The Second Coming has ratings and reviews. Paul said: This book is very, very funny. It is not a literary masterpiece and has lots of flaws. It.
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As yin to yang, though, Will and Allie My first buddy-read with our beloved Kirk 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. 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.
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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!
Nov 20, Darwin8u rated it really liked it Shelves: 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.
They don't play in an easy playground of consecration. Th There is something almost ineffable that hits me when I read Walker Percy.
The Second Coming
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. View all 14 comments. 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, This is the story of Will and Allie, two individuals following troubled paths that eventually cross and merge.
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. 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.
Coming to know Will and Allie was a true pleasure! View all 6 comments. Dec 27, Stephen Hicks rated it really liked it. 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 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.
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? Nov 17, Ned rated it it was amazing. 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! Mar 21, Dave rated it really liked it Shelves: 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 Why do people seek to imprison those near them? 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.
However, I didn't love this book. It could be more balanced between Allie and Will. 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. 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. Dec 25, Steve rated it it was amazing.
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?
How these two find each other and, through their I first read this book shortly after it was published, but decided to re-read it when it was offered cheap on my Kindle. 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: 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. Feb 05, flannery rated it really liked it Shelves: People seemed more farcical than ever. More than once he shook his head and, smiling ironically, said to himself: This is not for me. The morose, cynical and introspective - best two out of three?
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.
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From the moment we meet Allie Vaught, who has checked herself out of not to put too fine a point upon it: 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 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. 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 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. 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.
Oct 11, Susan Emmet rated it it was amazing.
The Second Coming (Percy novel) - Wikipedia
I just loved this book. Better than Percy's first. 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 Was led to The Second Coming by The Moviegoer.
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. May 03, Becky rated it really liked it. 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 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 This is probably a whole lot better book than I give it credit for. 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. Jul 01, Kristen rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: 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. Nov 06, Paul Graham rated it it was amazing. This book was no exception. Insightful, quirky, and engaging. May 20, z added it. Mar 29, Kelly Sauskojus rated it it was amazing Shelves: May be the best novel I've read this year in which I've read many excellent novels.
Mar 16, Robert Warren rated it liked it. Percy's lively introduction to Dunces tells the sad story of Toole, who committed suicide and left behind his unpublished masterpiece. Toole's bereaved mother sought out Percy, insisting he read a barely-legible carbon of her son's epic tale. An astonished Percy alerted his publisher and the rest is history. I was suffering excruciating pain when I opened The Second Coming and read the first few pages. The pain subsequently went away. I'll spare you the details. The experience of extreme physical discomfort re-calibrated my brain, I think.
Perhaps that's why The Second Coming went so deep, deeper than it might have otherwise. In any case, after my doctor's visit, I went straight to my library with a Vicodin prescription and checked out the book. Even as my pain subsided, The Second Coming drew me in. I am a sucker for a double narrative, and the wildly divergent voices of The Second Coming 's two main characters hooked me: Will Barrett - Percy's affluent, midlife-crisis suffering, widower doppelganger - and the young, nutty, beautiful, institutionalized Allison.
Of course a story needs a villain: Allison's mom - a former flame of Will's who still desires him - wants her daughter declared unfit to receive an inheritance, so she sanctions Allison's frequent electroshock treatments, which, while damaging her daughter's memory, provide a fascinating, original, inner voice.
Allison's escape from the institution is worth the price of admission. Meanwhile, petit mal seizures wreak havoc on Will's brain. Horrors from his youth rise up with sharp, new freshness. With lots of time on his hands to zigzag between past and present, his Existential Dilemmas gather increasing weight. Time and again, his father's gun beckons him. Then he crosses paths with Allison, the narratives converge, and a May-September romance sparkles in the Southern Gothic gloom.
Perhaps all of the above. The detail-rich narrative ranges from dizzying in a good way to dizzying in a bad way. Mostly good, though; despite the extravagant pitch and yaw of the tale, Percy maintains the forward thrust of the story. I always knew where and when I was.
