Percy, Walker

Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization)

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Not Impressed
Elusive find: an autobiography of literary quality
Perceptions of a Southern Artistocrat
A Lost Voice Of A Lost Cause
provides insights, but read Rising Tide instead

Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization)
William Alexander Percy
Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity
The House of Percy: Honor, Melancholy, and Imagination in a Southern Family
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ASIN: 0807100722

Book Description

Born and raised in Greenville, Mississippi, within the shelter of old traditions, aristocratic in the best sense, William Alexander Percy in his lifetime (1885-1942) was brought face to face with the convulsions of a changing world. Lanterns on the Levee is his memorial to the South of his youth and young manhood. In describing life in the Mississippi Delta, Percy bridges the interval between the semifeudal South of the 1800s and the anxious South of the early 1940s. The rare qualities of this classic memoir lie not in what Will Percy did in his life—although his life was exciting and varied—but rather in the intimate, honest, and soul-probing record of how he brought himself to contemplate unflinchingly a new and unstable era. The 1973 introduction by Walker Percy—Will's nephew and adopted son—recalls the strong character and easy grace of "the most extraordinary man I have ever known." AUTHOR BIO: William Alexander Percy was the author of four books of poetry, and he practiced law in Greenville until his death, one year after the publication of his autobiography. Awarded the Croix de Guerre with gold star for his service in World War I, he also was one of the leaders in the succesful 1922 fight against the Ku Klux Klan in Greenville and headed the local Red Cross unit during the disastrous Mississippi River flooding of 1927.

Customer Reviews:

Not Impressed.......2006-02-06

This is my first book about planters and plantation life. It was my expectation that the author would give more specific information about plantation finances and management. This subject is hardly touched upon. He does briefly give his opinions about slavery, but there is nothing unique about it. Basically, this is a nice, slow look back at a bygone time, but it left me wondering how the heck did these people come about, and maintain or eventually lose their wealth.

Elusive find: an autobiography of literary quality.......2005-10-09

Percy's approach to life can be summed up by a quote from the book: "It is a very nice world-that is, if you remember that while morals are all-important between the Lord and His creatures, what counts between one creature and another is good manners." Percy's book is a rare member of that most elusive category of books - the autobiography of true literary quality. Percy's touch is honest without being journalistic; poetic without appearing over-embroidered; and in his own eccentric person he provides the subject matter which is required to make such a work interesting. He steps out of the late 19th/early 20th century Mississippi delta as a character that could not have existed anywhere else. Affected, genteel, kind, elitist, romantic and with a view of race more in keeping with British Imperial "white man's burden" line of thought than anything American in origin - Percy the character remains fascinating even as the modern reader disagrees with his positions. A clearly and well told tale of an extinct breed (the gentrified southern aristocrat), a lost land (the Mississippi delta of the turn of the 20th century), and a buried epoch (the pre desegregation era). An excellent book - well worth reading not only to better understand a particular aspect of American history but for the pleasure of reading a well written book, regardless of the subject matter.

Perceptions of a Southern Artistocrat.......2004-01-23

It is true that this book attempts to explain the South, in both its physical and social aspects, from the point of view of the "landed gentry." However, a more accurate description of "Lanterns on the Levee" is that of an autobiography of William A. Percy, in which he reflects upon his life and the interesting times in which he lived. I found this book very inciteful into the mind of a southerner, and believe that Mr. Percy did a fine job of bringing his broad experiences with different cultures and social climates into this book, and using these to produce a cogent analysis of his homeland. Though not completely objective (and often bigoted by today's standards), I think that Mr. Percy did his best to "tell it as he saw it," and often admits his biases as a precursor to his analysis. The book is very poetic and philosophical in places, and includes both the subjective and emotional sentiments that one must understand in order to come to terms with "a southerner's love for the south." Additionally, I feel that Mr. Percy (especially in his last few chapters) provides the reader with thought-provoking and highly articulate observations about life, time, and human-nature. I think this book is excellent, and believe it to be a "must read" for anybody with an open-minded interest in the Missisippi Delta region, or the South in general.

A Lost Voice Of A Lost Cause.......2002-12-14

This is one of those books that is almost impossible to objectively review. The writing is elegant and evocative of an era in the South that died almost in tandem with Mr. Percy and yet I find some parts of it so arrogant and condescending that I feel myself grinding my teeth. You see, I am descended from those Mississippi hill people Percy so despised and, even after all this time, I can almost see the languid gaze and soft, drawling voice. My people came to the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta after the Flood of '27 and we build and earned what we got without the benefit of the massive slave labor that built Mr. Percy's fortune.

But this is a book review and I'll put aside old feelings to say that this is a literary gem that brings to life a way of life on which so many stereotypes of the South are built. And Will Percy is amazingly honest in his descriptions of his society. However, a society this simple and yet this complex takes more than just one book to grasp.

Thus, I also recommend "Rising Tide" by John Barry and "The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity" by James Cobb to balance your view of this time and place in history.

Bottom line: This is a wonderful, beautifully written story that is refreshingly candid with none of the defensiveness and politically correct breast beating of many of the works of southern writers of recent years.

provides insights, but read Rising Tide instead.......2002-03-12

Percy's autobiogrpahy offers excellent insights into the heart and mind of those of his class (as close to an agricultural elite as this country has ever produced. But the best of this book is offered unconsciously, by accident or indirection.
If you're only going to read one book about the South, or about this elite, read John Barry's Rising Tide, a truly brilliant and magnificently-- almost breathtakingly-- written book. There you gte all of Percy's story plus more perspective and deeper understanding-- indeed, RT may even give you a deeper understanding of Percy than his autobuiography does.
If you're going to read 2 books on the South, then read RT and Mind of the South by Cash. Cash focuses more on the mindset of the rednecks, while Percy is very much an aristocrat. To a certain extent the Percy and Cash books complement each other. In fact, to Percy the word "anglo-saxon" was an insult. He considered himself descended from the Norman conquerors of the Anglo-saxons, and saw them as serfs. That little insight comes from Rising Tide.

