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

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Reading Jay Tolson's biography of Walker Percy, Pilgrim in the Ruins, in light of Percy's malaise, his dark moods, his drinking, it is unendingly astonishing that, rather than making Percy off-putting, he had countless friends all over the country and throughout his life. I have never known anybody whether cheerful or uncomplicated, or anything else, who made and kept as many friends as Walker Percy is known to have had. And they were from all walks of life. It was one of the things of so many in this excellent book, that struck me as I read it.

And reading this piece about the irony of the effect of an impending Hurricane to lift spirits adds to this irony.

Janet

Walker Percy's Theory of Hurricanes
by Walter Isaacson

Walker Percy had a theory about hurricanes. "Though science taught that good environments were better than bad environments, it appeared to him that the opposite was the case," he wrote of Will Barrett, the semi-autobiographical title character of his second novel, "The Last Gentleman." "Take hurricanes, for example, certainly a bad environment if ever there was one. It was his impression that not just he but other people felt better in hurricanes." . . .

Continued at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/books/review/walker-percys-theory-of-hurricanes.html?_r=0