The Second Coming

THE SECOND COMING

By Walker Percy

 

Award: LA Times Winner 1980


Nominations: National Book Finalist 1981 & 1982, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 1980, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 1981

 

Date Read: August 31, 2020

 

The Second Coming was terrifically disappointing. To be honest, I couldn’t get past this novel’s gut-wrenching racism, particularly as the world is on fire from protests against police brutality (read: executions) of black lives. I would love to say we have come far since this book was written, but I believe the racism so flagrantly displayed here has just gone more underground.

 

The Second Coming is about two people who find a second chance at life. Both Will and Allie are in worlds of their own as they struggle with mental challenges – Allie due to mental illness; Will due to a brain lesion. The world is out of sync for both of them until they discover one another and they fit together like puzzle pieces.

 

Will’s journey is amplified by his realization that he hasn’t really been living since the hunting “accident” with his father. As the truth slowly unfolds for him, he wrestles with his concept of faith and truly coming alive, a second coming if you will.

 

Allie has struggled with schizophrenia for most of her life and escapes the institution where she is being held. Both Allie and Will have allowed others in their life to call the shots but we see their trajectories as parallel, as they finally take their destinies into their own hands.

 

Filled with religious struggle and symbolism, creating meaning out of a skewed world and large doses of racism, The Second Coming was not a great intro for me of Walker Percy. BLM!

 

Looking Forward: The Last Gentleman, Love In The Ruins, The Moviegoer

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