Average customer rating:

The template.
"It was not anger. It was discovery."
Binx or Jack Enlivens Malaise of New Orleans [60][T]
Brilliant
Worth reading to complete the Percy canon

The Moviegoer
Walker Percy
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375701966
Release Date: 1998-04-14

Amazon.com

This elegantly written account of a young man's search for signs of purpose in the universe is one of the great existential texts of the postwar era and is really funny besides. Binx Bolling, inveterate cinemaphile, contemplative rake and man of the periphery, tries hedonism and tries doing the right thing, but ultimately finds redemption (or at least the prospect of it) by taking a leap of faith and quite literally embracing what only seems irrational.

Book Description

Winner of the 1961 National Book Award

The dazzling novel that established Walker Percy as one of the major voices in Southern
literature is now available for the first time in Vintage paperback.

The Moviegoer is Binx Bolling, a young New Orleans stockbroker who surveys the world with
the detached gaze of a Bourbon Street dandy even as he yearns for a spiritual redemption he
cannot bring himself to believe in. On the eve of his thirtieth birthday, he occupies
himself dallying with his secretaries and going to movies, which provide him with the
"treasurable moments" absent from his real life. But one fateful Mardi Gras, Binx embarks
on a hare-brained quest that outrages his family, endangers his fragile cousin Kate, and
sends him reeling through the chaos of New Orleans' French Quarter. Wry and wrenching, rich
in irony and romance, The Moviegoer is a genuine American classic.

Customer Reviews:

The template........2007-05-18

This book is a sort of template for Percy's later work, and should be read by anyone who likes his other books.

For those who haven't read his later novels yet, I'd suggest reading this one first, and also "Lost in the Cosmos."

"It was not anger. It was discovery.".......2007-04-08

Binx Bolling runs a small financial office for his wealthy extended family; he's also the titular moviegoer. The book takes place in late 1950s New Orleans. The country and Binx are flourishing financially after WWII, but a certain ennui is starting to engulf both. Binx comes from a long line of distinguished Southern gentlemen, the kind who populate heroic novels. However, he is not made of the same stuff, as he'll prove throughout this terrific work. Indeed, he spends more time worrying about making money, bedding his secretary, and escaping into movies than he does attempting anything vaguely "heroic." This disconnect leads to his "quest" - a search for meaning.

Fortunately, "The Moviegoer" doesn't rely on this "quest" for much of the plot or ambience. It has plenty of the latter, and just enough of the former to make it all go down nicely. Life's greater questions and dilemmas are touched upon, but Binx is not the type to spend too much effort trying to answer them. Instead, we're left with a fantastically written character study - a piece of life from a fading period about another fading period. "The Moviegoer" is solid Southern literature, with just enough dashes of Mardi Gras and decaying mansions to attract fans of that genre. However, it's also just a damned good novel.

Binx or Jack Enlivens Malaise of New Orleans [60][T].......2007-04-07

John (Jack) (Binx) Bolling narrates this story about the last few days of his 29th year of life. In the end, he is 30 and a very different man.

Jack is not an ordinary New Orleans citizen. He grew up wealthy and amid an educated family: father was a doctor. He attended a private boarding school in New Hampshire (Exeter?) attended Ivy for college and avoided medical school to earn money by the barrel as a stockbroker. And, his family wanting him to meet his goals, kindly and gently keep urging him to leave his self-described life of "malaise" and descend upon a greater life - being a doctor like his father. If you read the biography of the author, he led a similar life - he had been a practicing doctor in the Deep South for decades before this novel's publication occurred in his 40's.

Tennessee Williams probably wrote more about the south than anyone of this generation. But, his characters came from the earth, they were the everyday people who easily trip over ordinary issues - culminating with extraordinary stories. This book deals with extraordinary people who make extraordinary stories from everyday issues.

Leading a life of "malaise" soaked by the humidity and heat of New Orleans, Binx encounters life-making decisions with Kate (a woman too odd to be anything but his beloved), Sharon (another attempted conquest within his one-man office) and assorted friends affected by he and Kate.

If one lives in the south, the character and civility emanating from the lead characters remains true even in this 21st century - publicly polite people can affront others and conspire in private - but in a gentile and fair-minded fashion. And, like any southern authors who preceded him, Percy depicts these strong characters of southern grace to have eloquence. They discuss issues with a great command of the English language which accentuates their already uncommon personalities.

The references to movies are fun and are highlights which permeate this novel - and from which the title arises. Recent novels have shared this concept - "Sideways" being the most obvious with its references of wine names and tastes.

I would recommend this novel to anyone and most especially to those who love southern literature.

Brilliant.......2007-04-06

Binx Bolling is a 29 year old New Orleans stockbroker of good breeding who goes through life with the fog of malaise about him, vaguely searching for authentic living, but usually living emptily through movies, television and romantic escapades with his secretaries. During Mardi Gras week, Binx experiences genuine love in his visit with his mother's second family (Binx's father died during World War Two), a redneckish southern Mississippi brood featuring Binx's sickly, wheelchair-bound, brave and devout fourteen year old half-brother Lonnie, stricken with a disease of the spine, and then in his developing romantic relationship with his second cousin Kate, who is also in search for authentic, meaningful living. Although Walker Percy doesn't end the novel with a fairy tale ending, Binx and Kate seem determined to live an authentic, real life together.

Lonnie is vital to understanding where the Catholic Percy is coming from in the novel. Courageous beyond his years and not self-pitying for his dire circumstances, he actually shows his older brother Binx genuine Catholic piety through his quiet talks with Binx about sins, confession, the desire to fast for Lent despite his severe illness, and love of the Eucharist. As Percy later explained, the most important line in the novel was Binx's explanation to a half-sister that the crippled Lonnie would meet his Lord without the need of his wheelchair. Lonnie will be transfigured when he meets his Lord in Heaven.