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He's not a literary lion by accident. She stood up before the van came to a halt at its destination and turned toward the anxious team assembled in their neon-yellow coveralls, arranged two by two in their seats like eggs. The mood was tense. Heads nodded in the dim light of dusk all the way to the back of the long van.
You are our new logistics coordinator. Anyone else in this bus capable of doing their job, follow me. Made up of experts gathered by the World Health Organization and including scientists from seven member countries hosted by the India Health Ministry, the GOARN rapid-response team had been hurriedly assembled to investigate one of the deadliest and fastest-spreading epidemics reported in years. Leading the effort was Khan, widely acknowledged as the foremost immunologist and contagious-disease specialist in the world.
A swashbuckling but brilliant scientist, she was a veteran of high-risk public health investigations involving disease outbreaks of international importance. Over the years, she had saved an untold number of lives and earned numerous international public-health and safety awards. But her challenge in Kolkata was immense, and she knew it. While the morbidity rates—the percentage of the population affected—for the unnamed disease were similar in scale to those of the Ebola virus, the fatality rates for those infected were not.
One-third of those stricken by a recent outbreak of Ebola in the Republic of the Congo had survived. Khan was revered in public-health circles, and her presence meant both expertise and welcome relief. We have tea for you as well. She tugged a well-worn biohazard hood over her head and completely covered her face except for the small glass window that revealed her intense eyes. The nearly twenty scientists and assistants on her team knew the drill and followed suit, pulling on their hoods as well.
Those not around to tell war stories about their treatment by Khan had either quit in fear or, more likely, been caught in her firing line before. Blunt to a fault and intellectually overpowering to most, she took no particular pleasure in degrading those in her presence. She simply had no use for most people. She found them to be impediments to progress she could likely achieve more readily on her own.
Her most striking feature, beyond her impossibly caustic manner, was her devastating beauty. Her hair was thick and jet-black. It surrounded her sun-washed face in jagged edges she trimmed herself, most often arranged to conceal her expressions or block others from her view when she wished. Her wide blue eyes, framed by nomad cheekbones common to the rangelands of Central Asia, were a stark contrast to the rustic desert tan of her face.
At thirty-eight years of age, she was as exotic as she was outlandish, and every aspect of her attitude and presence seemed designed to prove it. Her voice was slightly muffled under her thick hood. His tired eyes greeted Khan through his dingy blue mask. He held out his hand to shake hers but was ignored. Are you capable of that?
I am the director of this lab. Whom do you pray to when the proverbial stuff hits the fan? If I am to do that here, in this godforsaken place, I need answers—and now. Stop wasting my time and tell me where the specimens are. He pointed toward a large glass enclosure with several shelves and two six-inch-wide holes spaced closely together.
The openings, covered with neoprene seals, allowed safe access to what sat inside. Khan pressed her hood against the glass enclosure and reached her gloved arms through the holes for one of the several specimens inside. She pulled one close to the glass in front of her to examine it.
I will want to examine several of the most recent dead myself. It appears the disease. Are you suggesting airborne contagion? Bodily contact, blood, coughing, sneezing, fecal-oral, and, yes, airborne. Sen carefully reached into the glass enclosure, pulled out a small steel box, and led Khan to a large microscope two tables away. He carried the box gingerly. Sen delicately pulled a single glass slide from among several in the box and stooped over the instrument. He gently slid it into the microscope stage above its diaphragm and turned on the light. He leaned forward, rotated the objective lens to X, and adjusted the coarse-focus knob.
She stepped forward and nudged him slightly away with her hip. Then she leaned in and placed the glass of her own mask directly against the eyepiece of the microscope to examine what she had traveled five thousand miles to see. Frustrated, she tore away her biohazard hood and tossed it toward Sen, who caught it with both hands. She set her naked eye against the eyepiece.