Mention Books Conducive To The Second Coming
| Original Title: | The Second Coming |
| ISBN: | 0312243243 (ISBN13: 9780312243241) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Nominee (1981), Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction (1980), National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for Fiction (1980), Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Literature (1981), National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (Hardcover) (1981) & (Paperback) (1982) Alabama Author Award for Fiction (1981) |
Walker Percy
Paperback | Pages: 360 pages Rating: 3.96 | 2065 Users | 161 Reviews
Describe Of Books The Second Coming
| Title | : | The Second Coming |
| Author | : | Walker Percy |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 360 pages |
| Published | : | September 13th 1999 by Picador USA (first published 1980) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Literature. Literary Fiction. American. Southern. Novels |
Interpretation To Books 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.
Rating Of Books The Second Coming
Ratings: 3.96 From 2065 Users | 161 ReviewsDiscuss Of Books The Second Coming
I was struggling with being interested in this book and about to give up from ennui, when around 100 pages in, it got better. The book oscillates between a kookiness - with characters falling through roofs and talking to each other like they are in an e.e. cummings poem - and a philosophical weightiness - religion, guilt, death, survivorship, mental illness - that makes you straddle along one side to the other as if you are walking on sea legs on a rolling ocean. But there is also much humor inNot sure what to make of the book. I wondered if the need to believe was at the center of the work. One must be mentally ill to believe therefore one chooses mental illness over sanity. Will Barret was a successful lawyer, lived a full life, retired early. But he is not all there. His seizures attached to his father's suicide and his attempt to overcome what is his birthmark. He accepts the possible illusion of a second coming at the end of the novel. I kept feeling that this was a sort New Age
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.
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
- wow, what a read. can't wait to revisit.
Not sure what to make of the book. I wondered if the need to believe was at the center of the work. One must be mentally ill to believe therefore one chooses mental illness over sanity. Will Barret was a successful lawyer, lived a full life, retired early. But he is not all there. His seizures attached to his father's suicide and his attempt to overcome what is his birthmark. He accepts the possible illusion of a second coming at the end of the novel. I kept feeling that this was a sort New Age
Belief Isn't FaithWalker 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
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