Worth reading to complete the Percy canon.......2007-01-21

For my taste The Moviegoer has two things going for it: 1) the Deep South setting of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is engaging; 2) the plot's focus on the search for meaning is appealing. And though Percy does a good job of conveying the flatness of the world as experienced by the protagonist - Binx Bolling - perhaps he does too good a job of it and leaves the reader feeling at times quite as flat; indeed, too flat at points to really care much about the characters or story at all. Perhaps coming to The Moviegoer last of Percy's novels (though it was his first written) I've been spoiled by his more mature writing and am judging his first effort without that consideration in mind. Fair enough. I'll throw in that caveat and grade it as a 3 for first novels. Just be forewarned if you pick it up, it is far less engaging than his other novels - particularly less so than The Second Coming, which I think his best. Read The Moviegoer to complete your reading of the Percy canon or as a point of comparison for his later novels. Whatever you do, don't let reading The Moviegoer dissuade you from reading other Walker Percy as the rest of his works are much more gratifying and worthwhile reads.

Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book

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BULLSEYE
No Chicken Soup Here
A worthwile read . . .
Beauty is in the eye....
Lost in the Cosmos: Essential 21st Cen. Reading

Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book
Walker Percy
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The late Walker Percy's mordant contribution to the self-help book craze of the 1980s deals with the heavy abstraction of the Western mind and speculates about why writers may be the most abstracted and least grounded of all. (Before taking up novel writing, Percy was a medical doctor who became a patient in the very institution where he had worked.) The book disappeared for a time. Now it's back in print. Take the quizzes in it, then take a walk--you need to be back in the world before you write another word.

Book Description

Walker Percy's mordantly funny and wholly original contribution to the self-help book craze deals with the Western mind's tendency toward heavy abstraction. This favorite of Percy fans continues to charm and beguile readers of all tastes and backgrounds. Lost in the Cosmos invites us to think about how we communicate with our world.

Customer Reviews:

BULLSEYE.......2007-05-01

Walker Percy is very much a modern-day Pascal, in that he is wrapped up in the project of waking up modern man from his numb, jaded, over-entertained stupor into realizing what a predicament he is in. It's an existentialist concern, in the Christian-existentialist sense of Kierkegaard, especially insofar as both Percy and the Melancholy Dane are obsessed with the problem of subjectivity, and our awareness of it, and the paltry ways we try, unsuccessfully, to transcend it.

So, this is NOT really a humor/satire book, per se, although the dust jacket's description tries to bill it as such (perhaps to expand the market appeal? Feh!). Early on, though, there is a send-up of the Phil Donahue show that is just *hilarious*. Most of the book is a series of (fairly involved) rhetorical questions, about such things as who in a hypothetical situation you would identify with the most, and why. The way the questions are counterposed, one could accuse Percy of making his points backhandedly via strawman-demolition, but that would be beside the point. Percy's overall aim is to get at the background of all our operating assumptions, and the ways in which we judge and evaluate others in relation to self, and what that says about what kind of thing man is.

In the middle of the book is a digression on semiotics, the theory of signs. One of Percy's central ideas here is that man's cardinal innovation over other animals is his use of signs and not just signals. The "sign" usage is essentially triangular, involving subject, object, and the intersubjective sign, whereas an animal "signal" is two-dimensional, such as "danger, run away." All of our thought and communication is predicated on that sign-based three-dimensional framework. The self constantly has to situate oneself with respect to other selves and in the intersubjective framework that marks our communicative network.

The main human predicament is that that intersubjective framework is essentially unstable due to our confusion about ourselves, and our desire to cover up our insecurities. No solution to this problem is forced upon the reader, although some suggestion of one is implied. The humanist and religious outlooks are both presented, fairly, I think, and the reader is left to evaluate the human condition as portrayed.

The book ends with a couple of arresting sci-fi scenarios, that for thought-provocation, I haven't seen since the likes of Arthur C. Clarke's _Childhood's End._ This is a no-holds-barred look at ourselves that is rewarding as it is unflinchingly realistic, and I highly recommend it.

No Chicken Soup Here.......2006-12-17

Walker Percy is at his best in this fiendishly clever parody of a self-help book. Through a series of provocative questions, he forces the reader to recognize how complicated as well as downright peculiar the human being is, a creature whose nature and deepest desires can not be satisfied by the cheaply proffered "self-esteem" or other banalities of the self-help movement. Not only are we odd, according to Percy, but equally so is the very planet on which we find ourselves. Percy's ultimate aim, then, is a metaphysical one, to reawaken the reader to a concrete sense of mystery within and without. He seeks to upset the apple cart of complacency induced by many self-help gurus fully at home in the world. He challenges their readers to engage instead in a deeper search for meaning and truth.

A worthwile read . . . .......2006-11-21

As some of the other reviews suggest, this is not a book full of side-splitting humor. However, it is humorous and contains a number of worthwhile observations about everyday life.

One review describes it as "nihilistic," but I cannot agree. I found this book to be the exact opposite.

If you have already made up your mind that God/religion/spirituality have no part to play in modern life, then you will probably not care for this book. For everybody else, it is definitely a worthwhile read.

Beauty is in the eye...........2006-06-29

Clearly I was not the target audience for old Walker. I've read obituaries funnier than this, and as another reviewer pointed out, it reminded me as well of long and pointless and self-satisfied conversations with other guys in the dorm, although we occasionally arrived at a conclusion. I was hoping for a spoof, so that's my fault, but even after I had shifted gears on my expectations I could never get into his post-modern, nihilistic points. The only other re-occurring theme seemed to be that if you don't know who you are, where you are, why you're here, or where you're going- then you are certainly superior to those fundamentalist hicks.

I thought I was as neurotic as the next guy, but I'm a piker by Walker P's standards. In fact, I think if you can get up and dress yourself you're probably too healthy and decisive for this book.

