversations and their interactions.
When I began reading this I had to check the publication date, and I was still suspicious... this book has a very 1960s feel to it, although it was not published until 1980. Both the attitudes of the characters and the milieu in which they moved seemed more like a reconstruction of an age which was bygone even then. The language used by these southern WASPs is sometimes very raw and jarring to 21st-Century eyes. Percy's characters use the "N-word" freely, and his protagonist's peculiar delusion (one of 'em, anyway) is that North Carolina is being deprived of its Jewish population in some counterfactual reverse Diaspora.
By the same token, though, I found the period and its characters to be well-realized. Percy was a scintillating writer whose characters are always utterly convincing, even when their motivations are opaque and their attitudes abhorrent.
I can envision the film version clearly, though it could never be made as it should be. No script writer, no director would have the courage and restraint necessary to do this necessary thing: to film the novel simply and exactly as written, to record only the characters' actions and dialogue, and never explain any of their internal states through narration, voiceover or any other trick. To let the story tell itself, to trust the actors to act and the audience to interpret. That's vanishingly unlikely to occur in this muddled world.
I didn't enjoy The Second Coming nearly as much as I did Percy's earlier work. That, however, is no strong indictment of the book itself. This one's just a little too dark, a little too close to the bone. This is without a doubt a complex novel and worthy of attention.
From the moment Will Barrett collapses on a Linwood, North Carolina golf course in the first chapter, it's apparent that he is a man in dire need of something that he's not getting, despite the fact that he is an athletic and wealthy widower who moves gracefully through society's higher levels. From the moment we meet Allie Vaught, who has checked herself out of (not to put too fine a point upon it: escaped) a nearby sanitarium, it's apparent that she too needs more help than she's likely to get while living on her own. It's inevitable and hence no spoiler to the story to reveal that they eventually meet. The pleasures of this book are not so much in the bare bones of its plot as they are in the characters, their inner lives, their conversations and their interactions.
When I began reading this I had to check the publication date, and I was still suspicious... this book has a very 1960s feel to it, although it was not published until 1980. Both the attitudes of the characters and the milieu in which they moved seemed more like a reconstruction of an age which was bygone even then. The language used by these southern WASPs is sometimes very raw and jarring to 21st-Century eyes. Percy's characters use the "N-word" freely, and his protagonist's peculiar delusion (one of 'em, anyway) is that North Carolina is being deprived of its Jewish population in some counterfactual reverse Diaspora.
By the same token, though, I found the period and its characters to be well-realized. Percy was a scintillating writer whose characters are always utterly convincing, even when their motivations are opaque and their attitudes abhorrent.
I can envision the film version clearly, though it could never be made as it should be. No script writer, no director would have the courage and restraint necessary to do this necessary thing: to film the novel simply and exactly as written, to record only the characters' actions and dialogue, and never explain any of their internal states through narration, voiceover or any other trick. To let the story tell itself, to trust the actors to act and the audience to interpret. That's vanishingly unlikely to occur in this muddled world.
I didn't enjoy The Second Coming nearly as much as I did Percy's earlier work. That, however, is no strong indictment of the book itself. This one's just a little too dark, a little too close to the bone. This is without a doubt a complex novel and worthy of attention.
February 20, 2019
I find myself rereading Percy novels. They are philosophical and quite funny.
In this one, Will Barrett as a child hunts with his dad. His father shoots him and then shoots himself. Later his father commits suicide by shooting himself again. Will is a lost soul. He keeps revisiting what happened when his dad shot him. He eventually sees that his father wanted to kill him before committing suicide in order to save Will from a meaningless existence.
Will seeks meaning. His life, while successful on many levels, is a living death. All of Percy's novels point out that we all seem to be existing but not living.
______
July 2015 re read. Percy lost his father to suicide. So did Will in this book. Will spends time and energy pondering his dad's suicide and whether it was right for his dad and for himself. He asks questions and searches for truth. I felt just a touch of Dostoyevsky. Love it. -------
The more I read from Percy, the more I appreciate him. His characters are quirky. His stories are unique. They make me laugh. Yet they also confuse me.
The Second Coming is great. Will discovers that he's not really living. His life, and the lives of others, are a sham. They are meaningless. Ally's life is a mess. She's emotionally damaged.
They meet and fall in love but this is far from a simple love story. The characters are too odd. And Will searches for meaning. He doubts the existence of God. The ending amazed me.
