Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

[chaslow53 AT aol.com]

Yes, Williston Bibb Barrett, to be precise.  In The Last Gentleman there is a lengthy description--a dozen pages or so--of his mental condition before his name is even mentioned.  

I only know this because The Last Gentleman is the latest novel I read.  Having said that, I note that I am a new (three or four days) member of this list.  I was sternly admonished by the anonymous listmaster to introduce myself to the list.

I'm afraid there is not much: I'm in the professional publishing business in New York, I live in Brooklyn with a wife and a couple of children, I'm an ordinary middle-aged (well, if I'm going to live to 108, I'm exactly at middle age), middle class, fairly conservative Catholic whose Latin skills are somewhat above the average of the general population and whose mechanical skills are considerably below that of the general population.

I came to WP through a co-worker who told me at a job interview that Walker Percy was her favorite author and The Moviegoer was her favorite novel; she was a fairly recent college graduate, an English major, and I could think of nothing else to ask.  My curiosity was piqued and I read The Moviegoer, and then The Second Coming.  I was hooked and read through them all, except Lancelot, which I picked up today.  Fortunately, the Jets and Giants are so frightful that they will offer no plausible distraction for tomorrow's reading.

Chuck Lowry
Brooklyn, New York
chaslow53 AT aol.com