I will acknowledge that the book has a bit of a pre-test, and if you score about anything on the pre-test then he candidly admits the book is not for you. I bought the book on Amazon- hard to thumb through and take the pre-test. Score one for the old-fashioned book buying method.

If you are not already a Percy fan and have dreams of becoming one, I'd skip this book for now and go with one of his other books first; that is unless you really enjoy unfunny, open-ended, pseudo-philosophical questions.

Lost in the Cosmos: Essential 21st Cen. Reading.......2005-09-09

Walker Percy was a practicing MD who contracted TB, moved to a warm, dry climate to heal and never looked back. His works sparkle with analytical diagnosis of societal illnesses we all carry. A devout Roman Catholic, Dr. Percy would call that sickness "sin" and see it as an infection we both invent for ourselves and that's been spread to us by others. We become vectors for disease. And at the core of all such infections he sees moral relativism ("Does it meet my needs") as the chief cause. The cure he points out in his "Last Self-Help Book" is accepting a moral absolute ("Is it Right"). He sees that as a hard but ultimately satisfying way to live in the final chapter of the book. But instead of taking away the reader's right to choose as a free moral agent, Dr. Percy gives opposing scenarios: "Do you like this or that? Choose (a) or (b)."
This is a must read for everyone who is sick of the "you owe it to yourself" crap Madison Ave. plays off of to sell us things we don't need and really don't want. This is a must read for right-wingers who think everyone must agree with them or go to Hell; it is equally a must read for liberal elitists who think they can (and have the right to by virtue of special class &/or educations) make moral choices that Dr. Percy believes belong solely to individuals.
If you are searching, buy and read (and re-read) this book.

The Message in the Bottle: How Queer Man is, How Queer Language Is, and What One Has to Do With the Other

Average customer rating:

Always the Novelist
Essential Percy
A brilliant and relatively unknown work
Dense essays about man's 20th century blahs

The Message in the Bottle: How Queer Man is, How Queer Language Is, and What One Has to Do With the Other
Walker Percy
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312254016

Book Description

In Message in the Bottle, Walker Percy offers insights on such varied yet interconnected subjects as symbolic reasoning, the origins of mankind, Helen Keller, Semioticism, and the incredible Delta Factor. Confronting difficult philosophical questions with a novelist's eye, Percy rewards us again and again with his keen insights into the way that language possesses all of us.

Customer Reviews:

Always the Novelist.......2001-11-13

The precursor to the, in comparision, pithy 'Lost in the Cosmos,' Message in a Bottle is less accessible than his later, more famous, book. However, Message... provides all of the necessary academic rigor that 'Lost in the Cosmos' lacks (not that LC is not a great book, it is).

Percy claims that he is, in fact, not philosopher or scientist. Rather, he wishes to be thought of as mere novelist writing as he perceives scientists and philosophers. In fact, this is a sort of claim of superiority in the sense that Percy thinks he knows more about philosophers and scientists than they know about themselves (which may be true). Even so, Percy's methods are quite scientific and philosophic. Message in a Bottle deals with the most important question of all: What is Man? Percy contends, as any good Heideggerian would, that we are essentially castaways on an island. We aren't quite sure how we got here and we don't quite know what we're supposed to do now that we are here. But Percy is a Thomist, not an existentialist (although the two are connected). While Percy finds the greatest evidence for our essential 'lostness' in the altogether baffling phenomenon of language, Percy is nevertheless concerned with what we are to do about out anxiety about existence. Percy is interested in pursuing the Thomistic project; 'completing' reason with revelation.

Essential Percy.......1998-12-04

A few of the essays in this collection make for somewhat dry reading (Percy even says so himself), but if wonder and enlightenment are your goals, then this is an extremely rewarding book. His insights on symbolic reasoning, the origins of mankind, Hellen Keller, Semioticism, and the incredible Delta Factor are invariably fresh and thought-provoking. Percy is really onto something here; he may have only scratched the surface, but what he has revealed has powerful implications for all of us.

A brilliant and relatively unknown work.......1998-12-04

This dense, well-written and extraordinary book is an excellent introduction to the works of a great 20th century thinker. In this collection of essays, Percy manages to confront some difficult philosophical questions in an exciting and readable context. Percy was first a novelist, and his writing is seldom inaccesible. He deals in everything from religion to science, from literary theory to travel. His best writing relates to theories of language and the human being. Yet like some of the greatest X-Files episodes, Percy leaves many things unresolved, liminal, only suggested. Message in a Bottle is designed to stimulate the reader rather than fill them with useless information. I finished reading this book with the desire to read it again, and whenever I see it on the bookshelf I am comforted by the thought that there are people in the world who think for themselves, and who have the courage to print what they think.

Dense essays about man's 20th century blahs.......1998-02-11

There are very few books that I have been unable to finish because of ennui, but this was one of them. I made it about 2/3 of the way through and had to call it quits. This book badly needs editing. Percy asks some engaging questions to begin the book, but it is all downhill from there.

Average customer rating:

An all-time favorite
Great reading? Are you kidding me?
The End Is Near
Saying a little bit in a glorious way
Morality and Honor in a Declining Culture

Love in the Ruins
Walker Percy
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312243111

Book Description

Dr. Tom More has created a stethoscope of the human spirit. With it, he embarks on an unforgettable odyssey to cure mankind's spiritual flu. This novel confronts both the value of life and its susceptibility to chance and ruin.

Customer Reviews:

An all-time favorite.......2007-05-13

Like a good doctor, Percy distracts you with charm or by saying something funny and then sticks you with a shot of the truth while you're off-guard. There are a lot of truths in this zany book that features a lot of Percy's wry humor, perhaps the most important being that the hypersexualization of our society is the product (or perhaps cause) of the deadening of our souls. You'll like the protaganist, Dr. Tom More, enough to want to read the sequel "The Thanatos Syndrome." Finally, if you Google "Ralph Wood Love in the Ruins" you'll find an English professor's insightful notes on this book. They draw out some meaning that I'd missed. I usually don't read books twice but I had seconds on this one.

