The Second Coming Audiobook

" A very straightforward novel: no tricks here, which I guess can be refreshing. I thought the woman character, Allison, was especially well developed. The narration gets inside the heads of the two protagonists (Allison and Will) a lot, which makes you understand how some of the stuff that looks sketchy from the outside is actually fine (I know that's vague, but I don't want to give anything away). That made me uneasy, knowing that if I were actually interacting with these characters and not hearing their internal monologues, I would think very differently of them, in particular about their mental health and ability to function autonomously. I found the book troubling in that sense: it raised some difficult questions about identifying mental illness and deciding to pursue involuntary commitment. "

" This is a story of mental dis-equilibrium. Both hero and heroine are struggling with the tricks their minds are playing on them. I think Percy's point may be that our flaws and brokeness can actually be the place of our greatest strength as it forces us to yoke with others. Good point; however Percy's answer to this seemed to me to be weirdly sexualized and read more like a mid-life crisis (or, given his age when he wrote it, the recollection of a mid-life-crisis) than a fitting together of two broken lives into a whole. "

" I remember hating it. I was young. I was named Allison and I was annoyed that the girl named Allison was mentally handicapped. But I wanted to read a Walker Percy book so I gave it the whole thing. "

" It took me two hundred pages to get into tho, but after that... it was good. "

" I was disappointed. While I loved the characters (especially Allie's Allen Ginsberg way of speaking), and I thought the book raised good theological questions, I thought the delivery too stagnant and repetitive. Probably would've made a great short story, or perhaps a couple of short stories. "

" 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 understanding. I was put off by the easy fairy tale answers, the acceptance of what might be some baby boomer growing older with the need to believe in something, some higher reality, like an AA's meetings "a higher being". An attempt to have spituality without religion. Or perhaps the novel is a satire showing the superfical answers that the babyboomers are seeking. I would like some input on these ideas. I would have liked more meat in this book. "

" Walker Percy is one of those authors I wish I had discovered earlier. His borderline crazy characters (aren't we all) are so lovingly drawn. Charming. "

" Not as good at I thought it was going to be. Maybe past its prime. Existential meditations are not what they used to be. "

" my kind of southern writing, depression, alcoholism, a little bit of religion, and swampy intellectualism. Read everything you can get by Walker Percy "

" Long time since I read this one, but he is one of my favorite writers. "

" A story of two bewildered souls coming together, looking for purpose, looking to understand the past and to make a future. Will Barrett and Allie are wonderful characters, many of the people surrounding them really did make my skin crawl. I will keep rereading Percy though, he is always worth it. "

" This is another of those authors whose work I really should like, given my interests (& his), but this just doesn't work for me. "

" Read this book twenty years ago, then 15 years ago. Am planning to read it again someday and see if my perspective has changed. I liked the is book more than The Moviegoer. Fascinating take on what's important. "

" One more Percy novel that I don't understand, but have the feeling that my parents would. Does anyone else get the feeling that he will not be read in 50 years after there are no more baby boomers to adore him? "

" WOW! Loved it - even better than The Moviegoer, in my opinion! "

" My favorite Walker Percy novel. Dana pointed out quite rightly that it has his only female protagonist who is a fully developed character. "

" Oh man. So, he realizes that even though life is silly and pointless and stuff, just find a person you really like and buy a house and have two kids with them. "

" I am still trying to wrap my head around this book, which is fascinating and dense and has a lot to say, good and bad, about the nature of belief and unbelief and things between. "

" read this sometime fairly soon after college and remember it as beautiful. "

" This book made me a Walker Percy fan. "