Reviews

• Sublime-ineal

  Walker Percy is a wordsmith, but he writes between the lines, and therefore cannot be reviewed in words, only read.

• I almost never read this book...and if I hadn't...

  I'd have missed out on what was probably the most profound reading experience of my life. I read Percy's "The Moviegoer" a few years before I read "The Second Coming." I appreciated Percy's craft, but wasn't particularly fond of "Moviegoer." I, like most passionate readers, will devour all the works of an author when I find a new one I like. Suffice it to say that "Moviegoer" didn't send me in search of the rest of the Walker Percy canon. Years later, I met someone (of whom I thought very highly) who recommended two books to me: "Second Coming" and "A Confederacy of Dunces." I read Confederacy first (which was also fantastic) and then, somewhat reluctantly, picked up "Second Coming." I think I fell in love before the end of the first chapter. By the time I was finished, I knew this book was my soulmate. I was also sad because I knew that it might be decades before I would ever read another book that would touch me as deeply as this book did. This story is a difficult one to do justice to in a brief description. I know every inch of this book, as I read it at least once a year now. If you enjoy an introspective, character-driven story, PLEASE read this book. While it's not a romance, it's the most quiet yet compelling love story I've ever read. Percy truly created the OPPOSITE of "inevitable conflict" (i.e. Blanche and Stanley in "Streetcar"); Will and Allie are inevitably one. This novel is truly underread and underrated. As a another reviewer wrote, I wish I could give this book far more than 5 stars. If I had to spend 50 years on an island with one book, I'd be found on the beach with a dog-eared copy of "The Second Coming."

• Pretty Fair

  The book was a nice little diversion, although for the non-psychologists, there was really too much psychological gobbledy-gook in this one. I liked Love in the Ruins better. All and All, Percy's no Flannery O'Conner, but I'm still giving this one four stars because it's a Catholic and Southern author.

• Boring and meandering.

  Dragged myself through this confusing meandering pretentious drivel. Wish I hadn't, need therapy now.

• A brilliant literary tapestry

  This book is quite easily the best book I have read all year! Granted it's only January 8, but I'm pretty sure the statement will hold. The people who have criticized this book as repetitious and boring are misinterpreting Percy's writing. What grates them about his writing, is what makes Percy a master. There are points of tedium in the book (very very brief ones), there is repetition, there are twists and turns, but all this is done in order to bring to life the great story which he is trying to tell. The story doesn't progress in a straight line, but every time it twists, doubles back and shoots out at unforeseen angles, it makes the story all the more engaging. That is the magic of Percy's writing, his characters truly come to life, warts and all. I read this book over several evenings, and the last time I sat down to read it, I couldn't put it down until it was over.

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