Great reading? Are you kidding me?.......2007-05-05

Who could possibly claim the following sentence (which DOES occur in this novel) is in any way good, or that it was written by an author with even a shred of skill?: "High though he was getting, Chuck, what with his three years at M.I.T. and his 800 SAT score, is digging me utterly."

Flannery O'Connor, in a letter to one of her friends, wrote of Thomas Wolfe that anyone who admired his novels liked good fiction only by accident. The same holds true for Walker Percy.

The End Is Near.......2007-04-24

What do you do when the world is coming to an end right before your very eyes, but no one seems to believe you? That is the concept facing Dr. Thomas More, distant relation to the famous/infamous Saint Thomas More, in Walker Percy's novel "Love In The Ruins". The United States is at a time of crisis, but few seem to understand the implications of the events unfolding around them. It is up to Dr. More, who knows how to diagnose the problem, but not necessarily treat it, to try to prevent the chaos from happening.

The story begins on a hot fourth of July, with Doc staking out the abandoned Howard Johnsons motel in town. In three separate rooms he has cocooned his three paramours and he is waiting for an event that he knows is going to happen; an event that could very possibly bring about the end of the world. The novel then shifts back in time to the three previous days, tracing Doc's journey that led him to seek refuge at the motel. The reader learns that he has created a Ontological Lapsometer, a sort of "stethoscope of the human spirit", through which he can diagnose exactly what ails a person's soul, and finally discovers how to treat it. Meanwhile, there is a revolution brewing; the Bantus and love children are ready to take over what the white man has destroyed, if a major catastrophe doesn't befall everyone before that can happen.

"Love In The Ruins" is a truly southern novel, crafted through Percy's intelligence and tempered with the same absurdity that is a trademark of great southern writers such as Percy and Flannery O'Connor. The reader must suspend disbelief as to the events unfolding, even though they are frighteningly realistic, and not so far-fetched in this present day. Percy's hero Doc More is an antihero on par with those of Hemingway; flawed, prone to drink, forever chasing after women who are wrong for him. This novel is his coming-of-age, in a sense, because Doc learns what it is he wants out of life, and how to best achieve that. Subtitled "The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World", "Love In The Ruins" is a deliciously funny and poignant look at a near-apocalyptic America.

Saying a little bit in a glorious way.......2007-01-10

Walker Percy was a little too much of a child of post-WWII America, taking himself, his Catholicism, the South, and Manifest Destiny entirely too seriously. That being said, he was a gifted author, and "Love in the Ruins" showcases his keen powers of observation, a Chestertonian ability to wonder at triviality, and an incisive wit.

I cannot help but compare Percy to John Barth. Love in the Ruins bears similarity to Giles Goat-Boy in the sense that both are thoroughly informed by the temporal abortion of the 1960's. But where Barth never emerged from his cocoon of depravity, Percy walks the same ground and retains a vestigal morality. Though the majority of Love in the Ruins is a dystopic fantasy, Percy is able to communicate real and heartrending emotion through Dr. Tom More's periodic memories of his daughter. Outside of this one thread (never fully developed) Percy's work is synthetic: brilliant, but inhuman.

There is an interesting bit of commentary on the Catholic Church as seen through the lens of post Vatican II confusion, and it is hard not to see a parallel between the three "loves" of Dr. More and the three pieces of the splintered Catholic Church. Whereas Percy invents a schism in which the American Catholic Church, the Dutch Schismatics, and the Roman Catholic Church compete with varying effectiveness for the Catholic population, so do Lola, Moira, and Ellen lay different claims to More's ultimate allegience. Lola, like the (Tridentine) American Catholic Church, is big, graceless, but a talented classical cellist. Commitment to Lola would bring More into the goodwill of society and offer a comfortable life in the presence of a hollow classicism. Moira, like the Dutch Schismatics, is shallow, sexual and effortless; offering little but expecting nothing. Ellen, like the Roman Church, is demanding, presumptuous, somewhat naive, but salvific.

Love in the Ruins is a novel of tensions, with the protaganist held in a sort of self-imposed exile in the midst of those tensions: neither Knothead or Leftist, scientist or layman, AmChurch or Roman. The novel concerns the inflection points associated with the inability to sustain these tensions. Percy paints man as a being with a deep rift in his nature, paved with a thin veneer that disguises the self divorced from itself. And, being a novel concerned ultimately with God, Percy paints a tantalizing picture: his image of man forsaken of himself gives a clue to the fullness of the human condition expressed as God forsaken of God in the cry: "Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani?"

While taken as a whole, the ending is not satisfying in the Dickensian sense, Love in the Ruins is not a morbid novel. Nor is it a progressive novel. Adherents of Call to Action and modern Amchurch afficianados will find an unstable ally in Percy, for his soteriology is as fully developed as his catechism. Percy, through Dr. More, emerges from the fog of zeitgeist intact, which is much more than can be said of most of his generation.

Morality and Honor in a Declining Culture.......2006-07-15

Walker Percy was a shrewd observer of culture: locally in the South of his birth, more broadly in the western world of the late 20th century. The author's pessimism speaks broadly of decline and loss; yet in the midst of it all, his protagonist clings to hope. Why? Rather than resolving our questions, this book raises them in tribute and salute. This book will linger in your awareness.

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Rewarding for a certain kind of reader
Loose Ends
Marvelous
Have to read it again
Plied with masterful insight and pace

The Second Coming: A Novel
Walker Percy
Manufacturer: Picador
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312243243

Book Description

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.

