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Summary: Laugh yourself sane. (More or less)
Review: This book is deeply funny, in the best way. It is not frivolous, except in the sense of parodying frivolity, nor is it flippant, nor even does it tell "jokes." Rather, it reveals (from the inside out) the bizarre, humorous truth about our own odd selves. "How can a ghost feel otherwise toward a machine than bored?" "If (the primitologist) could converse with his chimpanzee, he would have the best of both worlds: (a) beat other scientists, and (b) have someone to talk to." "I am rascal, hero, craven, brave, treacherous, loyal, at once the secret hero and a-- of the universe." This is the first book I've read from this author. I hope it won't be the last, though it will be if the cosmic gate crasher at the Donohue show turns up soon. My first intuition was, "This man has read Pascal;" then I thought "Chesterton too." That gave me a hint as to where he was coming from, but he never did lay many cards on the table. In fact, the whole book mostly consists of throwing cards up in the air and asking us to grab the right ones before they touch the ground. In a review of one of Chesterton's books (if you like this, see Orthodoxy and Everlasting Man in particular), I said Chesterton makes us laugh ourselves sane. Percy pushes us in the same direction, with the cattle prod of humor. He's more of a pessimist than Chesterton. Sometimes he's wrong. And once in a while he slips into mere crankiness: "For every Mother Theresa, there seem to be 1,800 nutty American nuns, female Clint Eastwoods who have it in for men and are out to get the Pope." He also seems to have it in for "fundamentalists" (whom he classifies with "chuckleheads," unfairly in my perhaps minority experience) and Calvinists. (The last line he gives John Calvin in his Donahue sketch sounds very Chestertonian.) But more like Pascal, Percy speaks the language of science as well as contemporary literature. (And he pegs Carl Sagan just right.) Think you've got life figured out? Read this book, laugh at yourself and the crazy, ingenious human race, and go wonderingly back to square one. author, Jesus and the Religions of Man (d.marshall@sun.ac.jp)
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Summary: This book is my BIBLE, I recommend that everybody read it.
Review: This book is incredible there isn't a thing I can say is wrong with it. It will help you ponder the complexities of one's self and give possible explanations that may help one better understand themselves from many different perspectives. It is a very easy and nice read. Complete with semiotic theories which Walker Percy finds his most worthy contribution to writing. It is just MARVELOUS. If I can buy everybody a book, this would be it. I suggest it to ALL! Please read it, I know you'll love it and you'll understand yourself so much better. This man is INCREDIBLE, I don't know how much more I can say, but TRUST ME you'll enjoy every page!!!!
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Summary: The best book about psychology/psychiatry ever written.
Review: This book offers an extremely funny, accurate and very interesting account of psychology, and the reasons why it is not a "science".
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Summary: Not really a self-help book at all
Review: This book purports to be a self-help book, but it does not give you all the answers. It gives you questions, things to think about, multiple answers, none of which seem entirely satisfactory, and a sense of humor about humankind and our struggle to find our place in this world. Interesting, full of provocative ideas and perspectives, and amusing.
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Summary: 20th Century Thomism
Review: This is one of the most important books of the 20th century. It is agenuine updating of "Thomism" for our times. It shows thatlove in the ruins is the true alternative to the one-dimensional deterniminism of contemporary science. The self really is a leftover, thank God! END
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Summary: Tells/asks it like it is . . .
Review: This is the first Walker Percy book I read. I thought his stuff was supposed to be funny. I'll try another. I suggest you give this one a miss, unless you've never read a self-help book, then perhaps this would be more entertaining than doing so. Some of his questions recall late nights as a college student, gabbing on the sofa rather than studying. Really, the calibre of the humour -- inane -- reminded me of the kind of spam I used to get and that now gets deleted unread. Skip it. Any reputation he has as a humourist can't be founded on this effort. Instead, read Henry Miller's The Cosmological Eye. Then, sit on a sofa with a college student 'til 3 a.m.
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Summary: hardbound spam
Review: This is the first Walker Percy book I read. I thought his stuff was supposed to be funny. I'll try another. I suggest you give this one a miss, unless you've never read a self-help book, then perhaps this would be more entertaining than doing so. Some of his questions recall late nights as a college student, gabbing on the sofa rather than studying. Really, the calibre of the humour -- inane -- reminded me of the kind of spam I used to get and that now gets deleted unread. Skip it. Any reputation he has as a humourist can't be founded on this effort. Instead, read Henry Miller's The Cosmological Eye. Then, sit on a sofa with a college student 'til 3 a.m.
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Summary: a wacky, riveting book
Review: Walker Percy asks all the right questions in a unique way. He describes transcendence be it through art, science or God, and gives a brief rundown on his theory of sign and language or "semiotics".
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Summary: all the prodding questions you never wanted to face
Review: Walker Percy has written a book that never really answers any of your questions but somehow leaves you feeling as if you have a broader understanding of what it means to be human. He is witty, sarcastic, entertaining and painfully honest. This is a wonderful book that should be read by anyone wishing to understand the human condition. I'm not even sure how to describe it. Just get it and you'll know what I mean. I had to read it for a culture and values class about 10 years ago and have gone thru 5 coppies from lending them out and never getting them back. :)
Rating:
Summary: all the prodding questions you never wanted to face
Review: Walker Percy has written a book that never really answers any of your questions but somehow leaves you feeling as if you have a broader understanding of what it means to be human. He is witty, sarcastic, entertaining and painfully honest. This is a wonderful book that should be read by anyone wishing to understand the human condition. I'm not even sure how to describe it. Just get it and you'll know what I mean. I had to read it for a culture and values class about 10 years ago and have gone thru 5 coppies from lending them out and never getting them back. :)
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