This is one of few books that is staying with me after I've finished. I loved it.
In this one, Will Barrett as a child hunts with his dad. His father shoots him and then shoots himself. Later his father commits suicide by shooting himself again. Will is a lost soul. He keeps revisiting what happened when his dad shot him. He eventually sees that his father wanted to kill him before committing suicide in order to save Will from a meaningless existence.
Will seeks meaning. His life, while successful on many levels, is a living death. All of Percy's novels point out that we all seem to be existing but not living.
______
July 2015 re read. Percy lost his father to suicide. So did Will in this book. Will spends time and energy pondering his dad's suicide and whether it was right for his dad and for himself. He asks questions and searches for truth. I felt just a touch of Dostoyevsky. Love it. -------
The more I read from Percy, the more I appreciate him. His characters are quirky. His stories are unique. They make me laugh. Yet they also confuse me.
The Second Coming is great. Will discovers that he's not really living. His life, and the lives of others, are a sham. They are meaningless. Ally's life is a mess. She's emotionally damaged.
They meet and fall in love but this is far from a simple love story. The characters are too odd. And Will searches for meaning. He doubts the existence of God. The ending amazed me.
This is one of few books that is staying with me after I've finished. I loved it.
October 11, 2011
Was led to The Second Coming by The Moviegoer. I just loved this book. Better than Percy's first.
Again drawn to the mountain setting outside Asheville, NC where my family lived after leaving NY.
Will Barrett is a widower whose wife was rich and did good deeds. He went north as a lawyer and made alot of money, too. With daughter Leslie in tow, he and his wife set up a life in the mountains. Riddled with the knowledge that his father committed suicide and tried to take Will with him, Will tries to ask the right questions and find answers. The key to his unlocking is Allie, an escaped mental patient who's more sane than anyone else he knows. Turns out Will is looking for God's existence and trying to find ways to live in a world full of death and death-in-life. Turns out that his PH levels are wrangling with his brain, but he finds a way to cope: Love well and deeply.
Wonder if the title might tag into Yeats' "The Second Coming." Wonder what all drove Walker Percy to write so intriguingly and respectfully. Wonder!
Again drawn to the mountain setting outside Asheville, NC where my family lived after leaving NY.
Will Barrett is a widower whose wife was rich and did good deeds. He went north as a lawyer and made alot of money, too. With daughter Leslie in tow, he and his wife set up a life in the mountains. Riddled with the knowledge that his father committed suicide and tried to take Will with him, Will tries to ask the right questions and find answers. The key to his unlocking is Allie, an escaped mental patient who's more sane than anyone else he knows. Turns out Will is looking for God's existence and trying to find ways to live in a world full of death and death-in-life. Turns out that his PH levels are wrangling with his brain, but he finds a way to cope: Love well and deeply.
Wonder if the title might tag into Yeats' "The Second Coming." Wonder what all drove Walker Percy to write so intriguingly and respectfully. Wonder!
May 3, 2009
This is probably a whole lot better book than I give it credit for. IT's the second of a series by Percy but stands alone if you can overlook some undetailed background. The plot and the character development are excellent. The main rather religious/spiritual theme, as well as the themes of love and mental illness are given very worthy treatment. The problem I have is the wordiness. Percy just seemed to go on and on and on for no real reason I could fathom, there was no knew info in those pages of alienated mental dwaddle by Will, the male protagonist. I enjoyed Allison's pov far more; she was really lovely.
July 13, 2008
I loved this novel and couldn't put it down. The quirky, and yet oddly believable characters, and their fascinating takes on both the extraordinary and mundane happenings of their own lives. It didn't hurt that the settings were Southern ones, of great familiarity in their own ways. Entertaining and yet deep and thought provoking, I know that more than the Moviegoer, The Second Coming will propel me towards reading the rest of the Percy canon. (9/10)
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August 11, 2016Warnings up front: bad language and mature content all over the place, which must have been even more shocking in 1980. About halfway through, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to the end. But if you can hang on, the last part of the book takes a different turn, and the main character moves from being just a crazy guy with a death wish to acting positively, creating love. This isn't my favourite Walker Percy novel, but it does have its good points.