Customer Reviews:

Rewarding for a certain kind of reader.......2007-06-15

I first read this novel when I was quite young. I found the chapters about Allie fascinating, and the chapters about Will perplexing and boring, so I skimmed them. This was of course a mistake. As I re-read the novel recently, I realized how huge my mistake was. I was inspired to re-read the novel following the psychiatric hospitalization of a family member, who seemed to communicate easily with his fellow patients and less well with us. I dimly recalled reading a novel about two people who are experiencing some mental problems and connect with each other much better than with the world at large. After a long and peculiar conversation with a book store clerk, I found this book again. Now that I am in my forties, I am a more patient and careful reader, and my life experience has made me far more interested in the ruminations of Will Barrett. It is important to understand that the author is letting us experience what it feels like to be in Will's head, and it is sometimes a strange place to be, where the narrative does not flow easily, and important insights and plot points pop up unexpectedly. I loved every moment of my second reading of this book, and I expect it will become one of the books that I re-read periodically, like Middlemarch.

Loose Ends.......2007-04-01

This is a very scattered novel with lots of needless repetitions. What was Percy on when he wrote this thing? There are so many loose ends it would take an additional book just to tie them all together. My response to this book is similar to the incessant grunts of the protagonist Will Barrett--"Huh"?, "What"?, "Who"? "Eh"? For me a poor ending and an unsatisfying read. Perhaps I should go back and read it again to see what all these five stars are about.

Marvelous.......2007-02-07

What's so special about this novel is that the characters maintain complete credibility in almost incredible circumstances. I kept rooting for them al.l the way, hoping their completely impossible romance would issue inter sober (and sanctified) reality. But that's what this author lived.

Have to read it again.......2006-09-22

This book is filled with quotations and observations that are so easy to fly by. The plot is out there, the characters odd. It is hard to describe it as 'good', rather I would say it is exceptional. Who else today writes this stuff? Simply, Walker Percy is a genius. I have to read it again.

Plied with masterful insight and pace.......2006-09-19

The "Second Coming" is the sequel to "The Last Gentleman," expanding, and one supposes, finishing the story of the wealthy but mentally troubled middle-aged protagonist Will Barrett and his relationship with Allison, a young woman who has escaped from a mental hospital to live in a ruined greenhouse.

Walker Percy, certainly a candidate for the best American novelist in the latter part of the 20th century, offers a deeply piercing look at what living outside of the center or norm of society costs his main characters, both emotionally and physically. Rather than plying for sympathy, he vests both main characters with complimentary strengths and weaknesses, showing how as a whole both are strong enough to wrest back control of lives slipping away, and how it is possible to do everyday things, make simple decisions, move forward with their lives.

As if anything were this simple in real life or in Mr. Percy's amazingly real facsimile of life. The getting to the point of redemption--the proverbial second coming--only occurs after dire self-introspection and wrestling with demons from the past; alienation from family, friends, society (not that such is altogether bad in this context); botched attempts to engage the Christian God directly; and physical and mental angst, all plied with masterful insight and pace by Mr. Percy.

His skill with creating such real-sounding conversations and with describing places, faces, and characters make stopping to reread and savor passages inevitable. Mr. Percy's best writing demands such focus, and numerous instances are found throughout this well-regarded novel.

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off the beaten track of modern life
Repetitive, But Revealing
Outstanding Percy Compilation
Great introduction to a great American thinker
Great introduction to a great American thinker

Signposts in a Strange Land: Essays
Walker Percy
Manufacturer: Picador
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ASIN: 0312254199

Book Description

At his death in 1990, Walker Percy left a considerable legacy of uncollected nonfiction. Assembled in Signposts in a Strange Land, these essays on language, literature, philosophy, religion, psychiatry, morality, and life and letters in the South display the imaginative versatility of an author considered by many to be one the greatest modern American writers.

Customer Reviews:

off the beaten track of modern life.......2003-09-15

a better title for this book might be, strange signposts in an otherwise interesting world. He became a devout Catholic while the rest of us were questioning its relevance. C. Pierce's psychologic discovery or insight does not seem especially significant. This MD does not provide the right presciption for our times.

Repetitive, But Revealing.......2003-06-26

This is not the place to start, if you haven't read Percy before. When read fresh, much of this collection of essays comes across as rambling, with the themes of "Southerner," "Catholic," "Author," "Southern Catholic Author," and "Fan o' Kierkegaard & Dostoevsky" running incessantly throughout the volume.

However, Percy's engaging wit keeps the essays entertaining, and it is interesting to watch his fixations and how they change (or don't change) over time.

Of particular value is the discourse on semiotics, which is a nice primer to the uninitiated, but doesn't help one make heads or tails of Umberto Eco.

Still, I would recommend reading Percy's fiction before tackling this collection.

Outstanding Percy Compilation.......2002-03-10

This book is perfect as either an introduction to Walker Percy's thought or as a final collection of essays for the longtime fan. "Signposts" is the only book available that provides Percy's writing from virtually every stage of his life, including the period when he was completely unknown. That fact alone makes it worth the purchase.

Great introduction to a great American thinker.......1999-11-27

Though better known as a novelist, Walker Percy began his writing career with non-fiction pieces of a philosophical bent. He remains one of the most philosophical novelists of the late 20th century, and his first novel, The Moviegoer, is widely acknowledged as one of the masterpieces of contemporary literature. This collection covers Percy's major interests over the span of his career: the literally miraculous ability of humans to communicate with language, the unique qualities of Southern writing (and why, for instance, there are no great Los Angeles novelists or Zen Buddhist novelists), and the curious fact that late-twentieth century western man is bored, weary, and sad, despite living in the most affluent period in human history.

Like C. S. Lewis, Percy became a Christian after spending his young adult years as a confirmed atheist. For this reason, he is particularly adept at addressing the intellectual impediments to belief. His work is the perfect antidote to those who think that smart people don't believe in God. He was also a scientist, having been trained as a medical doctor. Science, he believed, has discovered how the universe works but has been unable to address the most important fact of our existence: that each of us is a self-aware human being who will one day die. Percy was profoundly influenced by Kierkegaard and thus has been called a Christian existentialist, though he finds the term has become meaningless through overuse.

