opinions & ViewsnQuestioning Mr. PercynWalker Percy: The Second Coming;nFarrar, Straus & Giroux; New York.nby Joseph SchwartznWalker Percy and Saul Bellow arencurrently the major American novelists,nand it is instructive to note that bothnare deeply concerned with ideas withoutnbeing ideologues. While Percy lacksnthe tremendous variety of character andnpace which characterizes Bellow’s work,nhe has a more profound vision and anfuller comprehension of the meaningnof his vision. Percy’s voice has alwaysnbeen very much his own, and to classifynhim as a Southern writer is about asnaccurate as classifying Saul Bellow as anMidwestern writer. Percy’s vigorousnideological thrust, combined with veryndiscriminating, critical observation andna rich cast of characters in a setting henknows perfectly, explain in part hisnstature. In our day, for a novelist to bensure of solutions is considered unfashionablen(and probably suspect). Hence,nPercy’s recognized stature among criticsnof various persuasions despite his sensenof theological and moral certitude is ancurious paradox.nThe Second Coming rightly takes itsnplace as a major fiction alongside hisnother four novels. (He has yet to producena failure.) His new novel is set innfamiliar territory, the contemporarynDeep South. The characters are familiarnalso, those confused 20th-centurynSoutherners whose interest in and claimnupon their past are so much less certainnthan in Faulkner, for example.nTheir angst is not caused by a perceivednsorry contrast between past and present,nbut by a lived sense of the center notnholding, by their perception of the religiousnand metaphysical chaos of theirnown unmoored experience.nThe “second coming” refers to thenDr. Schwartz teaches English at MarquettenUniversity and edits Renascence.n6nChronicles of Culturenreappearance of Will Barrett, hero ofnThe Last Gentleman (1966), and, morenimportantly, to his being born again inna religious encounter with skeptical agnosticism.nBarrett, now in his I’ate forties,nhas made it on his own: editor ofnthe Law Review, member of a top WallnStreet firm, one of Ten Most PromisingnYoung Attorneys, early retirement,nman-of-the-year—“he did it all.” Nownhe is a “talented agreeable wealthy mannliving in as pleasant an environment asnone can imagine and yet who is thinkingnof putting a bullet in his brain.” Camus’sngreat question—why doesn’t one commitnsuicide—fascinates Percy, appearingnin one form or another in all his novels.nThe suicide of Will’s father and his attemptednmurder of Will during one ofnhis earlier suicide attempts are the majornhappenings of his life. Having survived,nhe is given a second chance. Will’sncoming to terms with suicide by way ofnhis own version of Pascal’s wager occupiesnabout two-thirds of the novel. Hisn”falling sickness” is a metaphor for thenstate of his soul and a measure of hisndisturbance with the sudden certainninkling he has that something is wrong,nnot with him, but with “the whole modernnage.”nDescending into a cave to play out hisnwager, he literally falls into Allison’snlife. AUie is the daughter of his sweetheartnin The Last Gentleman. She isnhaving severe orientation problems afternescaping from a mental institutionnwhich still uses shock therapy. She mustnnnlearn how to speak again as Will mustnlearn how to live again. The pastoralnsetting, as well as other clues, emphasizesntheir characteristics as the newnAdam and Eve. Each is given a secondnchance. “Coming” in the title is used asnwell in its sexual sense, which explainsnthe remarkable and unexpected lovenaffair and marriage that come from theirnmeeting. The romantic union is unexpectednbecause of the number of misleadingnhints that Will may be Allison’snfather. Unfortunately, the unintendednfaint odor of incest hangs overntheir otherwise touching love scenes.nFor what Percy wants to do, the twoncharacters must be, as they are, especiallynrich, dimensional—above all, in thenJamesian sense, interesting. While thenusual cast of splendidly executed minorncharacters is present, Percy chooses tonconcentrate on Will and Allie. His willingnessnto present them as emotionalncripples, disoriented and dislocated, is angreat risk. Mere caricature or the grotesquencould so readily have been thenresult. Further, Will’s constant introspectionncould easily have turned himninto a tiresome bore. Both Will andnAllison, however, are deeply felt, andnevery rich nuance of detail is presented.nTechnically, only the use of the two ofnthem as point-of-view characters isnsomewhat less than successful. In PartnI, point of view alternates chapter bynchapter between Will and Allie, and thendevice is successful enough to makenthe reader wonder why it is not used innPart II. Perhaps Percy is so close tonWill that the concluding dramatic actionncan only be presented through him.n(It would be interesting to see whatnPercy could do with a novel in whichnthe author-narrator, a la Edith Wharton,nis less dependent upon point-of-viewncharacters.)nThese, then, are the concerns of thennarrative itself: how Will comes tondiscover the need for his wager; how henlives with its consequences; how he andn