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

[lowry.charles AT gmail.com]

It is true, as Doug says, that Tom More is insane, but what insanity.  Consider his position at the beginning of the book: “The orange roof of the Howard Johnson motel reminds me of the three girls in rooms 203, 204, and 205…  Surviving with one girl who likes you is not such a bad prospect.  But surviving with three girls, all of whom like you and each of whom detests the other two, is both horrible and pleasant, certainly enough to make one’s scalp tingle with a peculiar emotion.”  That does not even take into account the closet full of Early Times.  And how does he end up?  “Through the open doorway I can see Ellen standing at the stove in a swatch of sunlight.  She stirs grits.  Light and air flow around her arm like the arm of Velasquez’s weaver girl.  Her half apron is lashed just above the slight swell of her abdomen.”  Percy is able to add a very solid layer of authenticity to the insanity.

And really, aren’t all his main characters just a little off?  Let us consider the hero of The Second Coming, a man in his fifties whose toothache, in the midst of an ontological experiment, is so severe that it literally causes him to fall into the campsite of a beautiful woman in her mid-twenties who is (a) fabulously wealthy and (b) escaping psychiatric confinement.  Or the hero of my favorite, a man approaching thirty who carries a notebook to make notes about his search and who had his clearest perspective on life as, wounded by gunfire, he lay watching a dung beetle in a ditch in Korea.

In short, Percy’s characters stress that normal and authentic are not the same thing.  They are all odd in their own peculiar ways, but they share a sense of wonder at how life unfolds (even our insane killer, whose despicable past acts do not prevent him from making a friend by knocking on the steam pipe) and a determination to end up “in parte angelorum” by affecting positively the unfolding.

Chuck Lowry

Brooklyn, New York

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 17, 2023, at 3:16 PM, Doug Brown <wply1223 AT gmail.com> wrote:



Hi Michael,

I'm delighted to hear that you are reading through Percy's novels. I think you are taking the right approach to read them in order. I think that will help you see the sort of progress of the novels as the characters and plots get funnier and sometimes darker. 

Please don't be discouraged by The Last Gentleman. I'm going to be straight up honest with you. I don't like it either. I'm a huge Walker Percy fan, so I've forced myself to read The Last Gentleman a couple of times. But I find it awkward and not very interesting. It is my least favorite of his books. Like you say, I just don't find the characters appealing. All the other novels have characters who are funny and charming and goodhearted. Be prepared for Love In The Ruins to be kind of weird. The main character, Tom More, is a little bit insane. But it's also funny and deeply meaningful. Percy doesn't spare anyone in that novel - everybody is a possible target for his satire.

I know - I absolutely know - that some people on this thread will disagree with me. And that's fine! Lots of people love The Last Gentleman. But it's not for me. Feel free to shrug it off and move on.

Best of everything to you, Michael.

Doug Brown

On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 1:31 PM Michael Martin Serafin <michael_serafin AT hotmail.com> wrote:

I am making my way through Percy's writings in order of publication. I just finished "The Last Gentleman" for the first time. Now, I am an elderly northeastern working-class Pole with a high-school education, who makes minimum- wage, and likes to read. I love Percy's elegant turns of phrase, but, some of his characters sail over my head. Binx Bolling's aunt was one of them. This time, it's Sutter. I like him for his intellect, but not for his sociopathic self-absorption. That said, Will Barrett's behavior throughout the novel also had me scratching my head. I am not as highly educated as most, if not all, on this listserv. I am moving onto "Love In The Ruins" as soon as it gets delivered , hopefully this week.

Michael Serafin

Chicopee, MA.

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