Great introduction to a great American thinker.......1999-11-27

Book Description

Lancelot Lamar is a disenchanted lawyer who finds himself confined in a mental asylum with memories that don't seem worth remembering. It all began the day he accidentally discovered he was not the father of his youngest daughter, a discovery which sent Lancelot on modern quest to reverse the degeneration of America. Percy's novel reveals a shining knight for the modern age--a knight not of romance, but of revenge.

Customer Reviews:

From Despair to Evil.......2006-12-08

Percy's Lancelot draws on a thought from Kierkegaard that begins his book the Moviegoer (paraphasing), "The worst thing about being in despair is not knowing one is in despair." From his despair, Lancelot's anger and rage drive him on a quest for the Holy Grail of Evil that leads to ultimately great crimes. But, in his quest he discovers the truth about evil, that it is in fact a "nothing" because it exists only in relation to the good. However, the discovery of the "nothingness" of evil has grave consequences which Lancelot describes through much of the novel.
The dialgoue of Lancelot and Percival does a great job of showing that one's "character" is the sum total of his/her moral choices. Lancelot makes a choice for evil and reaps the consequences that spin him into moral chaos, while Percival (his friend the priest-psychiatrist) has chosen to follow the path of goodness. The book is a great comparison and contrast of the battle of good and evil that occurs in every one of us.

Like strolling down a hospital corridor and trying not to look in the half-cracked doors.......2006-04-15

Reading Walker Percy's "Lancelot" is like strolling down a hospital corridor and trying not to look in the half-cracked doors where there are likely sites best unseen-but failing. Mr. Percy, who was one of the best writers in the last quarter of the 20th Century, took the quest motif from medieval literature-specifically the quest for the Holy Grail-and inverted it so that the quest now centers on finding the darkest evil, in order to prove that good exists beyond the abstract.

His main character, Lancelot, is the sole speaker in the book, the entire novel a refraction of his recovering memory, shattered by the horrific murders he committed as a reaction to the decaying morality and facile values here amplified by a Hollywood film crew and his adulterous wife. The only other character who exists in "real time" is Lancelot's lifelong friend, Perceval, now a Catholic priest, who serves a touchstone for the ranting Lancelot.

Both characters are either recovering or evolving, or both, from their encounters with life's vicissitudes. If there is a take home message, then it might be the value of staying aware and alert to one's self amidst the mind-numbing banality that rises to the surface of modern life.

Putting aside the story, theme, and plot, it's a pleasure to read "Lancelot" because of Mr. Percy's thoughtfully paced and measured prose and his slow revelation of character and motive. He turns out many brilliant, indelible phrases throughout the book, creating indelible images that linger long after the details of the story fade and blur.

Not Percy's Best, But..........2004-12-04

Quite frankly, I found this the most difficult and least enjoyable of Percy's books.

Percy is at his usual cranky self, poking at the delusions of modern life and ridiculing our self-assurance in spite of the fact that we're all rather lost. Good questions are asked. What is love and is it real? Is secular liberalism or Christianity true? What does sex mean? How can we escape boredom? Is life just some cosmic joke?

What is missing in Lancelot, in my opinion, is the sly humour found in The Second Coming or Love in the Ruins. Lancelot is a departure from Percy's typical protagonist, not because he is some crazy, libidinal loner who concocts an apocalyptic scheme to prove some cosmic point (because all of Percy's protagonists fit that bill), but because he isn't particularly funny. Lancelot lacks the sense that the world is bigger than himself, and is so serious that he rarely cracks a joke. His soliloquies, therefore, end up as overly explicit narratives concerning other humourless characters. This is especially true of the play within the play --- the movie making subplot which gets a little self-referential (after all, isn't this the most cinematic of Percy's novels?).

Still, enjoy Percy's craftsmanship, for there are far too few of his novels to be too fussy. What else is a crazy, libidinal, apocalyptic loner to do?

Modern Literature at its Best.......2002-12-11

This novel is wonderfully written. Walker Percy has quite a unique way of expressing thought in the English language. Unfortunately, unique does not always mean well done. In the case of Walker Percy, however, this novel is a masterpiece of prose.

The first couple of pages take the reader into the mind of a man (Lancelot) at an insane asylum who is recollecting his crimes against his now dead wife. Percy uses Lancelot as a foil to pose many questions regarding our humanity and morality.

For example, what is the sexual act? Why should it mean anything other than a biological act between two humans? What is it that causes man to be so grievously injured by adultery if the act is nothing but biology? Lancelot ponders these questions throughout the novel as he talks to his childhood friend who has become a priest. Percy gives no answers except to demonstrate through Lancelot that Lancelot's answers are lacking. Lancelot's answers form no moral basis.

The story moves quickly as Lancelot recalls the events leading up to his crime. To that end, the clipped pace of the narrative suits the urgency of the action.

The reader will understand just what he/she is getting in this novel within the first 20 pages. I recommend it highly, but do issue a caution that there is some quite honest dialogue in the novel that includes a fair amount of profanity. Though probably necessary to develope the character, some may be offended.

Purchase the book and enjoy modern literature at its best.

Confidentially, It's Walker Percy's Best Book . . ........2002-05-30

After I read this book I had no choice but to immediately consume Walker Percy's novels. Reading Lancelot was like having the top of my head blown off and surviving the experience more awake and alive than ever. In an era where no one is really sure what they believe anymore, Percy sets out an interesting test. If you discovered clear evidence of evil, what would that tell you about the existence of good and maybe even God? I strongly suggest you take this journey and pay very close attention to the parallel travels of the main character's confidant, a priest-psychologist who is himself in crisis. If you do so, the ending will make the hairs stand up on the back on your neck.

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The Last Gentleman
Going beyond the personal to the universal
A Latter day Camus
Hopefully number 3 will be better
A little disappointing

The Last Gentleman: A Novel
Walker Percy
Manufacturer: Picador
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ASIN: 0312243081

Book Description

Will Barrett is a 25-year-old wanderer from the South living in New York City, detached from his roots and with no plans for the future, until the purchase of a telescope sets off a romance and changes his life forever.