March 22, 2024
A seriously good book. Percy's work is the best representation I've seen in prose of depression and neurodivergence, beautifully and efficiently following the characters' complex inner lives and many interweaving trains of thought. The religious themes are very well-covered. The book's ambiguity about such existential topics as the existence of God and the degree to which He intervenes in our lives is one of its great strengths, reflecting well the viewpoints of the protagonists. This is something which, as much as it may be understood, is difficult for a depressive to "feel", and the inner monologues convey that superbly. On the whole it comes down on the side of saying that God does exist; He does have a plan for us and He does have a plan for the world. When we find ourselves depressed, it is not something we can really solve for ourselves. For a depressed person, the whole world, believers and unbelievers, seem mad. Yet, it is within the power of God to make that life bearable. The greatest cure for depressive episodes, it seems, is service to God and service to His servants.
The disadvantages of the book are primarily derived from its age, and come, mostly, from its handling of race. While I wouldn't say the book is hateful, its portrayal of black people and Arabs leaves something to be desired, relying mostly on outdated stereotypes and offensive portrayals. There is a great willingness on Percy's part to throw around the N-word. Of course, I don't think Percy is necessarily to blame for this. He is writing characters who lived in a certain time, and had certain views of the world. However, the narrative fails to challenge their views on these subjects, despite being so ready to challenge characters' views on every other matter.
There are also a few instances of stilted dialogue, of the pace feeling a bit rushed at the end. But on balance, a great book.
The disadvantages of the book are primarily derived from its age, and come, mostly, from its handling of race. While I wouldn't say the book is hateful, its portrayal of black people and Arabs leaves something to be desired, relying mostly on outdated stereotypes and offensive portrayals. There is a great willingness on Percy's part to throw around the N-word. Of course, I don't think Percy is necessarily to blame for this. He is writing characters who lived in a certain time, and had certain views of the world. However, the narrative fails to challenge their views on these subjects, despite being so ready to challenge characters' views on every other matter.
There are also a few instances of stilted dialogue, of the pace feeling a bit rushed at the end. But on balance, a great book.
December 18, 2021
Back in his younger days in The Last Gentleman, Will Barrett seemed close to finding some form of enlightenment. He was a smart person with a good heart, who others instinctively liked, and he was a seeker who seemed to make spiritual progress through mental illness, connection to irrational people and events and general aimlessness. Now, many years later, after a successful career as a Wall St. lawyer, a marriage to a now deceased rich woman who he cares for but doesn't really love and early retirement to a small town in the mountains of North Carolina, he seems further than ever from spiritual awakening and is borderline suicidal, but he is still seeking. Once again the keys to progress are mental illness and vagueness, and now a new element, which I found harder to embrace, but ultimately accepted as part of Will's path - despair. Establishment Christianity as embodied by his late wife, New Age Christianity as embodied by his daughter and Enlightenment rationality are of no avail. As a kind of anti-Plato move, he tries to learn the truth about God by going into a cave. Sanity and a degree of contentment can only be found through insanity - going off of his meds and embracing his relationship with Allie who has been "buzzed" with electroshock therapy to a permanent state of irrationality that becomes the vehicle of connection between her and Will.
May 31, 2020
Every time I read a Walker Percy I decide it will be my last. He was an amazing, perceptive, and very funny writer but there is something so odd about his books that make me fidget and want to pull my hair out. Is it because there is very little action, that everything is taking place inside someone's head? It's all a jumble of memories, questions, internal ramblings. If he bugs me so much, why do I keep reading him? Well, because he writes about ultimate questions, about things that really matter, about how lost and weak and pitiful we are.
The Second Coming, at least, is the most cohesive of the three novels I've read thus far. It has a resolution and makes sense to me. It also is hilariously funny. I loved the old men in the nursing home which had me in stitches.
I guess I'll be reading more Walker Percy someday, although not real soon.
The Second Coming, at least, is the most cohesive of the three novels I've read thus far. It has a resolution and makes sense to me. It also is hilariously funny. I loved the old men in the nursing home which had me in stitches.
I guess I'll be reading more Walker Percy someday, although not real soon.
November 6, 2017
I’ve listened to all of the audiobooks available on Audible by this author except one (which I will attend to in the near future) and have never been disappointed. This book was no exception. Insightful, quirky, and engaging. It was hard to turn it off/put it down. I recommend ANY and ALL books by Percy, including this one!
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May 21, 2018- wow, what a read. can't wait to revisit.
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