Customer Reviews:

The Last Gentleman.......2007-02-21

The year this book was published, I was a college student taking whatever liberal arts piqued my interest. My Abnormal Psychology course was a favorite. In those times, the classification of people was thought important, and I recall memorizing the various symptoms to be seen in each of the eight types of schizophrenia delineated by my textbook. My instructor knew that each person is crazy in his own way, and encouraged us to focus on the bigger picture. One of his final exam questions was "Why do so many psychological problems have to do with sex or religion?" I don't remember what I responded, but I've always remembered the question for its classic illumination of two areas that will always keep psychiatrists and novelists in business. A classmate had read this book, thought it illustrative of weirdness and I made a mental note to see for myself. Had I not delayed my promise for 40 years, I would probably have held the work in higher esteem.

The novel is in third person and overflows with asides and incidentals. Percy provides a constant flow of tangential remarks that keep the action in flux. There is little excavation to expose the root of things, though one feels a flicker of truthiness in some of the dialog. Billy, the main character, goes careening around in fugue at stressful times and the offhanded, existential immediacy of the style enhances his abnormality. At bottom, the book is about sex and religion, though the absolutes that seem to have inspired Percy make for thin spackle. Had I read this in '66 before Gonzo lit, I would have given it 5 stars.

A final remark as to the talented author. I assume wide ranging life experience and spectacular trauma may result in a deep reservoir from which to draw. Read Walker Percy's bio in Wickipedia. Taking up the pen was a great career move.

Going beyond the personal to the universal.......2006-05-14

Will Barrett is a confused young man. A drop-out, not only of Princeton, but basically of life in general, in this picaresque novel Barrett goes on a "spiritual quest" that takes him from NYC to his ancestral home in the Mississippi Delta to the desert around Santa Fe in search of answers on how to live. He falls in love with Kitty, encounters her family, faces ghosts from his own past, and breaks from his self-imposed stupor and acts. Will spends much of the novel observing: he views life through a telescope and spends a lot of time in front of a TV set. Gradually he learns to free himself from this bondage (he says he wanted to view life as a scientist might) and begins living life as a participant and not just as an observer. Will doesn't forget the value of contemplation and at the end of the novel is still a "watcher and listener," but by this stage has a better idea of who he is. Percy is a comic writer and many of the scenes are funny (and symbolic): the ending with Sutter Vaught and his Edsel is hilarious. Well written and searching, Percy's novel insists that people must reach out beyond themselves to find happiness and sanity.

A Latter day Camus.......2004-07-27

First of all, I do not bother to review a work I do not like. I am a writer myself and no one likes to get a bad review. Why should I upset another writer on Amazon? So, unless I am paid or asked to review a book in my professional capacity, I only comment on really good books. The Last Gentleman is such a book. It reminds me of Camus, Herman Hesse, or Franz Kafka at their best. There are enough previous reviews on Amazon to relate the plot outline; I need not repeat this. Those who only gave this book 2 or 3 stars admitted that they "didn't get it" or could not understand what the book is about. Existentialism is not for everyone. Nor is satire of the Percy genre.

But I loved it. Almost as much as Love in the Ruins

Edward C. Green
Harvard University

Hopefully number 3 will be better.......2004-04-16

I picked up Percy's second work, The Last Gentleman, after reading his initial book, The Movie Go-er a few years ago while in Massachusetts. In the end, I found it hard to get into the story. I could not identify with the characters. They seemed a little unreal. I could not identify with Will Barrett. I could not comprehend his inner dispositions, or how his personal history formed the person he was. The same thing with Sutter, although his ramblings in his notebook were interesting. Val was in another world for me. No doubt this probably says more about me. I don't know if that says something about how I might view southerners. I hope not. Although there were moments I truly enjoyed, I could not get into the plot. It just seemed a tad far-fetched. I didn't mind hearing the names of dated appliances or food stuffs. I derived pleasure from that, the so-called "blast from the past". I like how Percy drops here and there the strange things we humans do. There is too much that is still unresolved. I think it needs a sequel. Maybe it is just me.
I intend to pick up and read Love in the Ruins, as well as all of Walker Percy's works (non-fiction as well). That is definitely me.

A little disappointing.......2003-02-15

I have long been a fan of Walker Percy's essays and his novel The Moviegoer, a novel that will always resonate with me as someone who grew up in the South. Yet The Last Gentleman, to me, was something of a disappointment. Will Barrett is a thinly drawn character, a product of Percy's fascination with amnesia as a critical path toward waking up to life itself. Walker is fascinated with amnesia and other shocks as a device to draw attention to the complacent familiarity of the everyday, as observed by someone who has just awakened to the ongoing scene, a kind of latter day Rip Van Winkle.

But in this novel, this gets a little tedious. Instead of showing us the strangeness of the everyday, Percy has Barrett tell us that it is strange, or employs the device of having the failed physician, Sutter, do the telling in a journal of sorts.

One thing really puzzles me about Percy's entire work: his curious inability to render black people interesting or meaningful. He was writing about the South of the late 1950s and the 1960s but his African-American characters are cartoons about a captive people. I think this is a tip-off to one of Percy's blind spots masquerading as a philosophical stance. He wants us to accept that our struggle toward meaning and our existential "lostness" is far more fundamental and urgent than our inhumanity toward our fellow beings. This is a serious distortion of the existentialist position and it's made worse by Percy's refusal to offer complex, interesting and thick characerizations of black people in a South that was exploding.

One of the reasons for our lostness is that the very familiarity of the ordinary and everyday spins an amnesiac spell over us all toward the brutal inhumanities and indignities occurring right under our noses. We have all become lost and complicit in our lostness, not just to our true self and its existential predicament but also to our essential humanity.

A Confederacy of Dunces (Penguin Modern Classics)
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A Confederacy of Dunces (Penguin Modern Classics)
John Kennedy Toole
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
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Binding: Paperback

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